July 23 & 24, 2017
After some hard riding we start to head toward larger roads, more populated areas and make a bit of progress.
Cycling Stats
July 23, 2017
Start Point: Mina Chungar, Peru
Destination: Wild camp, Peru
28.5 km, 7.8 km/h average speed, 28 km/h maximum speed, 3:35 time on the bike
570 meters gained, 416 meters elevation descend, 4800 meters maximum elevation
July 24, 2017
Start Point: Wild camp, Peru
Destination: Marcapomacocha, Peru
34 km, 10.1 km/h average speed, 33.2 km/h maximum speed, 3:16 time on the bike
630 meters gained, 764 meters elevation descend, 4684 meters maximum elevation
Route Description:
July 23, 2017
The day starts by turning left under the dam and heading up a road with some bigger rocks. It is harder to climb for the first while. Then it becomes a bit easier. You reach the peak after 9 km and the it is up and down all day. We found it to be a nice ride after so many big climbing days. There are no stores or anything along the route. There is water just at the beginning of the water tunnel system.
July 24, 2017 We started the day just off the highway past our wild camp spot. The ride is on a very wide road that is mostly in good shape. It seems really wide like it will one day be a multi-lane highway. The road is undulating hills all day. There are a few lakes that you pass by. You will come across Yantac during the day which has a nice square, although no open stores. 15 km further down the road is Marcapomacocha and it has a hotel and hospedeje in town.
Accommodations:
The first day there is nothing so you will need to wild camp. We camped in a section of road that was under construction and provided good wind shelter. The second day we stopped in Marcapomacocha. There is a hospedeje in town but we couldn’t find anyone for it. The hotel at the edge of town was 40 soles for 2 people. The place is totally run down, no hot water and mold in the rooms. I figure at some point the hotel was nice. It does have a nice view of the lake.
What happened…
Andrew writes: I’ve decided that silence is the best policy. This reminds me of when Amanda and I were in Baja and she wasn’t talking to me. Well now, I’m not talking to her. Every time I go to say something, my anger and frustration at this route come out. I really don’t like it. I don’t know why anyone would recommend it. The scenery is nice, especially all of the little lagoons, and the lack of traffic is OK too, if one is normally bothered by traffic. I’m not. And it’s been so cold at night, we woke up on Day 16 and EVERYTHING was frozen, including all of our water. At 8:00am, my thermometer read -5C, and Amanda’s read -15C so we decided to split the difference and declare it -10C. We ended up leaving close to 10am just so that everything had a bit of a chance to thaw out. I know it’s winter, and we’re at 4000m but there’s a reason why I won’t spend another winter in Canada, and I’m living it nightly here.
Ok, a bright spot, I found the aqueduct system that feeds water to Lima 400km away to be really interesting. It winds its way down from all of these little Andean lagoons to the world’s second largest desert city (Cairo being the largest), and I wonder how climate change will impact all of those folks if/when all of the glaciers melt and the lagoons dry up. I imagine the worst, riots and violence and whatnot…because at this stage of the game I am just a little, bitter, man.
Amanda writes: Sleeping near the abandoned mine site last night was pretty cool. There was an old mine shaft that I walked into the next morning that had different tunnels heading in different directions. It was a bit eerie but cool. Speaking of cool; holy shit its cold! Everything is frozen in the mornings and I’m so grateful that Nici and Philip taught us to sleep with our water filter in the tent so it doesn’t freeze. In the mornings we have to take our time and wait for the sun to defrost some things before we can ride.
The ride really opened up today and the landscape is interesting. We came across a water system that was partly under construction along with some road construction. Its really refreshing to have some different landscape and some better roads with less steep grades. I’m still giving Andrew lots of space and I’m still really enjoying the cycling. I love riding my bike and I’m so glad to be traveling in this way. Our first night we found a fun little camp spot in a construction site that was so wonderfully sheltered from the wind it was awesome.
The second day we were clearly getting closer to civilization. There were cars, like one every 30 minutes or so. A sign even showed we are about 200 km from Lima so definitely approaching more populated areas. Granted we’re not headed to the Coast but we know there will be people soon. The second day had many lakes and it was great. We finally arrived at a town with a hotel and eagerly checked in knowing we would take a day off the bikes tomorrow. Our first day off in over a week!
The aerial view of our rides: