Going In The Andes Mountains (Enjoy life)
After from Arequipa next I headed to Colca Canyon, if smoothly it should be travel within six hours. This trip is interesting because I will walk the streets in altitude, drove in the Andes mountains.
I left early from Arequipa using a minivan. The driver was named Dante, a senior driver already familiar with the streets of the Andes Mountains.
Half an hour from Arequipa the cell phone signal has disappeared, the scenery changed into grasslands and high mountains.
The amazing thing about Peru is how this nation built roads in altitude. Splitting a mountain, circling the mountain, scraping the hill. Perhaps the Peruvians were blessed with a miraculous technical ability, because hundreds of years ago the Incas had built construction in difficult places to reach, in the mountains, in the woods and in the hills.
The road that I passed in the Andes Mountains resembled a giant snake, brown and winding.
Dante himself considers his profession an honorable profession. He has his own car, a Mercedes Sprinter capable of carrying 12 passengers. I guess Dante's age is about 50's, but after talking it turns out he says he's 72 years old.
On the way I kept chewing coca leaf to reduce the symptoms of Accute Mountain Sickness that slowly began to feel. Head began to shake and body shivering.
Dante is the type of human elders tire, at the age of seven heads just casually swerved to the right and left. Our opponents on this street are large trucks carrying minerals. The trucks come from Chile and will bring the mine up to Equador, Colombia and even Mexico.
An hour and a half of my winding journey arrived at Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve.
This place is a very crazy pasture, a highway splitting the meadow as far as the eye can see and be fenced off by the tops of the iceberg. Here live Alpaca, a native species of Peru that became a national animal of Peru. At the side of the road, the right-hand side was built an iron fence to keep Alpaca from crossing the highway.
The highway splits right in the middle of the national park. Occasional national park attendants pass by patrol car. While the van cars carrying the many tourists stopped at the side of the road, they watch and wait for the exact moment to photograph Alpaca
Alpaca-alpaca here are allowed to live freely, they roam the vast national park. In the cold weather, Alpaca survives with thick fur.
Halfway, my breath began to weigh. The hardest part of this journey is how the body has to adapt very quickly to the heights. From Arequipa which is altitude 2300 mdpl suddenly within two hours I have been at altitude 4000 masl. Body of course shocked with this condition.
Each breathe feels heavier and heavy. Head also dizziness coupled with cold, stomach increasingly struggling. It really does not look good.
Outside my forgiving state of the body, I am comforted by the views of the Andes, also imagine how great civilizations appeared in these mountains. Among the sides of the road were magnificent high-lying icy mountains at the apex, a further span toward the clouds.
The highest point on this street is located at 4910 mdpl. There is a kind of height guidance monument and also a platform to enjoy the highest point. Here I take a picture for a moment, enjoy the strong winds as well as the shivering body.
(I was standing at the point 4910 mdpl)
According to Dante, after this the road down to the Colca Canyon. So the body should not be too troubled anymore with the altitude. It is true, after being at an altitude of 4910 mdpl the streets are all down, the head is rather mild and the pain in the body decreases.
The streets are still twisting and the great thing is there is no way to break. I imagine how this road was built. Great nian Peruvians are slicing long hills into a smooth road without holes.
From a distance the landscape of the mountains began to change the landscape of green fields. Transition from mountain area to farm area. It's a sign I've entered the Colca Canyon area.
The streets began to decline, from the height of the mountain into the niche of the valley. From afar Chivay looks just dots. While enjoying the wind, I enjoy traveling in the Andes Mountains.