Today was the day that unfortunately we had to leave the jungle. It had been really fun and I was thankful of the amount of animals we had been able to see in the end. We went back the same way we had come through the jungle. It was only when we reached the outskirts of Pacautambo that we began to have an issue.
This was where we had visited on the way there to see a museum and have breakfast. In the museum they had explained about the festivities that could be occurring between the 15th of July and the 17th of July. Slap bang in the middle of that was us. The road was closed through the town! Hoardes of buses and parked cars littered the streets of the outskirts. We had to find another route... quite difficult when you have to cross a river that has few bridges and is surrounded by towering mountains.
Our guide seemed to think that he knew a way around it. We turned around and backtracked until the previous bridge and then crossed it. This started to seem slightly odd when we started taking a single track road that traversed the side of the mountain. Cliff drop one side and rock face the other. The one relieving thought that I had in my mind as we made this journey was the seemingly lack of wreckages at the bottom of the valley...
At one point we had to get out of the vehicle whilst the driver was assisted by the guide through a particularly precarious part. All went smoothly however and we were able to continue. The more we followed this road the more it took us into the middle of nowhere in the mountains. Many times we had to slow down or even stop to allow farm animals to get out of the middle of the road. Young girls would be taking their animals to destinations unknown. This could include an array of things like pigs, cows, horses, sheep and alpacas. Eventually we made it back to Cusco only to get a bus almost straight away to Bolivia. It will be weird being in another country after spending so long in Peru.
