We crossed the Ecuador-Peru border at Las Balsas located about 5 hours straight south of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, staying in the mountains the entire time. The road was slow but passable for Mango, and we were on dirt for about 150 miles. We travelled the road with our British friends John and Lesley, who we met back up with in Vilcabamba. At the border, we were the only two cars there for the entire 2 hours it took to go through the formalities of getting visas and the vehicle registered in Peru. It was one of the easiest crossings with officials on both sides passing us through without any hassle. The only strange thing about this border crossing was that all 3 officials on the Peruvian side (visa, car registration, policeman) were drunk. One of the Peruvian supervisor´s non-inebriated younger helpers actually had to help him write legibly on our entry sticker. I guess there isn´t much else to do in a small town in the mountains at 2 PM.

Click here to view a photo gallery of our Drive through the mountains into Peru

We found out very quickly that driving through Peru is slow going. The roads are passable and not too steep, but in disrepair and rough. The roads that wind up into the mountains also tend to be quite narrow in spots with steep drops off one side. A few hours further south into Peru is a nice highway that was built to cross from the coast to the jungle but we were only on that road for a couple hours until Pedro Ruiz, then it was back to dirt again on our way to the mountain town of Chachapoyas. Chachapoyas is a nice colonial town, and has several tour companies ready to organize trips. We talked to one of the tour operators, but since we had Mango we decided it was possible to see most of the sights on our own. The town of Chachapoyas has about 20,000 inhabitants, and is large enough to purchase provisions. It is clean, has a nice square, good market and is used to tourists so you don’t feel like an anomaly walking down the street.

The mountainous areas of northern Peru were occupied by the Chachapoya people between AD 800 and AD 1470. They were one of the last groups in Peru to be conquered by the Incas. This area is rich in culture with several large archeological sites to visit and a great museum with 219 mummies in Leymebamba.

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