Peru - Huaraz to Huanuco

more amazing pictures of this part are here

Crossing the Cordillera Blanca

Hello everybody. Be prepared for some of the most outstanding cycling pictures you might ever have seen because THIS WAS AMAZING, really! Cycling out of Huaraz into the Parque National Huascaran, over some mountain passes up to 4825m (14,475ft) high (!!!), right next to the glaciers and ice-fields, and with the whole of the Cordillera Blanca in view... just crazy.

See all the pictures - there is not much more to say about it, except that the thin air was quite a struggle at times, and we were happy to get up, over and back down the central chain in one day, as the nights there are far below freezing, and another night camping at 4000m was high enough for us.

We were still traveling with our 3 friends from Trujillo, and all of us struggled with the altitude: headaches, dizziness, sleeping problems, and obviously pedaling a heavy bike up the hill is hard enough at sea level so at these heights we had to stop very, very frequently to catch our breath. We got some coca leaves to chew to help with the effort of breathing and took it slow, all the better to take in the incredible scenery.

Back-country Peru

We have just passed 4 days of back-country Peruvian horrible dirt roads. Following rivers, passing some gorges, climbing over some “minor” Andean chains of “only” 4000m (12,00ft), while getting our backs and shoulders tensed by long bumpy climbs and our wrists smashed on 50km/30miles of rocky road descents, we have reached the district capital of Huanuco. Unfortunately we had to concentrate so hard on the rocky road and the scary dogs chasing us – or yell at the taxi and truck driving maniacs as they raced past, leaving us covered with dust and exhaust – that during the descent we couldn't fully enjoy the scenery. But luckily most of this stretch we were again cycling in a small group with our Austrian friend Max, Raul from Spain and Alex from Britain – on a dirt road like this one cycling in a group keeps the moods up and the frustrations and struggles are shared ones, so it makes it a bit easier...


On the way we stopped for one night at the small village of La Union, where Peru's Independence Day Festivities were in full swing. We saw a little horse race in the streets of town, and joined later the crowds in the bull fighting ring to witness a funny and partly idiotic bull fight with mostly drunk matadores. Fortunately the bull killing would happen only on the last day of the 4 day festival, so we got around that part of it!

Huanuco is like any other Peruvian city: overcrowded, too much traffic, loud and dirty. We haven't been very impressed with the cities here, and are enjoying so much more the countryside – coming into town is supposed to be a sort of treat: to relax a bit, get washed, sleep in a nice bed, do some bike maintenance and check internet (but the connection is sooooo slow!). But we decided it is better to get in and out of towns as quickly as possible to not be consumed by the city stress – and to avoid spending too much money on ice cream...

Northern Peru

for more pictures of deserts, dirt roads and big mountains click here

Deserts and Canyons

We crossed the Peruvian border around 4am with no hassles, and a very friendly Peruvian border official gave us an extraordinary 6 month visa. We hopped back on the bus and slipped easily back into sleep and awoke around sunrise to see the striking Peruvian Sechura desert of the northern coast. An incredible change from the green Ecuadorian landscapes, this dry, barren desert and warm sun lifted our spirits. We decided we would stay in a hostel in a coastal town for a few days for Kat to get better (the “laying in the sun on a beach in a hammock” remedy). After cycling the 20km to the guidebook recommended hostel and finding it full of trash, stinky and deserted, not to mention incredibly windy, without even a tempting beach, we took only one look at the Pacific Ocean and raced back to the bus terminal, jumped on the next bus to the city of Trujillo where we had plans to stay with a “Casa de Ciclista” host. These “Houses of Cyclists” are biker friends opening their house for long-distance bikers as a relax, repair and meeting point... we were cyclists number 1256 and 1257 in his house!

By nightfall we were in Trujillo where we were picked up at the bus terminal by a Dutch cyclist who would become one of our companions for the next few days. We rode the few blocks to Lucho's house and met Max, an Austrian cyclist coming from LA, Alex from England who was cycling from Quito, Raul from Spain on a 3 month Peruvian cycling trip, Graham, another Brit we had met outside of Cartagena a few months back, and Mike, the Dutch cyclist who has been traveling on 2 tandems since LA with his wife Cisca and two sons, and Leo and Annette from Holland traveling since Quito as well. What a group we were! We had dinner together, made some bike repairs, and prepared for a huge convoy departure two days from then as all of us but Graham would be going the same route to the mountain city of Huaraz. And luckily Kat was feeling healthy enough for us to join the convoy and not have to spend another day or two in not so appealing Trujillo.

We tried to get an early-ish 8am start, but with 13 cyclists on 11 bikes, the amount of pictures taken and people running back inside for last minute bathroom trips, another roll or two to eat, final repairs and pumping of tires, etc, we ended up leaving after 10. Going through the city altogether, all of us packed with all our luggage on the bikes, with the two tandems in between us and the bells ringing, we caused quite an attraction and lots of people stopped to watch, clap, honk and yell!

Max and the 2 of us made a small detour to the Mochi ruins “Temple of the Sun and the Moon” along the way. Impressively restored, the pyramids still show their original paintings and carvings, with the colors intact, from 1500 years ago, and the guided tour gave some more insights into the culture and habits of the Mochi people inhabiting the northern Peruvian deserts from 200-800 BC. After a quick lunch we three raced the ~50 km (~30 miles) through the desert to catch up with the others in the early evening. We had become 11 cyclists on 9 bikes now, as some riders were only going for a few kilometers with us to bring us out of town. In the little town of Chao we checked into a cheap hotel, had a quick street food dinner and went to bed early, exhausted from the effort of racing to catch up with the group.

During the next days the 11 of us were traveling through some beautiful canyons and desert scenery in wonderful sunshine. It was a huge change traveling with so many other people, but it was good: the big group helped keep us all in good moods as the road conditions went from paved to gravel to horrible dirt and rocks. We traveled for 3 days over bad roads but through awesome landscapes to get to Caraz, passed the “Canon del Pato” (“Canyon of the Duck”) with its 35 tunnels in 12km, and climbed slowly from sea level to 2300m. In Caraz the group divided, as half stayed behind for a rest day while we left with Max and Alex to ride the last day to get to Huaraz.

Huaraz is Peru's mountain climber and hiker mecca – full of hiking shops, tour operators, outdoor clothing stores, indigenous women on the street selling knitted wool gloves, socks and scarves, great curry, pizza, vegetarian, italian restaurants and ice cream shops, and more foreigners than we have seen in months. The town lies right on the edge of the Cordillera Blanca with its many 6000m/18,000ft peaks of the Huascaran National Park, and the impressive snowy mountains and glaciers are always visible from here.

Hiking in the Andes

We had planned and looked forward to a several day hike in these mountains since months, and couldn't really believe we were finally here. So we spent the afternoon finding boots and backpacks to rent, shopping for some extra warm clothes, getting a good hiking map of the area, and buying food supplies for 4 days in the mountains for all 4 of us, as Max and Alex had decided to join us for the hike. By late evening everything was ready, the hotel had agreed to store our bikes and spare luggage for the days in the mountains, and we were ready to leave at 6am the next morning.

The early ride in buses and taxis over dirt roads took us to the start of the Santa Cruz trail by 10am. We headed up through a narrow canyon, along an ice-cold creek, into the high mountains. After a few hours of hiking through meadows and past mountain lakes, the glaciers and peaks were towering right above and around us. We spotted the white sharp triangle peak of Alpamayo, many times voted by mountaineers as “the most beautiful mountain in the world”, and were lucky with blue skies and sunshine – and exceptional views of all the 5000-6000m (15,000-18,000 ft) peaks all around. The nights were cold up here and the air got thin, especially the night we camped at 4550m (13,500ft) altitude we could all feel it and had some trouble sleeping, and climbing over the Punta Union Pass at 4750m (14,300ft) was a step-by-step effort for the last few hundred meters. But see the pictures, it was amazing up here! We all had never seen such impressive mountains and been so close to glaciers before.

After 4 days hiking our feet and backs were sore from carrying the backpacks, our leg muscles aching as we were all more used to cycling than walking after the months on the bikes. So we were happy to get back to Huaraz, to relax in the hotel with warm showers, get all the stinky clothes washed, eat good food and get back in touch with friends and family via internet and writing these last lines for our blog.

Tomorrow we will get back on the bikes, probably still in a little group of 4-5 cyclists, and continue south through high mountains – we have some 4700m (14,000ft) high passes in front of us in the next days – after having struggled over these heights on foot we will see if it is any easier for us pedaling!

The last days in Ecuador

southern Ecuador pictures are here

In the last blog we left you in the mountain town of Riobamba, on the foot of the highest peak of Ecuador, Chimborazo, that we had just gone around. We had planned to take a famous train ride from Riobamba for a few hours - actually a cargo train where you can ride sitting on the roof - but unfortunately the train tracks were broken and so we continued by bike as usual.

The small town of Alausi that we reached later that day lies at the start of a great canyon called “Nariz del Diablo” - “The Devil's Nose” (where we would have gone on the train). It was a fantastic ride climbing out of Alausi over a big crest into that canyon, circling through narrow switchbacks down and down and down, and then back up again on the other side with the Devil's Nose, a so-shaped mountain range protruding into the canyon, all the time in view. By nightfall we spotted a little grassy meadow, flat in all this steep terrain just above the road, and there we camped with great views over the gorge and the mountains on the other side.

The next day we reached Cuenca – with a little help of a bus after a few hours of cycling in more and more rain. The weather in Ecuador has been very bad, nearly every day for the 3 weeks we have spent here it has been cloudy and rainy and overcast! We've had more rain here than we have had in the last 8 months all together... But... Cuenca: a really nice colonial town with beautiful plazas and churches, some interesting - if slightly odd - museums (especially the shrunken heads, real human heads shrunk to fist-size in some shamanic warrior ceremony... freaky!), and most of all our friends Diego and Beta who we met through Couchsurfing and who took us into their house: we played board-games together, went to hot springs, ate pizza, watched movies, and had lots of fun for the few days we were there. They even introduced us to the local bike club, cycled us out of town for a few hours with a friend, and surprised us with chocolates and chillies as a farewell present!! What a great combination - Kat was sooo happy!

The ride south was up and down, mostly above 3000m (9,000 ft) elevation. Fortunately, Ecuador has provided us with some major training in climbing and now every hill that we have done in the past 8 months seems easy.

However, we were still in Ecuador, so true to form it began to rain and get cold. Kat got sick with a cough and cold and was feeling bad and the riding was miserable in the cold rain so we decided to hitchhike some parts to Loja, close to the border. Once there the sky was even darker than before and the rain got more intense, so we decided to board a night bus all the way to Peru – desert, coast, sun, dryness calling for us from there. Thus our Ecuador adventure ended rather abruptly – we thought we would have a few more days in the country, but oh well, we were on the bus and out of the rain; glad to be heading towards warmer climates.

Ecuadorean Andes

for more pictures of volcanos, markets and highlands of the Andes click here ....

Leaving Quito
After a few days of rest in Quito – we really rested most of the time there, sleeping, cooking, eating and interneting lots, only making the occasional small trip into the city center or to a museum – we headed south on the Panamericana once more. But getting out of town in the first place was quite a challenge: Quito expands very long in a north-south direction, so after 2 ½ hours on a road in the hills above town we still had the city below and to the right of us and the traffic didn't ease down a bit for a long time. Climbing to over 3000m/9,000ft with heavy exhaust was difficult, a flat tire didn't help much either.

Finally we reached the top of the hills above Quito at 3100m and rolled down to Machachi, a small town with a big market – it seemed a wholesale market – where we got great veggie and fruit supplies for the night and next day. All the hotels in town seemed overpriced and crappy though, so we decided to camp out of town. A few more kilometers of riding took us into nice mountain scenery to “The Spotted Cow Cafe,” a beautiful little place built in an old farm where we were allowed to camp in the backyard to the side of the cute little playground (that had a small zip-line!) and in front of the horses. We had views of some beautiful volcanoes and could use the free Wifi while sipping a tasty coffee... it was one of these rare places on this side of the planet: a European-feeling coffee shop with nice ambiance, good music, great coffee, friendly staff and clean bathrooms!

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The Quilotoa Loop
The next morning took us, after a loooong climb and a short hang-on to another slow truck, past one of the highest peaks of Ecuador: Volcano Cotopaxi, snow capped and a favorite among climbing tourists. Unfortunately we didn't see any of it, as clouds, fog, rain and wind kept the views obscured and our heads down – literally. Kat resembled a frozen mummy after the roll back down from the mountain pass, so we warmed up at lunch in a small restaurant in a small town to consider our further moves.

We decided to brave the probable bad weather and make the 2-3 day circuit into the mountains to Lago Quilotoa crater lake, a deviation from the Panamericana and it's traffic, but agreed to take a bus at least over the part that wasn't on paved road. And it was a good choice: the dirt road didn't look as bad as some we had been on, but in most parts it was very steep and the weather not very great. We crossed over a ridge, deep down into a spectacular canyon and back up the other side to a small town, then changed buses to get to the town of Chugchilan with hopes of making it the last 15km (~9 miles) to the crater lake village. However, the 20km (12 miles) to Chugchilan took the bus nearly 2 hours and there was no continuing bus to Quilotoa until the morning.

So we stayed and enjoyed another quaint mountain town with several European-style hostels. Chatting with other travelers, taking the best hot shower in about a 100km radius, dinner in the wood-stove heated dining room and a comfy bed made it a nice place to stay. We arranged with the other tourists to share a pick-up ride to the crater in the morning after a great breakfast.

The crater lake was beautiful – surrounded by mountains and other volcanoes, nestled deep in the huge crater without any in- or outflow. We had good luck in cloudy-rainy Ecuador and had a few hours of no rain to hike down the crater to the lake. Hiking back up the 300m (900ft) was a little slower, but we managed well and were able to chat with other tourists visiting the park, some of whom included several other bike travelers, and also a couple from near to Kat's hometown with some common friends! Small world!

The ride back towards the Panamericana took us through unbelievable beautiful nature to our then peak height of 4010m (12,030ft) which we achieved with less effort than Kat expected. From there we rolled down hill through another market town (this one dirtier and colder than the others!) and finally into the city of Latacunga.

The Ugly Cities
Latacunga was the most disgusting place we had been in months. It topped the previous ugly cities we had passed since leaving Quito. It had an enormous, filthy market that was surprisingly open until 8pm, giving the “cleaners,” if there were any, only a few hours to sweep up before opening again in the early morning. The disgusting choice of overpriced hotels was poor, we found the least disgusting (what's another word for disgusting?) and the room we got was filled with a horrible stink, the bed felt like sleeping on bricks, the shared bathroom was filthy and we had to beg for toilet paper, and we heard noises that made us think this could have been a pay-by-the-hour hotel. We ran out of there as early as we could in the morning.

We hoped to get far from the ugly cities but unfortunately came upon another for lunch. It took us about an hour to get from the highway turn off into the center of Ambato because of the switchbacks and long road down the valley into the city below. Although not as physically ugly as Latacunga, Ambato was twice as creepy; we had bad feelings all through our miserable stay of 3 hours to find a decent place to eat, write a few emails, get supplies at a grocery store, and fix another flat tire. And then the climb back out of town took another lifetime! Uuugggghhh!

The Chimborazo Loop
Another deviation from the Panamericana was waiting for us after these ugly city experiences: the loop around Volcano Chimborazo, the highest peak of Ecuador (6310m – 18,930ft) and in the same time the point furthest from the center of the earth, due to the equatorial bulge, which is why it was believed to be the highest mountain of our planet for a long time. We only made it a few kilometers out and above of town, still within sight of Ambato, when we decided to hitchhike a little to get farther away faster. Ending up in the small indigenous community of Pilahuin, we found out that the police of the last village had been wrong and there was no hotel here, so we asked to camp behind the church.

It rained whole night, and we had to pack a soaking-wet tent and moist sleeping bags to continue our climb towards Chimborazo. But luckily the morning sky cleared up a bit soon and gave way to the amazing views onto Andean farmlands, deep valleys, distant snow-covered Volcano Cotopaxi, and finally the high-elevation wind-swept grasslands around Chimborazo, and the peak itself with its massive glaciers, icy waterfalls and rocky cliffs. The winds up here were fiercely strong, blowing us across the pavement whenever a bus or truck passed due to its “wind shadow”, and the few drops of rain we got felt like tiny icy needles piercing our faces. But the views made up for the struggle, and we reached the highest point of the loop near the climbers refuge at 4385m (13,150ft) a little out of breath but well.

The way back down into the central Andean valley was no less spectacular than the climb up. We saw lots of wild Vicuňas (look like tiny llamas) grazing on the national park grasslands, had better-than-ever views back onto Volcano Chimborazo, rolled through beautiful fertile highland valleys, some narrow canyons, small mountain villages and agricultural indigenous communities. By evening we reached Riobamba, a town in the central valley which is a major base for mountaineers of the Ecuadorian Andes and a nice place to chill out for a day after all these cold days in the mountains.

Now ahead of us is our final 10 days in Ecuador, taking us through the hip student town of Cuenca, where we will stay for a final rest, and then head towards the Peruvian border... More soon from further south!

The first 2 weeks of Ecuador

to see more pictures click here

The Northern Highlands

From Columbia into Ecuador we had the nicest, most relaxed border crossing ever, with no costs at all, friendly officials, and we met lots of other travelers while our passports got stamped. Just a few kilometers uphill and into the country, a little van saying "Lavanderia Gabrielito" stopped on the side of the road a few meters in front of us. Doors were opened, and hands held out cups of drinking yogurt, some cookies, and dulce de leche to dip them in. So sweet - the gifts and the Rosero family with 4 of their 5 kids in the car! They invited us to pass by their laundry in San Gabriel, the little town 25km further where we had planned to stay for the night, to get our filthy stuff washed and have dinner with them. And so we did, and had a fabulous meal and lots of curiosity and loving, family attention on us for the night...

From San Gabriel we passed some scenery that reminded Kat very much of back home: the cactus, the dry valleys and barren slopes of Rocky Mountains, the brownness and striking beauty. By late afternoon we were going up a long hill to reach some hot springs far up a narrow mountain valley, and a police pick-up stopped and urged us to accept a lift to avoid the final 20km climb. We did and were happily soaking a little later in pools of thermal water coming down from the volcano nearby for hours and hours, lazing a bit in the mountain sun in between and falling asleep early in the tent at peace and relaxed. The coming morning we soaked some more till our skin started disintegrating and we left when the Sun cult members came with their weird ritual burns to share the pools with us got to be too much. We decided to pack and leave before falling apart in the pools and getting abducted and burned by fanatic religious people.... who knows what else would happen to us, maybe we would get thrown out of their house...

The ride out of the hotsprings was superb, through hills and past small mountain villages, into and out of river gorges - we were happy to be off the Panamericana and it's heavy traffic for a little while. But soon the road turned into a cobblestone nightmare and after a few kilometers of it we were happy to get a lift by a priest (oh, god, another uncomfortable religious conversation!) and his sister to the small village of Imantag, were the strange yet friendly and non-fanatical priest offered us juice and some sugarcane to chew on for the road. On the plaza of the village many indigenous people from the surrounding area were celebrating the solstice festivities, honoring Patchamama and especially Padre Sol with circular dances in llama-skin pants, accompanied by banging drums and whistling pipes, and the ever present in any Latin American celebration old men drinking home-brew alcohol from old coke bottles. Travelling further on, another larger town was celebrating the same holiday, but this time there were Ecuadorean riot police present with their big shields and helmets. We raced through that town rather quickly.

A few hours later we reached Otavalo, a mountain town at 2550m (7,500ft) that hosts one of the biggest artesania markets of South America every Saturday morning, with thousands of indigenous merchants and buyers coming into town from the hillside villages. As it was only Thursday when we got there, we used Friday to hitchhike to the Laguna de Mojanda, at 3700m (11,000ft) altitude on the foot of Volcan Fuya Fuya - which we started to climb, but clouds drifting among the peaks fogging up the view made us retreat after climbing two-thirds of the way up. Still, the views and the rough terrain up here were fantastic, and we enjoyed sitting on the greens and taking in the tranquility and calmness of the Andes, far from civilization.

Otavalo's artesania, animal and food markets were in full swing by the time we got out of bed and into town the next morning, and they were a total delight. Very large but not overcrowded, very friendly, colorful, exceptionally clean, most people in indigenous clothing, interesting and beautiful things on offer (it's a pity sometimes that we can't take anything on our bikes) - it was a really great place to stroll around for hours and watch the activity...

So it was midday when we left town on the bikes, climbing high up into the mountains, being lucky again to hang on to a truck for the last few kilometers up, then rolling back down into the valley on the other side of the pass. In Cayambe a bullfight festival was going on, but Kat wasn't too keen to see bloody dying animals so we continued on to the Equator, the "Mitad del Mundo", Middle of the Earth, where an interesting landmark, exhibition and giant sundial had been built by an NGO. A local guide gave us a tour of the premises, clearly explained the rotation of earth around sun and the effects it has, and demystified some of the non-truths commonly believed, encouraged and spread by some other shady equator museums in the country such as the physical effects experienced while on the equator. Balancing an egg on it's point or a person on one foot is NOT easier here than anywhere else on earth, and the Coriolis effect (water swirling clockwise or counterclockwise down a drain) CAN'T be demonstrated in a sink, you would need an ocean-sized basin to see this tiny force of earth's rotation.

The super-friendly staff allowed us to camp on the grounds of the memorial, and so we set up tent just some 20 meters from the equator, having the chance to see the sunrise behind snowy Volcan Cayambe (5790m - 17,400ft), the only snowy peak in the world right on the Equator.

Quito

Riding into Quito from the equator took only a few hours, but the final kilometers we hitchhiked to avoid the dense traffic on the long, steep climb into town. When we reached the edge of town on the pick-up that had picked us up (that's what pick-ups are for, right?!), we saw that the main road into town was fenced off for traffic and lots of bikers were in the lanes - it was car-free Sunday today! So we signaled the driver to stop and enjoyed cycling among hundreds of other pedal-fanatics all the way into the city center. What a different world it would be if there would be no cars but just man-powered vehicles - the lack of noise, exhaust, traffic danger and crazy bus drivers would be a blessing...

Barely having arrived on the Plaza Grande of Old Town Quito a metropolitan police man started chatting with us and offered us the police garage to shelter our bikes for the day so we could enjoy walking around town without the worry of where to lock them, etc. Quito has a very functional, well restored colonial center, so we strolled around for a few hours before picking the bikes out of police custody and cycling to our Couchsurfing-Hosts's house a few kilometers from Old Town.

Fabian, our host, was very busy that night, coming back from a weekend motorbike trip and having lots of work to do, so after a half hour chat he left us the keys to his nice apartment and we didn't see him again for the next 2 days. We enjoyed the internet in the house, doing lots of research and planning for the months to come, and visiting occasionally a museum or strolling around Old Town for a few hours. Three days passed by very quickly, and we are on the brink of leaving the city tomorrow morning, continuing south on the Panamericana.

"La Capilla del Hombre" - "Chapel of Man"

A few words about one of the most impressive museums we have visited on our trip so far: indigenous artist/painter/sculptor/activist/poet Oswaldo Guayasamin created a memorial-museum for the suffering of poor and indigenous people around the world. There are so many churches and temples built for gods but this one is an amazing, beautiful, powerful, solemn temple built for honoring humankind.
Oswaldo Guayasamin painted and created art his whole life in remembrance of and respect for the suffering and challenges people face in the whole world due to capitalism, profit-thinking and colonialism.