Chacas is a mountain town that carves its own doors. Wooden balconies, panelled doorways, carved window frames and religious statues are everywhere, and the work is not tourist craft but a living tradition taught in a school of woodwork started here by an Italian priest, Ugo de Censi, who arrived in the Andes in the 1970s and decided that young people needed a trade as much as a prayer. The result is an unusually handsome little town on a high Andean slope, with a church well worth stepping into. Yauya is the nearest larger place, about twenty kilometres off, and Carhuaz about thirty-three.
The roads in this region are made of bends. The route from Chacas climbs on its way toward the Punta Olimpica pass, winding along the side of deep valleys where small terraces of potatoes, maize and beans climb the hillsides like steps. The surface varies, with good tarmac in places and broken or gravelly patches elsewhere, and rockfalls and landslides are common in the rainy season, from about December to March. The best time to ride is the dry season, between May and September, when the skies are blue and the peaks of the Cordillera Blanca stand in sharp white lines on the horizon.
At this altitude, about three and a half thousand metres, the air is thin and cool, and a day in the sun can become a cold evening in minutes. If you have flown in from the coast, take it slowly, drink water and do not rush. Your engine will feel the lack of oxygen and lose a little of its punch, a polite reminder that you are in the real Andes. In the evening the town fills with the smoke of wood fires, the sound of church bells and a clutch of children playing football in the square.
Fuel is limited, so fill in Carhuaz or Huaraz before you climb. In Chacas you will find small restaurants and family-run guesthouses, serving hearty soups, trout, and guinea pig if you are curious. Wake early, because morning is when the mountains are clearest and the roads are quietest.