Tom and Dave’s BIG Ride

Well after arriving in Huaraz we were pretty tired and wanting a good rest. Arriving at Churup hostel we realised we´d hit the jackpot. This place was so friendly and clean, and there was SO much to do about the place. The beds were more than 6ft long meaning that Tom could sleep with his feet in the bed (a real rarity out here) and there were hot showers, a genuine 1 for 1 book exchange (also very rare), tv room, good bread for brekkie and tea on tap. Excellent! The first day was spent lazing about and eating, as is usual, before Paul and Ronan arrived for some trekking. WE decided on a day trek to Lake 69 – a nice little glacial lake up in the clouds at 4800m – before climbing Mt. Vallunaraju.

All of us were pretty excited about climbing the mountain and on leaving the hostel early on a thursday morning couldn´t wait to get going. WE only hoped that the weather would hold out so we could summit. From the start it didn´t look good, with rain turning to snow as we trekked, fully loaded with crampons, boots ice axes and camping gear, up to base camp at 4900m. There we pitched up, the tents being covered with snow before we could even get the guy lines out. Then it all started to go wrong…

We´d chosen our tour company as they had good reviews and recommendations in pretty much all of the travel guides, so when our guides, who were quickly dubbed tweedle dum and tweedle dee, came into our tent asking to cook there as they had nowhere to cook themselves. Ok, we thought… It is snowing and it is very cold. Next they asked for a lighter. It would seem that Monttrek tours don´t believe in bringing any sort of fire-lighting equipment to a place where they intend to cook up! This was followed by asking for a knife too to cut up food and some batteries for the guides´ headtorches! By now, as you might imagine, this had us rather worried about the climb at 1.00 the next morning.

After little or no sleep, the time came to start walking. thankfully the night was so clear and there was a full moon so we could walk without headtorches.  Reaching the glacier after a few minutes we roped up and started the 5 hour trudge up to the summit. The scenery was spectacular: clouds were lurking in the long valleys below making them look like eerie lakes, the snow capped peak of Mt. Huascaran (Peru´s highest mountain at 6746m) was looming in the distance, and the mountain was so quiet giving us a lovely break from the countinual toot-toot of taxi horns! the climb was pretty gruelling though with all of us feeling the effect of the altitude. Paul and Ronan and I had bad headaches and Tom was staggering as if he´d just drunk ten pints of stella! he was really struggling after getting a stomach bug the night before, most likely cxaused by the guides feeding him chinese pork-fried rice despite us asking for veggie food! Nevertheless, we carried on until reaching a broken ice bridge at just over 5550m where we were forced to turn back as the summit was unreachable. Despite not summiting, however, the mountain was so beautiful that it was worth it anyways.

The way down was also horrendous. as we neared the end of the glacier snow began falling in the distance and didn´t stop until we were back down at 3800m. We had to put the tents down and pack up in the freezing cold then walk down a very steep, extremely slipppery path to where we´´d get a minibus back to the comfort of Churup. By the end we were all frozen and soaked through, but a hot shower at the hostel followed by a pizza seemed to sort us out pretty quickly.

the next two days were spent resting then climbing before heading off the day after for Trujillo where we´d meet the cycling legend that is Lucho. Pretty much every cyclist we´ve gone past has told us we HAVE to visit Lucho at his Casa de Ciclistas so we were pretty excited about getting there, not to mention about seeing the sea and sun again!

the ride there was nice, winding through the Cañon del Pato – a steep sided, very deep canyon housing a raging river. The road was pretty bad, but spectacular nevertheless. It wound along the valley side wherever there was space, passing through dark tunnels hewn into the canyon walls. Reaching Huallanca, our first stop, we ate then went to bed, only to wake and find that some rather unsavoury peruvian had been into the room and stolen my phone and Tom´s wallet. Now we were pretty cheesed off with Peruvians after i´d been pickpocketed in Huaraz only 3 days before. we´d taken so much care over the last 5 months then this happens… All the trust we´d gained for the Peruvian people after all of the horror stories we´d heard was gone in an instant. It´s such a shame when we´re so close to reaching the end of the country.

Anyways, from there things could only get better and arriving at Trujillo was the start of it. We met up with Paul and Ronan, and were amazed at how many cyclists were there at the time. 2 swiss had just  left and we were sharing a room with 2 more, 2 Argentinian brothers were there riding the craziest most dilapadated bikes you´d eveer seen, and then there was Julien, a French cyclist coming down from Mexico. A few drinks saw us all get acquainted before going out to a salsa club until later on.

I suppose we really don´t have a lot to say about Trujillo as we´ve not done a whole lot here except for eat, sleep, and meet countless cyclistas. The local beach, Huanchaco, is great for surfing. It´s just a shame that we´re not!! It´s alos reputed to have some of the best cebiche in Peru. I can definitely vouch for that. The main thing we´ve enjoyed here though, is the community at Lucho´s. Up until now we´d never realised just how connected the cycle touring world is. Everybody who´d stayed here from 1985 when the casa de ciclistas opened has written in the book totalling over 1200 entries and some REALLY interesting stories. Many people have sent books and gifts back to Lucho´s since their stays too. Also, Lucho is a dab hand at  truing wheels and fixing our ailing hubs and bottom bracket. Thanks Lucho!

Well… that about brings us up to the present so i guess it´s time to sign off.

Ciao,

Tom and Dave

Our last stop before the pass was the mining town of La Oroya. This is possibly the ugliest town we have ever seen with huge piles of mining waste piles up around the town and large unsightly processing plants. The place is what you imagined towns to be like during the industrial revolution, with blacken grim looking buildings. At an altitude of nearly 4000m it was a fairly cold evening. We also had the dull prospect of having to spend the next day climbing up to 4818m and the highest paved pass in the world. However good things were instore for the next day…..
 
We had only rode a few Kms out of down the next day and the road had hardly began to climb when a flat bed truck slowed for a speed bump. There were very convienient placed hand holds on the trailer and it would be rude if we didn´t hold on! The driver was a gentleman, and even when he stopped at a control point he waited for us to finish putting our jackets on before he set off. He also went wide around all the corners for us!
 
I had a little fright however when my bar end catched on the trailer and caused by bike to drop. Somehow I managed to unlclip in that split second and leapt over my bars and miracously ended up on my feet!?! The even more imprressive was that I ran back to my bike and at 4500m managed to sprint pedal after the truck and resume my tow…all the way to the top, some 30km from where we joined him!!
 
The top of pass Ticlio (4818m) was incredible as we had ascended so much there was ice and snow on all the buildings and it was freezing! Afer a quick coffee and egg sarnie break and puting on literally every item of clothing we owned we we ready for the descent to sea level! The weather was foul and visibilty terrible. We has to stop for hot drinks to defrost our fingers and assure that if we needed to break our fingers may actaully work! However this was irellevent for me as my brake pads had worn out so I just couldn´t brake anyway. Dave rode ahead maybe 200m and simply warned me of the road ahead so I had no need to break!
 
175 km later we were only 6 km from Lima center having descended over 4500m and back down to shorts! Snow to Palm trees in one afternoon is a amazing yet bewildering experience. The traffic though was unbearable through the sunburbs and as the light faltered we decided o get a taxi across the city to Miraflores, the district we wished to stay in.

If James Watts is reading this, the taxi driver made you look like an old women driving a metro to Tesco. I have never pushed the imaginary passenger foot brake so hard or had a need to close my eyes approaching juctions. Just as well for Dave he was in the back with the bikes and couldn´t see…

After 2 days in Lima in the relaxing Wayruos hostal we were ready for the ride to the moutain town of Huaraz. We bused out of the city to Barancas and enjoyed the first swim in months in the Pacific Ocean. The following day we were on the bikes and ready to attack the moutains! After a boring but fast start on the Pan Ameirican highway we began to climb. The climbing ended up being the two largest days we had done. The first day we climbed from sea level to over 2000m,gradually leaving the desert behind. This was followed by an even larger day to over 4100m! We were happy that on the third days ride to Huaraz we had a 600m descent over only abou 30kms. The add to this we we treated to stunning views of the snow capped Cordillera Blanca Range, in which Peru´s highest moutain Huascaran (6768m) resides.