Landslide (long term) | Warning

September 7th, 2018 by instagram.com/panelaonwheels

We did not go through this road, but asked police in cotahuasi pueblo if this still exists and they said it was cleared late 2017. If you are headed towards Pausa /cora cora / puquio we suggest going through chacana and then to ushuyo. This drive is spectacular! The road through Pampacaya is supposed to be terrible. Go during dry season, if even slightly wet 4x4 highly recommended. Roads are kinda nuts, but scenery sooo amazing.

April 22nd, 2018 by roadtotuk.de

All cleared now. There is a road downhill which is blocked by landslide, maybe this was the original road. But the road uphill is cleared and also passed by the public bus.

August 22nd, 2017 by 1.000.000 minutes going east

Landslide still exists, original road has been washed away. They built a small bypass above but that is only suitable for small vehicles like motorbikes and tuk-tuks. There is hardly space to turn the car.
Currently no roadworks are going on indicating an improvement soon. Before you go check with the locals but it doesn't look like it will be accessible for cars soon.
Picture: Red circles on left and right indicating both ends of the road, green line marking the narrow bypass.

May 8th, 2017 by www.practicingforretirement.com

Its hard to get a proper grasp of how remote you actually are when you are only 10km north of a gas station and have a 1/4 tank of fuel left, after driving over desolate, high altitude puna... Then you turn the corner to face a totally impassable landslide. The locals won't even pass on foot or climb over ("muy peligroso!" they tell us) - preferring to take a steep climb up and over the mountain instead. Next gas station? Over 200km away. Drat.

At this point we are not too fussed, because lots of places have signs saying they sell gasoline. We go to the closest one and he tells us with very strong language that no, he had no fuel; and no, noone else does either. Only the fuel station in cotahausi.

We had two options. Drive back north whilst knowing we won't make it with the fuel we have (but hoping there might be some at one of the other remote tiendas) or second option was to join the locals hiking over the mountain to get to the gas station.

We took the second option.

We borrowed 2x 20l containers from a farmer and took our 10l as well. We left at 11am,and came crawling back in - broken - at 5pm with gasoline on our backs.

So from our story above I stress to you - this road is closed! We asked about the other road (Puyca road) and were told it's also not passable. The ONLY way between cotahausi and the north puna at this time is via the "4x4 only loop track" warning marker ranamundo has put here in ioverlander (via charcana).

We asked when this landslide would be fixed - they said three months. However they also said it will be fixed via a tunnel through the mountain! There is absolutely no way this will happen so ask ask ask before you come this way! We have a long return trip to the Nazca highway to get out of here (with our very heavy fuel!)