It occurred that proper after we retired and left the Keys in September 2021 we had Thanksgiving with buddies in Pensacola and speak got here up about our journey plans. I used to be truly a bit reticent about speculating about what we’d do. Speak is affordable; driving to Ushuaia is tough and boasting about what you need to do sounds absurd when you’ve solely pushed 800 miles so removed from Key West.
Name me sentimental however I miss these gatherings filled with meals and speak and gratitude. Phil, above, is a person of extraordinary accomplishment. A translator by commerce with data of many languages, he has walked the US coast to coast and has traveled to I feel greater than 120 international locations with the concept of visiting all 195 earlier than he dies. He has seen some bizarre unsavory locations.
Nightfall was falling and the meals was eaten and the day celebrated. It was actually good, you understand the sensation.
“Are you aware the place the best human settlement on the earth is?” Phil leaned throughout the desk.
“The Himalayas someplace?” I hazarded a guess.
“No,” he mentioned, “it’s a mining city in Peru.”
“Apparently it’s the Wild West there and really harmful.” Implausible. Let’s go.
After plowing by the appalling visitors in Juliaca we would have liked to search out some place to sleep earlier than trying to drive as much as the best city on the earth. This was not as straightforward as you may suppose. We tried a spot beneficial by overlanding buddies from Germany. Down a slender single observe street for six miles.
It was a peninsula protruding into the lake simply west of Huancané and we no thought what to anticipate, actually not a wooded hilly farming group. Nor have been we joyful to see rain. The locals ignored the climate and went about their enterprise prefer it was a sunny afternoon.
Then the hail started, an actual ice storm such that it appeared like snow. We couldn’t imagine it.
We had very low expectations of the campsite prompt to us however we pressed on able to be shocked.
Once we arrived on the overlook there have been two automobiles having fun with the afternoon and the view of the lake was merely an arm of the best navigable physique of water on the earth. Our buddies we discovered, had taken a steep dust path right down to the village on the water’s edge and that observe was now a mud bathtub. We drove again to the principle street and had a suppose.
The issue with driving to La Rinconada (Nook City) is that it’s a harmful place, genuinely so. It has a fearsome popularity as probably the most lawless city within the Americas. It isn’t a spot for vacationers and you’ll not discover any company providing to take you there. There aren’t any entries in iOverlander to information vacationers. Its sole declare to fame is that it’s the highest everlasting settlement on the earth at greater than 16,000 toes. Of all of the journeys we’ve got undertaken La Rinconada is fingers down probably the most perilous vacation spot, with out exaggeration however I needed the altitude trophy and I bought it, 16,340 toes exactly.
My plan was to get as shut as doable, wild camp the night time earlier than after which depart at daybreak and get to La Rinconada as early as doable when the drunks and assassins would all be asleep. That not less than was my hope and as plans went it was an excellent one and ultimately it labored: right here we’re, we lived.
Google mentioned this disused quarry we got here throughout was 90 minutes from La Rinconada so we thought it was good and we settled in for a chilly night time. After which we bought the knock. In van life “the knock” means your free camp is interrupted by a knock from the outdated invoice. The fuzz. The cops. Fortunately they have been simply checking on us and we handed the check and so they left with a cheery wave and the hope that we’d sleep properly. At that altitude sleep wasn’t really easy however I set my alarm for 5 am.
As wild camps go it was fairly good in case you ignore the trash.
We had purchased dinner from a road meals stand, roast lamb chunks with numerous Peruvian potatoes. It might have used a sauce however we feature our personal so all was properly. The plates we use are Corel and we’ve had them since we purchased them for our boat in 1997. They might have lead in them however I feel it’s a bit late to fret.
Somebody was drained so we put his mattress within the night time place on the ground. In the course of the day it rides on our mattress and he jumps up there when he needs to be house. At night time he seems to be much more cute like this:
I used to be awake earlier than daybreak. Layne stayed in mattress and we two walked for a couple of minutes then Rusty took up his place subsequent to me and we have been on the street to our vacation spot.
Usually I by no means drive after darkish and this drive was hell. Abruptly we discovered ourselves in the course of the morning mining commute with lots of, and I’m not exaggerating, of vans in columns of ten hauling miners up the mountain to work. They usually drive like maniacs with dying on their minds. Within the city of Putina the police have been stopping everybody and checking IDs. They couldn’t imagine there have been solely two folks on this van. One stepped inside, noticed my spouse nonetheless asleep alone in all that area and agreed we have been simply two folks (unusual folks at that) and on we went into the night time. I’ll wager that’s the primary motorhome he’s stopped on this commute…
The street was fairly crappy, a combination of damaged asphalt, potholes, random stretches of dust and all of it continually being stuffed with an increasing number of cabs and pickups and r briskly dump vans. It was grand central station on a nightmare street.
To make issues worse the street, Freeway 34H, was slender sufficient you needed to contact the ditch to cross one another and the Peruvians don’t decelerate, they don’t know their automobiles have brakes. It was the worst three hours of our lives on the street.
These cement slabs are fords designed to stream the water safely throughout the street in wet season and they’re annoying however cheaper than bridges.
The street is giving manner. Slowly.
Dust street forward, and plenty of vans.,,
No slowing down allowed..
Attempt to think about being a part of a head on confrontation. I used to be fearful we have been going to get dented any time. Or pushed into the ravine! Nothing occurred nevertheless it was three hours of actual stress I can not deny.
Think about this as your commute:
We referred to as him Honey Badger as a result of he rolled slowly however with nothing stopping him. Even probably the most aggressive vans stepped apart for him and a few stopped so we slipped in behind him and rolled alongside. Try the van on the curb under:
We bought separated from Honey Badger in a foul stretch of dust. I simply couldn’t sustain as he rolled by big holes with out slowing.
Trashing rivers is a sport round right here.
Site visitors was fixed and aggressive making hairpins unusually thrilling.
Lastly the roof the world.
Alpacas grazing.
Are you able to think about ranching three miles up?
Our route up by way of Putina and Ananea and down by the use of the Bolivian border marked by a black line. The picture above was earlier than Ananea on the way in which up.
There it’s fifteen miles away by Google Maps, the rising solar twinkling on the tin houses of La Rinconada the city sitting beneath the Sleeping Magnificence glacier. The best city on the earth.
Now we’re among the many open face mines. That is gold nation and these rocks lining Freeway 110 are the ore from the mines.
Folks reside right here. It’s simply gross. It smells like a meth lab, all chemical nastiness and the clouds are hanging low.
About ten miles from our aim is the final regular city, the regional capital referred to as Ananea, a spot I had thought-about appropriate for a final resort in a single day cease a lot nearer to our aim however we’re at 15,500 toes and respiratory is tough up right here. Sleeping could be extraordinarily unlikely within the low oxygen ranges.