Peru -a hard road to travel.
these are the toughest roads and the most beautiful views of our earth I have ever seen or encountered and we haven't even gotten to the Cordillera Blanca which are supposed to be the most beautiful mountains and the highest of the Andes.
We have hooked up with a german couple Indre and Waldemar and the suffering on those incredible rough roads is shared. We really suffer!
A lot of the time we wind up pushing our bikes. Even if the uphills are not very steep, often the conditions make it impossible to turn the pedals. May it be because the tires sink in the dust/sand or the rocks make the bike bounce like a ping pong ball. Today we rode all of 15km - we did stop early but we were DONE-finished, pooped....., having pushed the bike almost half the time through river and creeks being passed by trucks and buses who created huge dust clouds to cover us and our bikes for a minute or two before we could go on either pushing or trying to ride - can't even see anything until the dust settles.
The day before the first day leaving pavement we left CAJABAMBA
in a group of six - three couples: One in their 20s and 30s the other in their 40s and us old farts in our 50s. We rode well in sunshiny weather mostly up, smooth paved roads and then along a beautiful lagoon
to HUAMACHUCO.
The young couple left the next day while the rest of us spend another day in this beautiful little town, preparing - mostly our minds - for the rough road ahead.....It doesn't really help to think too much, I noticed....it's not even a good idea.. We heard different opinions and suggestions on which road to take since the main road leads to the coast and the mountain roads are unpaved. Looking for short cuts we took the first chance off the paved road and humpty bumptied our way along the dirt road further up a mountain range where we spend the night -still, at least six mile short of the pass of 4200m (13800f) but at 3800m. (12500f). Dusty and tired we camped next to a dirty, but big house. Some truck drivers sat drinking and partly drunk already in front of a house that looked more like a ruin. A woman, dirty hands, face and clothes and a filthy kid shy, distant - almost a bit unfriendly watched us from a distance after we asked if it was OK, to camp. She had offered us a shed nearby, but at second glance it looked unsuitable for animals.....even less so for us so we decided to camp a bit further away overlooking the beautiful mountain range with the Cordillera Blanca snow caped mountain tops peaking out from behind.
This was our first day/night of a series of hard days cycling on rough, dirty, dirt roads (I love how the Germans call dirt roads DIRTY roads....how appropriate!) with insufficient signage and unpredictable conditions. We carried a little print out paper of someone who had taken that route and described the way...more or less....later ALL of us were wondering why the hell we all jumped to listening to something, somewhere and somebody without question...weird...
The night was restful - food still efficient and plenty of water.
After we finished awing at the mountains we mounted our wire donkeys and hit the upward winding road that continued it's upward theme after every bend....endless.....but gentle and beautiful....beauty kept inspiring us, though the breath became shorter and shorter due to altitude. While Indre and I started getting fussy about which part of the road we would pedal and which we walk and push our bikes, we trusted that the pass must be near. At 4200m we finally started our descend - gently but with deep powdery sand and occasional rocks..the going was slow and endless none the less. The change from up to down was only a short lived excitement I have to admit.
These dirty roads are dirtier than one would think......these are mining roads. The gold rush - a very ugly, thoughtless, greedy, unfriendly way of robing the earth of it's natural mineral for profit. My father always taught me that the "mind can move mountains".....well, the sad truth is that miners literally move mountains and leave ugly huge scars and the biggest mess on our Mother Earth. Polluting rivers, ground water, destroy habitats growing grounds, corrupt peoples minds....
THE MINES ARE HUGE!! with security guards on either end....barb wire and gates...warlike atmosphere , uniformed humans....I feel a tear in my eye while writing this experience down. It hurts! And - of course- companies....these are not local individuals, Incas, looking for the gold (though they do too, but with much less of an impact because of the MUCH SMALLER scale). Corporate....no name...companies around the world....employing locals (sounds familiar? Black gold -oil- same thing...Ecuador......). Money rules....what else is new??
Gotta take a break......got myself in a downward, negative spin here....
gotta get some of that delish chocolate cake....back soon...
