more pictures are as always hereWe left Huanuco – where we left you off in the last post 2 weeks ago – just the 2 of us as our 3 travel companions stayed behind for an extra rest and repair day. We were finally on paved roads after what seemed like an eternity on bad dirt roads. We had done a 2 hour deep clean and scrubbing on the bikes – something that had been pending for quite a long time. It felt so good to be flying out of town through the long valley on newly oiled and shiny bikes on smooth pavement. We had some big climbs, up to 4200m (12,600ft) that we reached sometimes with a little help from some slow moving trucks, and passed by Cerro de Pasco, the worlds highest city at almost 4500m (14,500ft), and once one of Peru's biggest silver mines. But it was incredibly cold, especially on the Tibetan-looking high plains that we had to cross at these altitudes. We were wearing nearly all of our clothes and were still cold, below freezing at night and just a few degrees above zero when we started the days in the early mornings, only getting to about 10°C/50°F during the day.
We were working hard to get out of this region of coldness and steep ascents and descents, and were focused on getting to our momentary goal of Cuzco. We put in more hours in the saddles, but still went less distances in these days due to the steep climbs and bad roads. Just when we passed over the highest peaks of this stretch and hit the long slightly descending valley leading to the city of Huancayo – right where we were excited about being able to make some record distance days due to 160km of very slight downhill – Kat's back rim broke and we were forced to hitchhike the nearly 200km into town. It was fortunate, however, that we arrived in town and found a nice hotel room just in time for Kat to get sick with amoebas and be stuck in bed-bathroom for 2 days. We did manage to enjoy the break (after Kat got better) and hit the big supermarket where we wandered up and down the aisles looking at all the great things we could eat. We made some big fresh salads and had cheese and olive appetizers, went for some Chinese food, some vegetarian food, ate Doritos, great breads and pastries from the bakery....We found a good replacement rim surprisingly easily and spent nearly half a day replacing the broken one and doing some other minor repairs. That day our friend Max caught up with us and we had a nice dinner together and set off the 3 of us the next day.
We were again fortunate to be on a paved road for the first 50kms (30 miles) but that was the last of the pavement for the next few days. The dirt road started off OK, but deteriorated after about a day just when the worst part of Peru began it's attack: “zancudos,” or little annoying bloodsucking biting sand flies, swarmed around us nearly all day, especially on the hard, steep climbs where we couldn't ride fast enough to get away from them. We (especially Kat) were being driven crazy by these pests; we used up a bottle of repellant and still were bothered. But the nice weather, great scenery and nice camp spots made up for this annoyance – we crossed again some spectacular canyons and desert scenery, with short stretches through high “pampa” on the tops of the loooong climbs. We discovered that cycling in Peru is probably the most challenging cycling we have done, making anything we had ridden before seem easy. But at least now we are acclimated to the high altitude and biking at 4000m/12,000ft doesn't leave us so breathless! Now at 3000m/9,000ft we feel like we are at sea level!
The last 50kms to the city of Ayacucho were paved, thankfully, and we arrived in town exhausted and dirty. A warm shower and Chinese dinner fixed things quickly and we enjoyed a nice day off in probably the most pleasant Peruvian town we had been to yet – colonial plazas, pedestrian areas lined by old mansions, quiet little alleys and good internet cafes with Skype to call home.
The next 10 days or so to Cuzco were going to be challenging: 5 peaks of at or over 4000m (12,000ft) with descents to at or under 2000m (6,000ft) in between each of them were on the route, most days we would have to climb about 1500m (4,500ft) on reportedly bad roads. We were trying to be positive and mentally prepared for the tough climbs. Both of us had been experiencing on-and-off-again intestinal disturbances and as we set off the next day Kat was especially feeling weak and tired. We made it about 12 km on the dirt road when we decided enough was enough of struggling on bad roads and not feeling 100%, so we hitched a ride with a trucker who ended up taking us 10 hours and 270kms (~150 miles) to the city of Andahuaylas – saved us 3 days and was just two day's ride away from where the paved road began again!! Max stayed behind, he would be going on a side trip to some Incan ruins so we said goodbye, and perhaps we'll meet up again in Cuzco.
From Andahuaylas, where the truck left us off, we still had one of those 1500m, 50km (4,500ft, 30 mile) climbs on dirt road to conquer – which we did, climbing very slowly over nearly a whole day up to 4100m again. The next morning finally a long downhill with probably 50 switchbacks took us steeper than ever down to the town of Abancay, and the start of the paved road all the way to Cuzco. There were another 2 of those killer-climbs still in between us and the Inca “Center of the World”, but now on paved roads everything seemed a lot easier, and it was possible again to get some help from friendly, slow moving trucks to tow us part way.
We had some nice campsites in abandoned houses, a small, dirty room in a municipal building of a small town, a small bed and breakfast type place, and by the haystacks in a farmers yard , before (hurray!!) the last small (3700m/11,100ft) climb. Then a thankfully 45 km (~30miles) of perfectly flat roads in the “sacred valley of the Incas” took us to Calca, where Swen's brother's friend lives and has offered us his house for as long a rest as we needed. After 9 months and 4 days on the road, nearly 10,000km (~6,100miles) biked we will take him up on that offer and rest away!
Doing that now, we will leave you till later... resting happily!!
Aaaah, and as always, don't forget to look at the photos – the climbs were so tough, but the photos (and memories) merit the efforts!
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