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Peruvian Highlands

After joining up with Ruthie in Cuzco, we decided to hitch hike north towards Ayacucho, and had barely spent 10 minutes on the side of the road near Abancay before a friendly accountant picked us up in a dazzling red sportscar and proceeded to drive up and down hair pin turns on small dusty two track dirt roads at speeds I wouldn't have thought possible. He ended up taking us on an 8 hours drive to Andahuaylas, including a stop for the night in the small village, Huamaraca where his parents live and a half day hike up to a cloud forrest on the border to the amazon jungle. The photos below are fragments from the first part of our journey from Abancay to Huamaraca, cloud forrest included.

July 23rd, 2011

Ruthie and Virgilio posing in front of the same bridge.

Virgilio and I, posing in front of an old bridge build by the Spanish back in I don't know when.

The busy main street of Huamaraca at 7 in the morning. This picture captures the atmosphere of many small Peruvian mountain towns I went on to see along the way.

The view as the evening light falls on the Andes mountains near Huamaraca.

Pacobamba, the cloud forrest to which we were heading

Virgilio and wife together with Ruthie taking a break

Walking uphill with Virgilio, his wife and niece.

Instead of a hinge, a shoe sole was used to build the gate

The only photo I ended taking of the actual cloud forest, or at least a part of it. Most of the time it was too cloudy to really take pictures of it, really.