To MP: Day One, Part Two: The Mountain Pass

In order to get to Santa Maria from Ollantaytambo, we had to traverse a long mountain pass. This part of the trip took somewhere between three and five hours, and the various views were spectacular. This post will simply be showing you this drive. The drive took us through all different landscapes (from near desert to high jungle), and the roads curved back and forth, following the curves of the mountain.

These first two were taken on the ascent (see A on map). The first one shows some ancient terraces that have been carved into the mountain, the second is one of the many white-capped mountains on our journey. Keep in mind these were taken whilst riding in a van.

This next set were also taken on the ascent (see B). The first shows the home of someone who lives in the mountains, and the second are some ancient ruins that are being propped up with wooden supports.

These two (C) show a view of the road we just traveled. It should give you some idea of how windy the roads are.

The following four photos (D) show some of the higher parts of the journey. We hit the highest point where it says Abra de Malaga on the map. The clouds just sort of hovered over some of the peaks.

Here (E) we have reached the highest point and have begun our descent. The landscape here was drier and plant life was mostly scrub-like. As we continued on, we started to hit a more tropical region, and there were banana and coffee trees. Most of the road was nice and smooth, but some areas were under construction and it left you feeling like you could fly off the cliff. At some points along the road there were even crosses where previous drivers had met an untimely end.

We needed to take a "pit stop" along the way, so I'm not sure exactly where this was on the map. "F" shows my approximate guess. The toilets here were pit toilets, and you had to wash down the hole with some water from the bucket there on the exterior. Luckily we had hand sanitizer!

Eventually, we made it to Santa Maria for lunch (G). Here is my Quinoa/potato soup.

We changed plans here, and decided to drive another three hours to a place known as Vilcabamba. I will share this story in my next post (and I have an actual journal entry for it).