Upon reading the title of this blog one may think that I’ll bring up the topic of the Shining Path in Peru or the FARC in Colombia or even some of the rogue bandits that sometimes roam the countryside lying in wait of the unsuspecting. These threats do still exist although at least in Peru the Shining Path is more bark than bite and has been reduced to small pockets in the jungle. In Colombia the military has frequent check points along the highways and during heavily traveled holidays conducts military convoys from the cities to vacation destinations.

The real danger in the Andes is the transportation itself. Every now and again I come across, and maybe you have even read some stories about tragic bus accidents in the Andes; often leaving no survivors. Just last week there was another tragedy. Outside of the Peruvian city of Puno a bus plummeted into a ravine leaving forty-five dead with only two survivors.

Many adventurous travelers will attempt to save money by taking interprovincial bus transportation. I agree that the only way to see the Andes is by land, but precautions must be taken.

Three years ago I visited the Andean city of Ayacucho. We opted to take an interprovincial bus. Ironically they were showing a video on board. It just happened to be the Kevin Costner film, Dragonfly; you know the one where his wife if in the Venezuelan Andes and her bus takes a dive over a cliff into a river hundreds of feet below. Yeah, they actually played this video…was it a foreshadowing of things to come? Well, I’m still here so it wasn’t. But it very easily could have been.

Upon boarding the bus I pointed something out to my father. It was his first bus ride into the Andes; I had been on several previously, each one an adventure in itself. I showed him the bus tires, they were retreads and very poorly done. On top of that, they were almost completely bald. If that wasn’t cause for concern, I don’t know what was.

The trip started off in the late afternoon. The bus swayed as it speeded through a canyon on the way up to the small town of Huaytara. I had hoped to stop here because the local church was built on top of an Inca Temple and the stonework rivals that of Cusco. Unfortunately I missed it; the bus did not make a stop. Yet another downside of interprovincial bus travel; you stop when and where the driver wants to stop.

The climb to Huaytara is spectacular and I would definitely make this trip again. We seemed to climb forever and as we passed through the small town I loo