Canon del Pato or Canon of the Duck, is a crazy road that was built by hand through a rough, rocky and steep canyon. It’s composed of something like 49 hand made tunnels and was our route to the much-anticipated Cordillera Blanca (the highest mountain range outside of the Himalayas).
It was a great way to start the New Year - one lane narrow road on a cliff side. You’re honking your horn the whole way to make sure oncoming traffic knows that you’re around the next blind turn. Every once in a while we would catch a glimpse of the river churning below, a reminder if things went wrong, they were going to go very wrong. After about tunnel 27 it started to rain which made for sloppy conditions inside the tunnels, then thankfully the road turned to asphalt as it began to climb again. Although it made for a white-knuckle drive, at least for me, we made it through unscathed. We pulled into the Huscarn National Park in the rain, excited for clear weather in the morning and a chance to glance at the peaks towering around us.
The morning was clear and beautiful, and just the tops of the snow covered mountains could be seen from our parking spot in the valley. We packed up and headed for a recommend route to Laguna Paron. The drive was amazing and all that we imagined Peru to be – colorful patchwork hillsides, friendly people with bright clothing, pigs, goats, chickens, horses, waterfalls, giant granite walls, cold rushing creeks, beautiful glacier lakes and all with the amazing backdrop of giant towering snow-covered peaks. We were so excited and took to exploring the area on foot.
From Laguna Paron we headed to the more explored Laguna 69 – a well-traveled path for good reason. The roughly six mile rainy assent climbs to about 14K feet lands you at stunning blue lagoon surrounded by glaciers, stunning peaks, active moraine fields - complete with a waterfall cascading from the 22,205 foot Mount Huascaran into the cool blue waters. As many of the descending hikers declared to us on their way down – it’s worth the hike, rain and all. On our way down the sun came out and the clouds cleared and showed us the humbling size of the mountains surround us. Now, looking back at the photos we laugh because it almost looks fake.
We’d heard about a rock forest on the way to Lima and thought it’d be worth checking out. As we climbed the rocky road we wondered if our directions were correct. Could there really be something at the top of this bad little road? Yes, and man was it worth the drive. The road ended at a little lodge that overlooked a stone forest, we were so excited when we arrived we didn’t notice the muddy hill that we droved down. Before we knew it we were stuck, not just kind of stuck, but really stuck. As soon as we realized we were stuck, it of course, started to rain and rain hard. As small rivers flowed around our tires the kids from the lodge came out to help us push. After a while a nearby Shepard thought he’d help us out by sharing that the rain would stop and it would be dry in the morning. The rain did stop and the rainbow and sunset that followed were unreal. The sky was aglow and all the small puddles were reflecting the fire in the sky. That night we slept on an extreme hill. I kept waking up and clinging to George because in my sleep I thought I was falling out of bed feet first.
The next morning it was indeed dryer, but we were still stuck. Chains on, rock paths built, we pushed Dolores’ clutch to near death and after about 2 hours made it out of our muddy mess. Thank goodness, we had to be in Lima the next day.
That night at our campsite just north of Lima more flies than I have ever seen in my life invaded the van. We slept with the sheets over our head and had to drive with the windows open the next morning. When we stopped to get gas I looked like a crazy person, opening all of the doors and windows and flinging a towel around inside the van to get them all out. #vanlife
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