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!