I´m looking forward to this journey down to Chimbote. We leave good and early around 7.15am. I´m travelling on the Yunguy express. The name alone suggests an adventure but conjures up images of Mongolia and China rather than Peru. However from the Cordillera Blanca to the Canon Del Pato the landscape is pretty spectacular on any continent.
The Yungay express bus was itself as regal as the name suggests. King of the road back in the sixties it still retains a whiff of royalty as it burps out black exhaust fumes along the road beneath the peaks of Huascaran. Its an old single decker. All the luggage is pile up top on the roof. A tough plastic sheet covers all in the event of rain. As we leave Huaraz there are 7 people on board this 40+ seater. I can´t help thinking how much this contrasts with the 22 people crammed into a tatty Hiace van a few days ago. The first 90 mins are spent passing comfortably through the towns at the base of the Cordillera Blanca, Yungay, Caraz etc. At each town we pick up passengers and the conductor, with help from some others climbs up onto the roof and loads up with every assortment of luggage from a mountain bike to a couple of chairs, bags of cereals, boxes of groceries, rucksacks and a net bag belonging to an old woman containing 8-9 live guinea pigs. The largest of the goods requires 2-3 people to haul the load up to the conductor who heaves the load onto the roof to secure it with an assortment of cables. In Yungay 13 sheep and goats are loaded into a compartment at the back of the bus. Here I saw the extraordinary sight of an old woman carrying a bag of cement up the street. She was bent low with the cement on her back and she was going like the clappers!! I don´t know, these old peruvian women are fierce tough.
The last town on the approach to the Canon Del Pato is Caraz. Leaving here the bus was full. There were now 70 on board. 40 seated and 30 standing. 2 young lads perched themselves on the roof for an adventurous ride home. A couple of mile out of town we left the paved road and trundled along a gravel surface by the banks of the river which would take us through the canyon. The mountains closed in on either side as we entered the canyon. At times it was breathtaking as the canyon narrowed to 20-30m in places. The walls of the canyon ran vertical and the bus was forced to proceed through a series of tunnels until the canyon widened out again. At its narrowest there was a mere 10-15m between the walls. As the canyon widened we passed through a town deep in the base of the valley beside which there was a large electricity station.
At times the road was distinctly dangerous. Perched 100m over the fast flowing river the edge was crumbling away and in some places threatened a major collapse. Looking out the window as the driver dropped into 1st gear there was no road visible beneath me, merely a 100m drop into the swirling river below. A sense of relief would follow as the driver successfully negotiates the narrow stretch and accelerates to a wider strech of road.
I had been told the journey to Chimbote was 5hrs. By midday we were still in the middle of the canyon. There were high mountains all around and no sign of us nearing the exit which would bring us to the lowlands. On the radio Peruvian Folk/country music had been playing incessantly for a number of hours now and I was beginning to tire of it. At 2pm we stopped in a small dusty town of Chocqui....... This was a food stop. Everybody piled into the roadside restaurant and happily tucked into meals of chicken or beef with rice and chips. I didn´t sample what was on offer as I wasn´t eating or drinking as there was no toilet on board. I hadn´t drank anything at all so far today yet I´d had to go to the toilet three times. It was somewhat uncomfortable at times. We were a lot lower now, nearly out of the canyon. It was a lot hotter here than at Huaraz. The air here was noticeably thicker than the cool mountain air.
40 mins later the bus resumed its journey. I did buy some bananas and took the hunger off me with some crackers and yoghurt I´d brought with me. We rejoined a good quality surface and the bus zipped along so smoothly after the slow lumpy surface of the last few hours. I began to doze in the heat. When I awoke we were passing through a green fertile plain full of crops growing. This green plain brought us to the outskirts of Chimbote. Most of the passengers left the bus here. It took a good 30mins to unload all the gear from the roof. The guinea pigs, sheep and goats all seemed to have survived their ordeal unscathed as they were deposited on to the pavement.
I and a few others remained onboard as the bus crossed town to the main terminal. Chimbote is a fishing port, the Killybegs of Peru only much larger. The stench of rotting fish which hangs over the place is strong and unpleasant. Getting off the bus I was hoping I wouldn´t have to stay here. Thankfully there was a bus to Trujillo leaving within minutes. I got my ticket and had just enough time to go to the toilet before the bus took off. We followed the coast for the next 2hrs, arriving in Trujillo as darkness was falling. I took a taxi to the centre through heavy and agressive traffic. It looks like the drivers in Trujillo take no prisoners. Getting into the taxi the driver made sure all the doors were looked which was less than reassuring. He seemed to be impressed that I had come from Ireland. Apert for the odd near miss with other taxis the drive to the centre of town was uneventful. I was dropped off at Hostal Ayacucho.
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