It’s hard to admire the view while pretending your bus isn’t clinging to a mere ribbon of road floating above a thousand meter drop, but the road between Cajamarca and Chachapoyas is nothing if not admirable. The road is gashed across the mountainside, a single lane of hairpin curves that winds through an amazing cross section of Peruvian microclimates, from terraced farmland to arid desert, from semi-tropical fruit groves to fog-shrouded cloud forests. Our 2007 guidebook still says that the road is in poor condition and buses are infrequent, but within the past few years the road has been reworked to make it safer, and transportation options have improved.

Machu Picchu may be closed for now, but Peru still awaits!

Our guide was Antonio, a retired high school history and geography teacher who has worked for 30 years as a guide around Cajamarca. His passion for the place is infectious: he knows every square inch, every foot path, every petroglyph. He began picking up garbage along the trail the moment we set foot on it, and by the time we returned he had a plastic sack full of Inca Kola bottles and candy wrappers. He seemed genuinely sad and angry that these people exist who would come to visit a place for reason of its beauty, then carelessly toss their water bottle aside while they admire the view.