We awoke to blue skies! What had been an extremely ominous looking arrival in the evening turned into a beautiful lake view hotel. The weather matched our moods—after a little bit of rallying in the morning, we felt optimistic, encouraged and ready to bike again. We had a lovely morning with the curtains open, drinking coffee and eating oatmeal. We even broke out our fruit/veggie powder packed from home in preparation (we have had basically no vegetables since coming to Peru and our fruit access had severely dwindled over the past few days). After giving our bodies some much needed nourishment, letting our few remaining wet things hang in the sun and relaxing a little bit, we were more prepared to bike. We packed up, got a few more resupply items from the tiendas below the hotel and headed out. On a side note, we do think the lovely women who sell us the food from the tiendas tend to upcharge us a bit, but since we don’t know the language (Erin often can’t understand how much things are when it’s not an even dollar amount such as 17.30 soles), and appreciate their kindness and generosity, we generally just go with it. The prices of things just varies widely so it’s hard to know what to expect. Mostly, we don’t want to get ourselves into an artificial poverty situation since there are no banks or ATMs on route for the next 200+ miles (6 to 8 days). Basically, we only have so much cash and we have had to spend that on unanticipated taxis, bike repair and a few extra nights of lodging due to illness. We still think we will be okay if everything goes well, but we are trying to budget more carefully to make sure.

Anyways, lucky for us, both our tires stayed inflated overnight! We were pleased about that strike of luck. We started biking around 9:45am and headed off for a short decent and then gradual climb up to nearly 16,000ft. The weather was iffy all morning—light hail, mixed with sun. It was beautiful and remote. There weren’t too many cars on the morning gravel. The grade was mellow enough that we could chat and things started to feel good again—we laughed, talked about our lives at home, our friends, all the future things in the US we couldn’t wait to do and eat.

Heart

6

Comment

1

Link

Steve Miller/GrampiesWell, you could ask for some sunshine but better not to push your luck.
Reply to this comment
1 month ago

Log in to comment or reply

We eventually made our way up and up to the switchbacks right before the pass. There is a viewpoint here that tourists come to— Rajuntay Snowy Viewpoint. It was starting to hail a little, but not badly. We had someone take our picture and headed off for the top of the pass. 

Heart

9

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

As soon as we hit the top, we could tell weather was going to come in. We put on all of our layers—fleece baselayer, big puffy jackets, raincoat, rain pants, neoprene booties, and big gloves and began to descend. Side note—we have been extremely thankful to have our booties on this trip. They have kept our feet warmer and drier (note still somewhat cold and damp) than they would have been otherwise. As we descended, it began to hail more and more! It was really coming down. Megan is a tough captain and just bikes through it. I (Erin) am particularly appreciative to be the stoker at times like this. Sometimes, I close my eyes and picture tropical beaches as I dream of warmth and hot tea. I do always get to look down, while Megan has to look up to steer. Her face might have some hail sized mini bruises in the morning. Eventually as we descended, the hail turned to rain. The mountains behind us closed in with clouds, like a blanket of snow covering the tops. The rain was, well, like all rain - wet. We biked down and got absolutely soaked and very cold. 

Heart

8

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

The gravel road we were on joins the busiest road of the route—a paved road that eventually goes to Lima. Descending it in the rain was, as most roads in Peru, chaotic! We witnessed a flammable gas truck nearly hit another truck on a right turn, we sat in traffic due to an accident of some sort and we saw cars passing each other in no-passing areas. Finally, we made it down to the town we were aiming for—Chicla. This would be our destination for the day, having ridden the ~33 miles we needed to average. We were very cold and soaked and found a room in the municipal hotel in town. It’s not much—a few beds, and decidedly not hot showers, but it’s indoors and that’s all that matters. We are thankful for a dry place to stay. There was some big event going on when we arrived-lots of music and festivities. There were probably nearly 50 people who were looking at us, drenching wet and shivering with our tandem bicycle in tow, while the kind lady showed us the beds. Is this a holiday in Peru or just every Sunday? (We looked it up, it doesn’t seem to be a holiday so perhaps this is just your average Sunday?) 

We took cold showers, warmed back up under all our coats, did some shopping, cooked a dinner of lentils, quinoa, garlic and onion (we really needed a sauce for it—it was rather dry). And hung out inside, catching up on our emails, texts, and social media. The fourth night in a row sleeping inside still feels pretty good :) 

Heart

2

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

We will probably have to camp the next 2 nights so we are soaking it in! 

Ps. We want to say thank you to everyone following our blog and for your kind words and encouragement along our journey. We have read all of your comments (sometimes multiple times!), and they really do help fuel us forward. Lots of love to all! We appreciate you!