The Inca built roads the way other empires built walls, as a statement of power, and the high stretches in the northern Andes of Peru show it best. This segment of the Qhapaq Nan, the great network that the Incas extended over some thirty thousand kilometres, runs through steep country between the Santa river canyon and the high valleys of Conchucos, where the road goes where it must, up flights of stone steps, along retaining walls and across ravines on bridges of woven grass rope.
The Incas had no wheeled vehicles and no horses. The roads were for feet and llamas, and for the chasquis, the relay runners who carried messages and goods from one waystation, or tambo, to the next, so that a message could cover hundreds of kilometres in days. Along the road were storehouses, rest houses and administrative centres, all feeding the machinery of the state. In 2014, UNESCO listed the network in six countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, as the Qhapaq Nan Andean Road System.
For the rider, the paved roads in this part of Peru are remarkable in themselves. From the coast, road climbs from the desert to the cordillera in a series of hairpins and tunnels, reaching puna grassland above four thousand metres, with cold air, thin oxygen and long views of snow peaks. Fuel is available in larger towns, but distances between them can be great, and a lot of the secondary roads are gravel and rock. Landslides, falling stones and animals on the road are regular hazards. Do not ride at night.
If you have not travelled at altitude before, give yourself days to adjust, drink water, and keep a slow pace. Coca tea, which you will be offered everywhere, helps with the symptoms.
The dry season, from May to September, is the time to go, with sunny days and freezing nights. Between December and March the rain brings mud and slides. The best way to appreciate the road is to leave the bike and walk a section, feeling the worn stone under your boots.