Cordillera Blanca

Officially I have been in and out of the Andies, but this is the first time that I have seen some really rugged terrain. My bus ride from the coastal deserts into the Cordillera Blancas through the Canon del Pato was incredible. The terrain was amazingly rugged, I don't think I have ever seen anything like it before. The road itself was nothing special it was a simple 1 1/2 lane dirt road, but with the surrounding mountains, the ragging river below and at least 40 tunnels cut into the canyon walls it is one trip that will not be soon forgotten. Something that is always interesting while traveling along the roads in the mountains are the very frequent landslides/mudslides. This was just a small rock easily removed, but just around the corner there was a huge bolder that took at least 20 men with poles to get off the road. Along the same road something I found very sobering was passing by a village (of 18,000 at the time) that back in 1970 was decimated by a rock slide caused by an earthquake. I was able to visit a monument that they have constructed over the old town that displayed a few buildings and vehicles that were involved in the rock slide.