After yesterday's climb to the source of the Amazon, today asks for something different: distance. It's the longest single transit of the Colca-to-Cusco stretch, crossing a remote corner of the Andes that sees more mining trucks than tourists, before finally dropping into a city that will be home base for the better part of a week.
Leaving Sibayo
The road leaves Sibayo at 7:00, and the pavement doesn't last. This stretch runs through Espinar province, one of the emptier corners of the southern Andes — high grassland, scattered herds of alpaca and llama, and long unpaved sections that have been under intermittent repair for years without quite being finished.
Repsol, Ocoruro
The fuel stop at Ocoruro comes a little under two hours in, in a district so remote that the station itself is something of a landmark. Ocoruro sits above 4,000 meters, cold and windswept even at midday, and the turnoff to reach it has a reputation among the handful of travelers who've written about this road: rough, but passable. It's a good place to top off the tank rather than assume the next opportunity will come easily.