Peru Trip Day 6 Puquio to Nasca

Well, we knew what to expect, we’d read the route card.  Two climbs of 2,200 feet and 3,300 feet, and then a massive descent of 11,300 feet into the town of Nasca.  All along the same smooth, quiet road we’ve been riding.  The day started sunny and pleasant, temps in the low 60’s.  As we climbed riders adjusted their clothing to the effort of the climb.

As we approached the summit after 50+ km of climbing, it began to rain.  The storm had been growing and threatening during the last third of the climb.  As the rain intensified, it began to hail.  The hail was small, but the stones that hit the ear hurt.  Upon reaching the summit, we were escorted into our van to wait out the worst of the rain and hail.  When the rain let up we started our descent in the rain.  And the rain picked up.  It was cold, there was water on the road and the grade was reasonably steep.  I focused on staying upright, was poised to grip the brakes and tried to see the road ahead through rain soaked glasses.  I’ve ridden one downhill that was as cold and treacherous.  So I was experienced in the effort.    But this was much longer.  The rain relented and slowed.  While not exactly comfortable, it was a relief except when the wind was blowing directly into your face.  Finally after battling the elements for 48 km’s we reached the restaurant for lunch.  Hot soup and hot coffee made us start to feel normal again.  As other riders we shared the van at the summit arrived we commiserated and congratulated each other on the adventure.

Then we set off on the remainder of the downhill.  Fifty kilometers of dry, smooth downhill riding.  Exhilarating and a little scary in the hairpin turns and where the guard rail had been knocked down.  I covered the last 31 miles in an hour and a quarter.  The temperature rose from 45 to 70 and the wind helped dry out my cycling gear. 

Entering Nasca we are back in the big city.  We rode thru neighborhoods to reach our urban hotel.  Luxury!  We have hot water, towels, cleanliness and even a swimming pool.  It is a great comfort to be comfortable, and yes, report me to the tautology police.

 

Agriculture

Rugged downhill

Sheep herder
 

Cows on parade

Bob

Don Agucho Hotel

 

Puquio from above


 

Susan






 

Peru Tour Day 5 Pampamarca to Puquio

After last night, I’m sure I’m traveling on an adventure tour.  We stayed in Pampamarca at the home of a local woman.  She provided kitchen space and our guides prepared spaghetti for dinner last night and French toast for breakfast.  The rooms we shared were primate, but the electricity worked.  There were banos in one corner of the lot behind the building and cold running water in the other corner.  

But we survived.  Today’s route was all about high prairie.  We started at 13,500’ and climbed to 14,500’.  For the next 60 km we rolled along between those altitudes as we scraped the sky. We saw a lot of llamas. I think the altitude is too high to grow any crops.  We did see some vicuna as well.  I find it amazing that people are able to live at this altitude, and make a life.  The pictures will tell more of the story.  It was a pleasant change from big climbs.

The final 30 km of today’s ride brought us down to 10,500’ to the pleasant town of Puquio.  And the St. Joseph Hotel has hot showers for which we are grateful, indeed.  It was a great run in to town except Bob blew a tire on a hairpin turn on the descent.  He’s okay except for some nasty road rash.  Part of the group is out shopping for bike parts.  It sounds as if he’ll be ready to roll in the morning.

Riding on the roof of the world.

Peru Tour Day 4 Chalhuanca to Pampamarca

Wow, what a day.  We climbed from the start, gradually at first, following the Chalhuanca River, like yesterday.  Once we had ridden 50 km we had gained 2,700’, climbing grades of 2-3%.  Then the fun began.  When we turned out of the river valley we climbed 2,200’ in the next 15 km.  The switchbacks kept coming until we reached 14,500’ at Quilucanana.  Then the road opened up onto a large meadow.  Light rain off and on during the last 20 km of climbing. 

Riding across the meadow, still climbing gradually, the rain picked up and then mixed with hail. I can see my breath. Finally we reached the peak at 15,000’.   The rain stopped for our downhill ride at 30-40 mph on dry pavement.

Upon reaching our lodging for the night, I am handed a large cup of coffee, and holding it in my hands, realize how cold I am.  We riders share stories and observations of the day.  No one is ready to opt out.  Despite the difficulty breathing at altitude, the rain, the cold and the primitive facilities, this is an adventure and a challenge.  Today we reached the highest altitude on the tour.  We’re all looking forward to the descent into Nasca and the warmer temperatures

High meadow - desolate, but people live here

Peru Tour Day 3 Abancay to Chalhuanca

Plenty of aches to go around this morning.  My arms and hands are particularly sore from the climbing yesterday and from holding the handlebar and brakes on the big downhill.  We had an excellent breakfast at the Ozy Wasy Hotel in Abancay.  Today was sunny and warm.  We left Abancay on a downhill run for the first 28 km.  After that we spent the day mystified by false summits and false downhills.  A false summit occurs when the apparent summit is not the summit, but turning a corner reveals a further climb to pursue.  A false downhill occurs when the landscape says you’re heading downhill and your speed and cycle computer tell you otherwise.  We followed the Chalhuanca River today but opposite the direction of flow.  We are generally travelling west and the river travels east.  This is what gives rise to the false downhills.  We climbed 3,700 feet today, but net of the initial downhill we rose only to 8,500 feet. 

We travelled the river valley all day.  This is an arid region with a little agriculture and very sparsely populated.  Often today I found myself alone on the road, no traffic in either direction.  The traffic we do see is mainly of three types: delivery and supply trucks, long distance busses and local taxis that pick up local people along the roadside.  No phones, so travelers go to the side of the road and flag down a taxi.  Since there are few private cars, the taxis are often full, leaving would-be customers for the next driver. 

Some of the great adventures of this trip involve eating.  Today, the spot scouted out for of lunch in the planning of this tour was closed.  The guides went a little further down the road and found a great restaurant which featured trout.  I had Saulta Trucha which was trout sautéed in garlic, onions and tomatoes.  It was delicious.  You can see from the photo below the setting of the restaurant was idyllic.  The owner farms his own trout, so literally our lunch was caught the same day, prepared and served.  All for 15 soles (about $6).

After lunch and a short ride to the end of the day, we arrived at our resort destination.  Deluxe, even without comparison to some of our more Spartan lodgings. 

Lunch stop along the road, romantic, eh?

Peru Tour Day 2 Limatambo to Abancay

We spent Wednesday night in Spartan quarters in Limatambo.  Service was excellent and the owners went all out for breakfast.  People in Peru work hard using limited resources.  Limatambo seems to be a truck stop town.  Big rigs parked on the street all night. 

As we left Limatambo the geology became more rugged and the agriculture less bucolic, fields seemed more hard-scrabble than lush.  We started the day with a 2,100 foot descent to Cunyac.  This section of the road had been damaged by landslides, so there was some difficult riding.  We hate to brake going downhill.  Then the fun began.  We climbed from 6,600 feet in Cunyac to 13,100 feet at the summit over 60 kilometers.  (The reason I’m using kilometers is because I’ve switched my cycle computer to metric in order to follow the distance markers on the road.  I do feel compelled to translate the vertical distances to feet.  Even in Colorado I haven’t previously climbed to high.  The air is thin and pure.  Once I’m able to find high speed internet, I’ll post lots of pictures.  The views and vistas are most dramatic (awesome, in other words). 

Once we reached the summit, the real fun began we “spent” 7,000 feet of our climb on the descent into Abancay.  Because the run down is so rapid, I took few pictures.  There is one of the cows, goats, sheep and their tenders crossing the road.  After they safely crossed, we resumed our descent.  Surprise!  Around the next switchback they merry band is again crossing the road.  They traveled the steeper route down the mountain.  People in Peru walk everywhere.  

The ride made for a difficult but rewarding day.  Most of the riders had never climbed so high or so long, but this is an experienced and confident bunch, strong riders all.

 

 

Traffic

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Outcrop

 

Loading gear bags, readying to ride


 

Peru - ride day 1 Cusco to Limatambo

Yesterday was spent assembling bikes and preparing for riding (and recovering from the previous days hikes).  At 9:00 am we loaded gearbags andset off thru the streets of Cusco with a motorcycle lead out.  We paused for a group photo at San Blas Church and rode past the cathedral in the main square where are dining had been centered since the trip began. 
We were a festive group and an unusual site to the people of Cusco, where bikes are rare.  People waved,children walked up when we stopped for traffic lights.  We rode through city streets to the outskirts of Cusco and had climbed to 11,400 feet where we picked up the highway that will be our route for the next ten days (Cusco to Pisco).  Its a great road surface.  Drivers in Peru have a habit of honking as a way to warn cyclists.  They honk for everything else as well.  Once we aclimated to that local habit, the drivers were quite courtious.  We rode under cloud co ver most of the day.  After the initial climb out of Cusco, our roiute was fairly flat until we enjoyed a nice downhill for the last 18 miles.
I had an adventure riding into one small town.  I was riding downhill at 30 kph when a goat ran across the road in from of me.  I didn't have time to reactbut the goat made it across safely.  But the goat was followed by sheep, two ewes and two lambs.  I rode between ewe number one and lamb number one, hitting the poor lamb in the head with my foot.  I was not injured,although  if I had hit the ewe, I couldh ave had a much different outcome.  Our following van stopped and looked at the lamb with appeared to be dead.  Then the lamb shook its head, staggered up and ran off. 

All day as we progressed west, the region seemed to get more prosporous and more agricultural.  The is a definate ribbon of housing and commerce aqlong the main road.  Lots of shops and farmhouses.

Here's day one pics:

The riders: Susan, Alessandrs, Glenn, Bob,Lon, Sherry,Mark,Bret, Vicki & Ron.

 

Peru - Swimming in culture

Days three, four and five of our trip were spent emersed in the culture of the people of Peru.  The Peruvians we've met are a proud people with a rich heritage.  There is a significant movement to revivie the Incan culture and heritage. 

Our travels the last three days have taken us to Incan sites: Meyes, the salt mines, Moray, the Incan agricultural development center, Ollantaytambo, an Incan city with many buildings from the 1300's and 1400's still in use, Aguas Caliente, the jumping off point for trips to Machu Pichu, the remote, preserved cultural and spiritual site of the ancient Incans.  We rode a whirlwind of busses and trains, ate all varieties of local food, learned a lot of the facinating history of Peru and the Incans and learned a little bit of Spanish along the way. 

We also saw a barter market in Chirichinga where we saw dried potatos exchanged for citrus (tangerine sized fruit) and visited a small community of 25 families a hour from Cusco where they are interested in improving their water supply.  Seemingly the entire community came out for discussions, men, women, children, chichens, dogs and the goat.  This experience gave me a new understanding of community and how difficult "development" can be. 



Tour group: (l to r , bottom)Mark, Clara, George,Sherry, Phain Foon, Aracely, Nayda,(top), Brent, Bob, Sara, Lon, Susan, Glenn, Dave, Ron & Allesandra.

Peru - The fun begins

Here's the plan - five days of sightseeing and ten days of bike riding.  All in Peru.

After a long day of travel we arrived in Lima at 11:00 and took a taxi to the hotel.  In the morning we at breakfast and went back to the airport for our flight to Cusco.  An hour flight that took two hours, butwe were gland to arrive at 3,300 meters (10,000 feet).  We toured the main square and heard history lesson from our guide, Olga, who despite the name, has Incan roots. 

Lunch was an incredible serving of grilled trout at a restaurant owned by another guide's brother.  Another lunch treat was "Chicha" a drink made from red corn, sweetened with sugar and flavored with cinnamon.  It was really tasty.

So on to the main event.  We toured the Sacred Gardens which were built by the Incas in the early part of the second millenium, A.D.  The Incan name is SAQSAYWAMAN, which transliterates in Spanish as "Sexy Woman".  The Gardens were a place for ritual and were built over 300 years by the subjects of the Incas.  Enough talk, here's some pics.



Some of our tour guides

Procession to the cathedral

Cusco pride

Hotel Amaru courtyard

 

Tour du Rouge days 6 & 7 to come (promise)

There is a day 6 story to tell.  I will promise.  The parade on day seven is a story too..