When we showed up at 7:45am on our departure date, the whole street was filled with uniformed government agents from no less than 5 different branches. Our 8am bus was canceled. The story we got from Los Chankas was that they are licensed for big buses from the terminal, but not for the minibuses we were booked on. They were sure everything will blow over by afternoon and we could leave on the 2pm departure. We resigned ourselves to the fact we would never figure out the truth. Since none of the other companies were running any buses that morning we chose not to wait around for the 2pm van and arrive in Andahuaylas in the dark. We returned to our hotel for another night in Ayacucho - night 8.
The next day we tried again at 8am. Everything went smoothly at first. We are enjoying a fabulous view from the front seats until just about half way. Then there's a landslide that has stopped traffic in both directions. It happened even before we left Ayacucho, something Los Chankas didn't bother to tell us. Furthermore, our very enterprising driver dumped all of us from his minibus onto a big Los Chankas on the Lima to Andahuaylas route, so he could go back to Ayacucho and bring more unsuspecting victims, as we passengers all speculated. We finally arrived in Andahuaylas around 5:30pm. A 5-hour journey took us two days!
Minibuses to Andahuaylas shutdown/closed.
Thus we take a minibus the next day. All is well. Our bags are on top. The minibus is new and with plenty of room in the front seat.
Great views all around. First, back down to Anadhuaylas.
Then up, up.
A tiny landslide. Only one lane closed. No problem.
Andahauylas 108 kms, here we come!
Huanaco Roundup. Can you spot the one that is still running free?
Hardly any traffic on this mountain road.
We make a brief stop. Apparently at this point the other passengers knew about the landslide up ahead because they all bought lots of fruits and snacks. I was wondering why.
Problem? No problem. The sheep are experts at avoiding traffic.
PROBLEM! A landslide across the whole road. We were stopped for 3 hours. Some vehicles were stopped for 8 hours.
The driver boots us off his minibus.
Finally, 3 hours later, one lane is free. The guy working the heavy equipment was a pro. He was working under pressure; the stopped traffic, and the slide was unstable. Several times he and the more than several onlookers had to retreat when the slide slid a bit more. In the video below, he's the guy standing by the road with a face mask around his neck.
Our bus was the first big vehicle through the cleared slide - motorcycles first. Check out this video I took from the bus window.
Video link - click here.
And it's smooth sailing the rest of the way to Andahuaylas as we relax in reclining, executive seats on the lower level on the bus.
Some fires in the distance.
We see Andahuaylas below.
Our bus was also carrying cargo. We dropped off these bags of ornamental plants at the edge of town.
After finding a hotel we checked out the street food situation at the nearby plazoleta. The folks in this custom (extended headroom) VW Microbus made me an egg sandwich with salad AND fries stuffed inside.
Our hotel: Hotel Encanto de Apurimac, Jr. Juan Antonio Trelles, Andahuaylas 03701•(083) 423527.
The Plaza de Armas in Andahuaylas.
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