Our journey continues along the wavy road until we arrive to Siberia, here we enter for a while into the humid cloud forest, which is very often shrouded in fog. As the road starts to descent, we leave the humid mountain jungle behind and enter a desert like country with different species of cactus and other xerophilous plants. Some of the cactus can reach height of several meters. Here, time and weather permitting, we turn off from the main road and make a small detour through the interesting countryside in the area of Pulquina. The journey continues through this strange cactus country over little used provincial roads. The countryside changes again and again, it gives impression of African savannas at one instance and of Australian bush at the next, and then of something completely different. Eventually we return to the main road again and descent down to the fertile valleys of Mataral, Pampa Grande and Mairana. Here we climb over the last of the ridges and descent into town of Samaipata at 1660 m. Samaipata – meaning in Quechua “rest in the heights” is a lovely relaxed town with quiet streets and colonial feel and agreeable climate.
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