Marian Johns' Journal of the Desert
Explorers trip to Peru in 2002
Images by John Page unless otherwise noted
Day 6,
September 9, Monday
Camaná to Cabanaconde See
Map
Sept. 9, Monday – Everyone had hot water except for Charlayne and me, so we skipped the shower this morning.
The Panamericana turns inland here – near Camaná and heads toward Arequipa. At the turn-off for the side road to Corire and the Toro Muerto petroglyphs, we stopped for a powwow. Should we take the time to see the petroglyphs even though we would probably have to drive in the dark to reach our hotel in Cabanaconde? It was decided to go ahead and do it.
This road starts off over dry, flat desert, and then drops dramatically into the deep Majes Valley. The floor of the valley is a green patchwork of fields, mostly rice paddies – a spectacular sight! Peru is supposed to be a major, world rice producer. At the bottom, a one-lane bridge crosses the river at the tiny village of Punto Colorado. By following the guide book directions, we continued on a short way to Corire, took another lesser side road and found the site. A caretaker let us drive up to the first group of petroglyphs. That saved us at least an hour and a long, hot walk up the steep road.
The most common representations I saw were llamas, snakes, sun disks, and abstract and geometric designs.
Just as we were about to leave, a group of
school kids and their teachers arrived after a steep hike up from the
entrance. Kathy chatted with them for a few minutes. 
We returned the way we had come – back to the bridge where we found a restaurant overlooking the river. We had another memorable meal there. I ordered camarones which were not salt water, ocean shrimp, but rather river crayfish caught locally in the Majes River. They were small, but excellent – and plentiful.
Just as we were finishing lunch, we watched a humorous little drama
unfold right there on the bridge. A big truck piled high with cornstalks
for animal feed tried to cross, but it just wouldn’t fit under the upper
structural members of the bridge, so the driver had to back off and
rearrange his load. 
On his second try, he had just started across when a
car and small van came zipping along from the other direction and blocked
the way. 
There followed a conference of drivers and eventually the truck
backed off again even though he was on the bridge first.
We retraced our route up and out of the valley and back to the Panamericana. Here, we turned toward Arequipa again, but only went a short way before taking another side road. This was the unpaved, back road to Cabanaconde where we had hotel reservations for that night at La Posada del Conde. It was a long drive. We had to climb up and over a 14,000 ft. pass, and as we descended the other side, darkness overtook us. Finding the correct turn to take us into town was a challenge in the dark with no signs to direct us. Somehow the lead vehicle in our little caravan “followed its nose” and got us there.
Charlayne and I were assigned a room on the third floor again! There was no stair railing and the stair risers were not equal in height, so we had to be very careful not to trip. A bunch of Dutch tourists are also here. Ate dinner in the hotel – had good asparagus soup and steak that was just a little tough, plus rice and fries. I’m not sure why they think it’s necessary to have two such starchy side dishes.
