Mudslide

[Martin Hash]

I live where it rains a lot, and I’ve been to plenty of places where it rains a lot, but ChaChapoyas sets the standard for people who are live in constant rainfall. A place where water for the shower is collected entirely from roof drain-off. Like other places where it rains a lot, umbrellas are uncommon, indicating a tourist. Locals don’t even wear rain ponchos. However, rather than being muddy, exposed hard surfaces are kept clean by women with brush brooms.

And traveling in the rainy Andes is no joke. If you fly in, you risk the chance of being held up for days at the podunk mountain plateau airport trying to get out in the fog; and if you drive, there's constant risk of mudslides; which brings us to the situation where we could not fly out due to heavy rain, and the roads were washed out, as usual. Luckily, this is Peru, and locals know the situation, so a business popped up. Without much difficulty, we were able to procure a driving service that would risk the treacherous roads, and the price wasn't that bad, especially if you consider the 8-hour, mostly at night trip, with 5 passengers: me; my wife, Gwynne; my son, Haven, and his wife, Mirian, and our Incan grandson, Felix, through what many would consider extreme dangerous conditions.

Mudslide, ChaChapoyas 1 s.jpg

The car was a newer model Nissan, and once we all crammed in there, the driver raced off down the roads as it was a speedway, let alone splashing waves of muddy water onto whoever was unlucky enough to be on the side of the road. Just 30 minutes into the pass, there were boulders in the road we casually swerved around, and not just a few; hundreds. Plus, in many places a wall of mud was sliding across the road, halfway up the tires. At one point, a dozen guys in yellow rainslickers slogged around one of mudslides with shovels, even though a river of it was still coming down the mountainside. While they were helplessly watching the road wash away, we hurried over what still remained. It’s not like it didn’t rain just like this yesterday, and the day before, and the year before that. It gives one an appreciation of the epic endurance of ancient ruins that have endured in this climate for hundreds of years.

[brewster]

I've noticed in Central America the cars are all new, there's far more beaters on US roads. Is it the same in Peru?

[Martin Hash]

They can’t have old cars, and they have to have a physical to get a license.

[TheReal_ND]

I've noticed in Central America the cars are all new, there's far more beaters on US roads. Is it the same in Peru?

What parts of central America do you travel to besides Panama?

[brewster]

I've noticed in Central America the cars are all new, there's far more beaters on US roads. Is it the same in Peru?

What parts of central America do you travel to besides Panama?

Just a trip to Costa Rica a few years ago. Why?

Hash, is there an explanation for those rules?

[TheReal_ND]

I was just wondering. I've been to Caracas and Aruba myself