Today was another day that I had been looking forward to for a while.. riding through the famous Cañon del Pato in the Peruvian Andes. It consists of a narrow canyon road that goes through 35 hand carved one-lane tunnels.

We crusied down the Pan-Am for about an hour towards the city of Chimbote where the turn-off was into the mountains. Along the way we passed a few trucks with HUGE payloads of crops. The things you see sometimes just driving down the roads here in Latin America..

Heading into the mountains.. all paved for the first ~50km..

We stopped for lunch in a tiny tiny town right before the dirt canyon road starts. Not much going on in this sleepy little pueblo. I wasn’t very hungry, so I only had some rice and Avocado. 

Fabian and Sarah bought some local fruits/veggies to snack on. This thing below was a big green string bean looking kinda thing. You only eat the white stuff that surrounds the seeds. It tasted decent.. don’t remember the name.

Lunch with the very popular Peruvian soft drink, Inca Cola. It tastes like bubblegum soda and is found everywhere. Peruvians love it.

 Back on the road and into the canyons for a few hours of dirt riding.

All of the 35 tunnels in this canyon were supposedly hand carved. They are very narrow (only one lane) and you need to “Tocar bocina” (beep horn) before entering to warn other traffic from entering at the same time.

Along the canyon/river is a massive hydro-electric plant that powers a few cities and towns in the area.

Fabian got a flat tire just as we rolled into the tiny town of Huallanca. A quick tire plug and we were back on the road.

A few GoPro shots of the tunnels:

We rolled into the town of Caraz around 1730 and found a hotel before going out to eat. This place sits right at the base of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. The scenery is kind bizarre because the town is down low and warmer with palm trees, yet the backdrop of the mountains has snow capped peaks.