June 22nd 2009 – Macusani to Juliaca; the long and dangerous route!
Posted by roxiefox on July 6, 2009
It was so cold in Macusani when i got out of bed at 5.00am and went to the bathroom to shower. What was worse, there was no hot water! What is a gurl to do? i dashed back to bed and got myself warm again and then slipped into my bra and panties while still in bed! i then donned my male shirt and a jumper before pulling on some pantyhose, slipping into my jeans and then thick socks and boots. i also put on my coat and still did not really feel warm until we all sat down for a breakfast of “caldo” – a hot broth with vegetables with a chink of mutton chop floating in it. It was both tasty and warming although the mutton might just as well have been boot leather.
By 7.00am we were on the road and heading for our first project. This, and the next part of the days work went well and by 09.45am we were in a village at the end of the road waiting to meet out guide over the mountain pass who was supposed to show at 10.00am. We waited until 10.30am and still no sign. Clearly he had not received the message we had had broadcast over the local radio at 6.45am that morning. What was worse was that every villager and passer by told us that there was no way through the mountains to the location we needed to get to. However, we decided to press ahead and see if we could find a way through with our 4-wheel drive.
We had little difficulty at first but as we neared the top of the pass, the track we were following disappeared here and there and we had to drive over boggy pampa to get through. We managed this by scouting ahead for relatively dry ground and weaving our way through the bog. As we neared the top, i became very interested in the colour of the rocks. There was certainly a lot of signs that there was mineralisation and as we reached the top, there we could see an abandoned mine. So, we went across to it and took a look around and collected some samples. We were at an altitude of 5,100m (15,725ft) and although i was relatively slow and more quickly breathless, i managed to move around without the nausea or headaches associated with altitude sickness.
After collecting our samples, we continued on our journey, down the other side. There was no road or tracks to follow other than a footpath but we were able to follow it with some careful driving where it became rough or very narrow and eventually came down to a series of pampas where we could see that there had once been a road or track that had been driven by a small truck. However, this track was discontinuous across the pampa and the “pastos” (bogs) but once again, we successfully weaved our way through the bog until we finally reached the road into the village and the prospect we were seeking. The prospect was a disappointment but we sampled it nonetheless and then began our journey onwards towards the town of Sicuani. We had no option here because we could not go back to Macusani. It was 3.00pm and to turn back would not see us get through the pass before dark. So, although we knew Sicuani was the centre of the strike activity and that our road would probably be blocked, preventing us getting in to the town, and also that our route out of the town would certainly be blocked, we had no choice but to go on.
Our journey was uneventful until, about a half an hour out from Sicuani, we came to a roadblock. A metal barrier or gate had been locked down over the road and pickets were milling around. Not many, but enough to make life difficult. We got out of the car and began chatting to the pickets who turned out not to be agressive and who not only let us through the gate for a S/-5 fee (about $2.60), also advised us that all of the remaining villages had blocked the road and that the best way to get into Sicuani was via farm tracks over the mountain to the south of us and into Sicuani itself on a very little used back road. Another vehicle that had pulled up at the block behind us was also going to go into Sicuani that same way and knew it well so offered to lead us.
We climbed up a bumpy, poorly defined track into fields on a high plateau like area, following our guide. At one point, our guide drove by people working in the fields without incident but by the time we reached the spot, the people had armed themselves with clods of mud and soil and we were hit as we drove by. However, we came down into Sicuani without further incident and found the place to be devoid of traffic and full of people wandering aimlessly around, mostly travellers who had become trapped in the town. We wound our way through the town looking for an exit to the south and worked our way surreptitiously to the south east corner of the town where we knew from out maps that there were fields that we might be able to drive through to get down to the river and cross. Once again, it was the road bridge that was blocked and picketed.
At the edge of the fields, we stopped and asked a local lady if she knew of a way over the river via the fields and she told us there was but that it would be dangerous because it was right next to the bridge itself and therefore the pickets. She gave us directions and we decided to go and take a look. We had to cross the railway line and as we reached it, we could see the rear lights of a truck driving towards the river. We decided it might be going to cross the river on the railway bridge and so i waited while my colleagues followed the truck to see what might happen.
They soon returned to say that the truck was now down at the river and about to cross and that if we were quick we could follow it over and that it was far enough away from the road bridge and pickets as to be invisible, provided we kept our lights switched off. i drove along the narrow gauge railway line with one wheel between the rails and the other on the outside sleepers, turning off the railway down an embankment to the river where we then followed the truck across the river. No lights! We were heading upstream but the river was not as deep as our earlier crossing on Sunday although it was considerably wider. Nevertheless, we came to the far side and then worked out way again through fields, farm tracks and eventually minor roads onto the main road south. We had beaten the pickets again!
Rather than press on back to Cusco via the route we had taken on Sunday, we decided that as it was now almost 9.00pm, we would head further south into Juliaca and spend the night in a hotel, eat well and rest up so as to be ready for the challenge of getting back to Cusco tomorrow. We pulled into Juliaca around 11.00pm, found a reasonable hotel, grabbed a meal and a few beers to celebrate our successful day and then retired to rest around midnight. Once again, our reasonable hotel that promised hot and cold running water had none so this gurl had a quick wash in the hand basin and a liberal spray of deodorant before slipping into bed.
