Totally Rocked but still Rollin’…

In the past two weeks, we have experienced snow, hail, rain, 40 mph wind, intense humidity, 100 degree farenheit heat, sandflies chomping away at us, and five insane climbs of about 7 to 9,000 feet over 30 to 50km starting at around 7,000 ft.  It has been insane and life changing to say the least.  Check out this elevation profile from our last 600 km (8 days) of riding- sorry it is a picture from our Australian friends’ computer so it is a bit blurry but you get the idea. Multiply the meters by 3.3 to get feet!

Here are some great stories from the road…

Winding down the dusty Rio Montar

When we left Huancayo mid day after an awesome grocery shopping session in our first grocery store since Lima, we took a wrong turn and climbed up a mountain and knew something was up when we hit a dirt road.  Oops.  We stared at the valley below and the road we should have been on.  We decided to cut our losses and backtrack.  We found a dirt road we were told connected to the main highway and tried that.  I was quite cranky the whole afternoon as we bumped along a rough road.  In the 50kms we did that afternoon, about 10km were forward progress.  Grr. Not the greatest way to start a section.

We rested that night at a school in a town of about 20 houses up a narrow valley.  It was quite windy so we had to hide on the side of a school to cook supper. It is so strange to me the distinct dichotomy between cities and villages in Peru – two completely different worlds. Streets, lights, cars, toilets, and fast food to mud houses with no windows, dirt hole toilets, and agricultural fields just 20 kms away.  A few kids from the town watched from afar and slowly but surely made their way to us and attempted some English.  The “President” of the town arrived at dusk and allowed us to pitch our tent on the porch of the school for the evening which we were grateful for as the dark clouds loomed in the distance.

In the morning, we were off on our first adventure along a 200km stretch of dirt road.  We slowly weaved down a beautiful river over four days to the town of Ayacucho.  At first we were nervous about the limited towns along the way, but we soon found ourselves meeting sweet villagers daily who cheered us on, gave us details on what lie ahead, as well as treats for the road.  The cheer “Gringos!!!” was common daily as this is not a major route you see white folks on.  The locals were fascinated by our travel stove and bicycles and asked many questions about our journey.  We even made friends with some more “Tranquilo” doggie buds.

As we slowly descended to 10,000… 9,000… 8,000 feet the days grew much hotter and we encountered a tiny pest with a mighty punch- SANDFLIES!!! They attacked our legs, faces, knuckles, palms, and anywhere where skin was exposed to munch on.  We both are not fans of DEET since we have seen how it melts synthetic materials so we instead had to cover our bodies from head to toes in 100 degree heat.  It was already too late, however.  The battle of the sandflies had already occurred and we were not victorious.  These little buggars are much worse than mosquitos as the bit swells like golfballs and slowly oozes yellow puss crystals in addition to intense itching aches! Add to that, sweating profusely with your clothes sticking to the itchy wounds! AAY!

The flies helped kick us into gear to make forward progress as neither of us wanted to ever stop moving on our bikes to give them time to bite.  We passed through some smaller cities to get groceries, flew through Ayacucho, and started climbing once again to the high Andes Altiplanos above 11,000 feet where no sandflies could intimidate us.

We were happy in our last days of riding to meet a couple from Switzerland to enjoy the road with.  They are very easy going and have both been riding for 2.5 years around the world.  They met on the road – the funny part is that the girl, Nadin, is from the German side of Switzerland and the boy, Guntin, is from the French side. Neither speak the other’s first language very well so they communicate through English.  They made us smile and helped pass the time in the sweltering jungle heat of our last descent bearable.

~ Buckeye

What if feels like riding in the Andes

Our bodies have adjusted to the workload, the change in diet, and our thin foam sleeping mats (we are perhaps the only cyclist we have seen without inflatable mats!).  The past section was mentally and physically demanding, but after each climb, we would high-five and smile ear to ear before the monster descent towards the canyon bottom and another climb.  The bicycles that we are riding have just 35cc tires, which is suffice for pavement, but a bit narrow for dirt roads.  We never found ourselves too unstable as most of the unpaved roads were hardpack, however the final descent before Abancay and the pavement, was fairly loose and took some extra attention.

Peruvian Kindness

Riding through the Central Andes was definately a highlight as we were witness to a much slower paced, remote, and generous population.  We recieved kindness in many forms, including shelter from the winds and cold, a gatorade from a passerby on a steep hot climb who pulled over to give encouragement, and extra horns and thumbs up as cars and motorbikes buzz by.  Most of the small towns we passed through have just a small store containing cookies, candies, a few cans of tuna, and maybe some daily baked bread if your lucky.  Following the common theme, if a resturant exists it will only serve food beginning at noon, until they run out, which is nearly impossible to judge by bicycle travel so we often found ourselves just eating extra snacks.  A few treats came along the way, mostly in the way of Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix!  We managed to score a large supermarket in Huancayo and purchased 4 packages of instant, just add water muffin mix, (one is being saved for my birthday treat next week!) and on 3 occasions we split the package into our cups, mixed up the goodness and savored each bite before licking the cup clean….so tasty!

Cusco Crew of Cyclists

Arriving in Cusco has been monumentous and we have united with 21 other cyclists, all having their own experiences and stories.  We have caught up with our Australian friends as well as others met along the way.   The trip continues to enrich us as we make new friends and look forward to seeing the world at a slow and steady pace.

This morning we made backpacks with a nice lady at the big Mercado in Cusco and then grocery shopped for the next 2-3 days of travel.  Rested and happy, we are excited to continue on in the morning.

~Swift