We had a beautiful 10 hour drive of nearly 640 kms. The scenery varied constantly as we went through mountains, river beds, high and low desert. We saw vicuna on the high plain. They look like deer and are a protected species with wonderfully soft long fur/hair on their chests. Also on the journey, a flock of bright green parrots flew over us.
Much of the road for the first part of the journey through the Andes was being upgraded and in many places roadworks delayed us. On one occasion we had to stop while blasting was taking place. It was in this section of the road that we came across Ted and Judy Howles in their red 1967 Reliant Scimitar, Car No. 33, broken down by the side of the road. We stopped to find out what was wrong and were told by Ted that his brake master cylinder had failed. He seemed to think he could manage without his brakes, so we carried on, leaving him behind.
The road through the Andes was one of the great roads of the world. fantastic varying scenery with precipitous drops as the road wound its way through the mountains towards the Pacific. I wondered how Ted would get on, especially as evening was approaching.
We hit the Panamerican Highway at Nasca, quite a drab looking place, but not as bad as Puquio, a place we passed through earlier in the day and one of the worst towns I have ever seen. We passed the Nasca Lines and the Mirador where you can climb up and see some of them, and arrived in Ica. The road to our hotel, Las Dunas, was closed so we had to go a long way round to get there, which we finally did at about 4pm. We were tired and hungry by this time, something we are beginning to get used to. There were quite a few others already there, including a course car. One car had serious mechanical problems on the way and arrived at 10.30.
Total distance travelled today was 384 miles
