to Cajacay - 2500m: from grey to green and 28,000km - Racpat RTW 2015-2017

February 14, 2017

to Cajacay - 2500m: from grey to green and 28,000km

“Is there a hospedaje in Raquia?” Patrick asks the man when paying for dinner. “No” he says.

Our plan was to get to Raquia today, about 33km uphill from here. But after talking with the hotel owner last night he advised us to go to Cajacay because there are better hotels.

We sleep well, even though our room is on the front of the hotel and trucks keep passing during the night. In the morning it is noticeably cooler, it is cloudy and up ahead are darker clouds against the mountains. As we ride through town we see several other hostals. We are happy to have stayed where we did.

The climb stays gradual, about 5%, but the tailwind we had yesterday does not pick up. So we have to work for it. The scenery around Chasquitambo is grey and extremely dry, but as we climb we see a gradual change. First the rocks change from grey to red with some green, mostly grass and weeds. The plants get thicker until the hillsides are just covered in green. This radical change unfolds over only about 10km and 500 meters vertical gain. We are nearing the bottom of the clouds and even get rained on a little. The car traffic is light and buses give us a wide berth when passing.The most traffic are “Convoy Unidades”. Convoys of fuel trucks that are probably headed up to the mines travel together. There is a pilot car that has the number of trucks in the convoy, typically three to five trucks and the last truck has a sign that this is the end of the convoy. As they pass us they move over into the other lane. We get flashing headlights and thumbs up from the drivers on their downhill run.

We take a couple of food breaks, the cinnamon rolls and apple pie we are carrying is slowly disappearing. When we stop the sandflies are still bothersome, the bites on our legs too numerous to count, the red welts about dime size. At about 12:30 we reach Raquia and stop into a restaurant for a “sopa del dia”. The restaurant also advertises itself as a hospedaje, so it seems there would be a place to stay here. We decide to push on and get nine more kilometers closer to the summit. The top of this hill is at 4200 meters, no way we will reach it today, and maybe not even tomorrow. Not that we would want to either, once above 2500 meters it is better to ascend slowly. The last section is the hardest, as often is the case.

We grind up several long switchbacks among huge yucca plants and eucalyptus trees. With only two kilometers to go we pass the 28,000km mark. Just as we reach Cajacay it begins to rain and by the time we are checked into a room it is raining in earnest. Wet clouds blow across the ridge through town and make it very chilly. A policeman gives us directions to the hotel.

Actually, there are three hotels clustered together at the end of main street. We pick one, but when we ask about hot water the owner leads us across the street to the larger building that she also seems to own. We get a small but clean room with attached bath on the second floor, 35 soles for the night, a bargain. Unlike other countries we have traveled we feel it does not matter we are gringos, the price for the rooms seems to be the same. We read that other travelers are sometimes able to bargain down a little, but at these prices that doesn’t seem to matter much. The bikes go in the lobby; we take our warm shower and bundle up in our cold weather gear. It is still 16 degrees Celsius, but to us it feels chilly. After a rest we walk back to the main road where a small restaurant serves us a nice “pollo saltado”, strips of chicken, onion and tomato stir fried and on top of French fries and served with rice.

The rain is pouring down by now; we hurry back to our room and settle in for the night.