Peru 2013

Olmos to Pucara

What a day!  Yes, the route card said 7,700 feet of climbing and 75 miles.  What a climb.  We started out with a gradual steady climb and by mile 15 we climbed in earnest.  We gained 5,000 feet in 17 miles with constant grades of 6-7%.  The scenery changed dramatically as we climbed and crossed the Andes at 6,700 feet, once of the lowest passes in the chain.  Yet it was the high point of the trip (literally).  We will have more climbing and more descents, but none will compare with this day.  Our downhill was dramatic, reaching speeds of 40+ mph with grades similar to the way up.  We descended for two hours to reach Pucara.  If there was a train here, this would be a whistle stop.

The landscape change from arid desert to semi-lush farms.  We saw a river with water in it flowing west.  That water never reached to coast, either because it was used for irrigation or the river simply dried up.  When we crossed the pass, the rivers flow east, all tributaries to the Amazon.

When I was flying down the mountain I really enjoyed the exhilaration of speed and freedom.  Then I hit the first speed bump on the descent at 27 mph.  I didn’t crash.  My tire didn’t flat and my rim didn’t dent.  I survived that event and vowed to be alert for speed bumps further down the road.  Then I reached for the brake lever and it “squished”.  So the use of the rear brake lever and right (rear derailleur) shifter was done gingerly for the remainder of the thirty+ miles of downhill.  When we reached the hotel, Lon Haldeman and Bob Olson engineered a repair which involved splitting a 70 mm tube and epoxying and bolting it to the cracked handlebar.  Two days after the patch is still holding and performing well.

Lodging in Pucara was the pits.  The reserved hotel had given out some of the rooms we had reserved and wanted us to triple and quadruple up.  We found an alternate hotel with communal showers, slanted floors, noisy guests and questionable plumbing.  Such is the adventure of riding through rural Peru and seeing life up close.

Share the road

The road ahead

Riders ahead

Grazing along the road

Share the Road

Typical Peruvian Pooch

Lon and Aracely