to Mollebamba - 3200m: good thing we like switchbacks
“Not the best time to come into town” Patrick says. As we round the corner there is a funeral procession with music in progress. Everything is closed.
As usual the clouds and evening rain have cleared and it is a beautiful sunny morning. We start with a major downhill today, all the way to 2000 meters. Just outside of town the road is closed, a small backhoe-dozer is cleaning out a mudslide that covered the road. We have to wait a little bit, but then the flagger walks us through the construction zone so we can get on our way. Then starts a memorable switchback downhill, you won’t forget it because all the way down you see the switchbacks that are waiting on the other side of the valley.
It is beautiful though and the road is nicely paved, concrete in the curves of the switchbacks. At the bottom we cross the river, change out of our cold weather gear and start climbing. There are some steep sections we have to walk, but most of it is cycle-able for us. At about 2700 meters is the first town, Mollempata with a very nice central square and church. We take a break and ask around if there are any vehicles traveling to Cachicadan today. The answer is simple: there are no vehicles in town, only motorcycle taxis. All morning we have been looking over our shoulder hoping for a truck, but nothing has passed us today and nothing will. Part of that might have to do with the road closure, but we did notice a couple of trucks coming down the switchbacks, but then taking a different road further up the valley.
So we ride out of Mollempata headed higher. About 33kms from Pallasca, we ride through El Alto at 2830 meters, and the pavement ends and a gravel road continues. It is well packed and okay to ride, just not as smooth as the asphalt. We reach Mollembamba at about 3200 meters at about three, just as a funeral procession makes its way down the main street. It seems the whole town is in the procession because there are very few people around. There is a band behind the casket playing with gusto; the coffin is carried slowly down the street.
We stop at the main square hoping to see a taxi we could charter to take us further down the road. We have enjoyed the scenery today, but the cycling was way harder than we want it to be. The next stage to Cachicadan will be similar and we’d just as well get there tonight. But no luck, there are no vehicles. There are a couple of hostals marked, but all doors are padlocked, the owners probably in the funeral procession. In William’s journal we read the hostal he stayed in was not very good, so we decide to ride out of town and find a place to camp. From Mollembamba it is another couple of hundred meters climbing to the next ridge, we don’t really feel up to that and are lucky to find a nice campsite in a eucalyptus grove at the bottom of the hill. There is a stream from which we filter water. With no stove it is a cold dinner again tonight, but we enjoy the camping. At about 5 we see two loaded cyclists zoom down the road going the opposite direction we are headed. We shout out, but either we are too well hidden, or they ignore us, and they keep going. What a shame, it would have been good, but probably depressing to get some road notes on our road ahead. Clouds are building, but except for a few sprinkles just as it gets dark we get no real rain today.
Leaving through the alleys of Pallasca. One of the nicest towns we have stayed.
