May 12 & 13, 2017
Time to ride some downhills!
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Redondo, Cajamarca, Peru
Destination: Cajabamba, Cajamarca, Peru
62.1 km trip, 6:20 time, 39.1 km/h maximum speed, 9.8 km/h average speed
1065 meters climbed, 1834 meters descended, highest elevation 3484 meters
Route Description:
When you leave the school it is 4K of mostly downhill into Cachachi on shitty rock/dirt road. Then you go uphill for about 6K where you top out at 3409 meters. You start going down at about the 11.4K mark. Then you go down, completely downhill on pretty good gravel road. You do this for about 20-30 k where you bottom out at 2100 meters. Then the road turns to shit again for about 5K. Then you have a very gradual downhill on a not so bad gravel road where you bottom out here at 2044 meters. Then you start a very gradual climb after a couple more kilometres up to 2079 meters and the road becomes pavement when you turn right. There is a small store at this intersection if you want to buy a drink. Once you start on the paved road PE-03N you start to see more stores and restaurants. We stopped at the first restaurant we saw and found lunch for 5 soles each. On this road you do a gradual climb and near the end of the day you do a steep climb with about 15-20 switchbacks where you climb to the top and reach a maximum of 2340. You continue doing a more gradual climb as you ride into the centre of town.
Accommodations:
We stayed at La Casona for 50 soles per night. It is located on Jr. Bolognese 730 near the Plaza de Armes. The room was clean enough and they let us store our bikes in the garage safely. The washroom was quite small, however it had an awesome scorching hot shower which was welcome after a couple of days without one. The internet was non existent and the rooms were quite dark. We ended up staying another night and took a rest day and moved hotels to Hostal Sol Naciente. It was 40 soles per night with big bright rooms and pretty good wifi. We also got to store our bikes on the main floor of the complex. They also let me wash our clothes on the top floor and hang them to dry and there are amazing views from up top! The shower was mostly hot but don’t dawdle too much as the heat seemed to fade.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Finally, some downhill today, yay! Except that because of the crap road conditions, it would’ve been faster to walk. My point was proven when a couple of school kids beat me to the bottom of the first descent past Cacachi this morning. Speaking of Cacachi, I was hoping to get a decent cell connection so that I could teach English to one of my Chinese students, but it wasn’t meant to be. I had hoped to be able to earn some extra income online because Peru actually has a pretty good mobile network, but I don’t think it’s going to work out. Maybe if I was in a city?
So then we got to Cajabamba and it was nice to have a hot shower, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Cajabamba seems OK. We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings, as we’re going to take a day off.
Amanda writes: Today’s ride included some awesome downhill and then some paved road. We were looking forward to arriving in a town with a shower after a couple of days out there in the wild. As we closed in on the town it was great to see some more people out and about. We also walked on the Inca Trail today. In reality we just parked our bikes near the sign that said Inca Trail and then walked on it … just so we could say we did. It criss crossed the road a couple of times. We managed to come into town and find a hotel easily. After our first night we decided to take a rest day and moved to a more comfortable hotel. On our rest day I was able to do some laundry and we went to the market to stock up on some food and see the sights. It was a pretty nice town to take a rest in.