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.
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| Traffic |
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| Outcrop |
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| Loading gear bags, readying to ride |
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