“Someday I’ll go down the Pan American Highway
It was a promise we made to go all the way South.”
After the Nazca highs, it is back down to earth, a roughly 500 km drive to Arequipa ahead. Perfect time to turn on the jukebox for some relax road tripping down the Panamericana.
Against the backdrop of the majestic Pacific, the yellow lines and desolate desert landscapes are rolling by, kilometer after kilometer, only interrupted by the occasional political slogan. Memorials to accident victims occur almost as regularly as the kilometer markers themselves. Amidst the heavy trucks and oversized buses racing down the highway, our once so sturdy SUV now feels more like a Matchbox car whirling in the high winds.
After hours of cruising alongside the Pacific, California's Highway 1 begins to feel somewhat overrated, and it is hard to understand how this rough stretch of the Panamericana remains painfully absent from any scenic drive rankings.
At times the equivalent of a straight German highway without speed limit (though of course mindful of the Peruvian policia, always on the lookout for a bribe!), after a sudden turn, the Panamericana may also surprisingly roll up small and curvy mountain roads where even a snail seems to move faster than the overloaded truck ahead.
With the sun sinking into the horizon, it becomes clear that Arequipa is out of reach for the day. Just after dark, we turn away from the coastal highway, to seek shelter for the night, leaving both the Panamericana and the Pacific behind us... for at least a couple of weeks.
“While I drive the Pan Am highway thru
With that cactus friend of mine
It’s gettin’ hard to see the white line rollin’ by”
