From Cusco to Las Bambas. The next four days following the Cerro Verde visit were occupied with preparing for the Las Bambas visit on Friday 8 June and travelling to and from the mine site. Early on the first day the group flew east from Arequipa to Cusco where they were required to spend a day acclimatising at >3000 m asl, including a further set of medical examinations late in the day. Next day involved a road trip that took over 8 hours, including compulsory breaks, to cover a straight-line distance of ~70 km between Cusco and Challhuahuacho (the nearest town to Las Bambas), but due to the winding nature of the road, was a journey of ~230 km. The images above show the compacted gravel road descending ~1200 m vertically into the valley of the Apurimac River one of the major valleys cutting the Andes south of Cusco. The road wound down a series of switch-backs (right) to cross the river (bottom left) and up again. The journey was taken in two Toyota Fortuner vehicles (top left) fitted with roll cages, baggage nets and other safety measures. The visit on Friday was followed by the return to Cusco on Saturday 9 June. Progress during almost half the journey in both directions was limited by having meshing into the convoys of trucks transporting concentrate, supplies and personnel from the mine to to the rail head at Imata, 495 road km to the south.       Images by Mike Porter.