Wednesday December 7, Day-25

Cusco to Nasca, 660 kms

Today is a so called transport day, no timing, regularities, no circuits. Just get to the next hotel and in order for the officials to know if you are missing we have to check in to a couple of passage controls, so they know more or less who is where. As a result and after a few phone calls it is decided we do not need to return to Cusco to get to the official start instead we can start from Urubamba and join the rally at a nearby waypoint. This saves us 3 hrs driving in rather unattractive city conditions. Up above the scen as we climb out of the Urubamba vally on our way to the first waypoint.

It was a long day in kilometers and it turned out to be a very big workout day for the driver. The road was a well paved mountain road that kept going up and down for over 500kms. Each time we descended from around 14,000ft to something much lower like 8,000ft we would think ohhh finally we are going to get some straighter roads, but for 5 times the rod climbed back up with hairpins and switchbacks to sometimes 15,000ft. and then eventually back down again in order to make us do it again. Hard work, a beautiful road and great driving. We had put our worst tires on for the day since it was not competitive. Little did we know that at some of the summits it was literally snowing and with the near baals tires in the front we did not have a lot of grip. We left in the morning at 6.30 and arrived in Nazca at a very old estancia/hotel around 5.30 in the evening. Eleven hours of turning the little steering wheel.

We were lucky having a great and maneuverable car that does not suffer too much with altitude, many of the participants did not arrive till late in the evening.