Cotahuasi Canyon on a Honda XR250 Tornado motorcycle

A 6-day trip to Cotahuasi Canyon was as fun as others with some additional challenges.
For the first night I reached Puquio which is located between Nazca and Abancay. The next day I continued this very good paved road for another 3 hours or so and then turn right, south or south-west. For the next 4 days I was in the high altitude area between 4000 and 5100 meters. The skies were clear and the temperature in the highest areas was between -10C during the night and 12-14C during the day.
For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th night, I stayed in Antabamba, Cerro Blanco gold mine and in Cotahuasi. To reach Cotahuasi I had to rely on information obtained from locals living in this very sparsely populated area. My GPS didn't have any roads going through the area. One of the locals, Freddy, drew a map for me that contained details such as:

- After Culipampa look for a road to the right; in an hour you will reach Huarcaya; ask for a road to Selena Mine; take that road and go for about 15 minutes; that's when you will notice a blue shack; turn left before the shack; don't cross the bridge - it would take you to Selena; the road will ascend for about 2 hours; keep going straight under the electric transmission towers; if you don't, you will end up at one of the service roads for the towers and you will get lost; you will reach Calacapcha; ask for the road to Cerro Blanco Mine; by the time you reach Cerro Blanco the day will be nearly finished and you can stay there for the night.

The instructions were very good and I followed them precisely. Jorge in Cerro Blanco gave me another set of instructions for the next day and they took me all the way to Cotahuasi. And all of it above 4000 meters above the sea level.
The Canyon itself was stunning in its depth, colours, texture, cliff-hanger roads, unexpected descends and ascends, its remoteness and indescribable beauty. See pictures!
From Cotahuasi it took me a day to get to the coast, again crossing mountain passes over 4500 meters. The last day was just driving back to Lima. The coast was cloud-covered but the areas 300-500 meters above the sea level changed to a fog forcing the drivers to slow down considerably.
Day 1: Lima - Puquio, 591 km.
Day 2: Puquio - Andabamba, 304 km.
Day 3: Andabamba - Cerro Blanco, 198 km.
Day 4: Cerro Blanco - Cotahuasi, 159 km.
Day 5: Cotahuasi - Chala, 549 km.
Day 6: Chala - Lima, 604 km.
Total: 2405 km.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Cotahuasi
• canyon
• motorcycle
• xr250
• honda
• tornado
• jacektravel
• motocykl
• peru
• xr
• 250
• andes
• south
• america
• sur
• Cañón
• Cañon

[jacektravel1]

Thanks for the compliment. Just a home-made video with a simple point-and-shoot camera that has HD video and edited with Mac's iMovie.

[TheMylongo]

buen recorrido  imagenes que son impresionantes

vale la pena el frio y la altura de los andes e incita hacer lo mismo

[64maxpower]

I am impressed.Taking such a long trip through rough terrain on a little XR250.You are hardcore. Contact me if you need any performance parts shipped from the US. Or maybe a KLR 650 shipped in a crate to you.:) I cant imagine what altitude you had to be at to have to push your bike

[MovingUpp]

Best views of canyon starting at 4:54

[madltbo]

Great film!, you are a professional videographer??, and what cam did you take to the trip??Once again..Great film!

[ctopf11]

You are loco de la cabeza!!! But it makes for great film!

[molsondrive1970]

Nice video! Music is cool kinda like Seal or Sade. Wow... Impressive as usual