6-20

Huanchaco update. Last week on the 14th we arrived in Trujillo on a special day…all the center city was closed to car traffic; people walking everywhere. How wonderful for us on Bici. We wandered around looking for a hotel and met a French couple who directed us to Casa de Cyclists en Trujillo: the house and bicycle shop of Luis Ramirez de Angelo or Lucho. This wonderful family puts up cyclists in their home, does bicycle repair, provided both local information and is a registry for touring cyclists using the Pan American going north and south. We were guests on and off for 3-plus days as master mechanic Lucho worked on Bici trying to diagnose our rear end noise. He finally isolated in to our Ari drum brake. Bici was greased and cleaned and ready for the road ahead. We will have to purchase a new drum brake when we find someplace to have one sent or? It works-just screeches at us.

One evening Lucho and his wife took five of us cyclists out to visit the ruins of Chan Chan. The sun was setting over this vast 20km site of mud city which was populated by over 200,000 people. The museum was closed for the day but Lucho got us a tour of the palace area (one of over 9 palaces), huge open court yards with altar and statue niches in the surrounding walls, vast array of underground water courses, living quarter, baths, etc. It was awing, complex and took us back to pre-Incan times as the sun turned to mud wall to burnt orange and set into the sea.

1. Chan Chan 2. Huanchaco 3. Reed boats

We rode back to the city of Trujillo in the dark. What a crazy experience that was following Lucho weaving in and out with taxis going every which way. My hair has turned white! A couple of days later one late afternoon, we joined Lucho to be guests at his weekly bicycle school for local boys ages 10-16. Mewes and Astrid (German couple we had met in Guatemala) also were gusts. The kids asked us questions and I took a few as stokers, around the block on Bici.

On 6-18 we took off for the beach town of Huanchaco for some much needed R&R. The cities take a toll on us and there are times we just need to pull in our heads, lie around, read, write and prepare for the ext challenging leg of the journey. We have decided to leave the coastal area and the Pan American Highway and head inland up into the Andes. We expect to be faced with many kilometres of steep dirt roads and few towns…so rough camping will be on our agenda. Tomorrow we are going to explore the possibility of joining Mewes and Astrid who have more experience in this aspect of travel.

For the past couple of nights we have been staying at Hostal Nylamp ($11) on the beach…clean, quiet, good bed and shower, internet, bar and restaurant…tranquillo!

6-21

Back to Trujillo this morning after breakfast and watching the World Cup. The 15 km were easy with little traffic until the central city and the hundreds of cabs. We got our old room at the Americana…beds with the springs coming through but a hot shower and room for Bici. Tonight will be the party for Lucho (41st). We met with Astrid and Mewes (M & A) who ok´d our joining them for the trip up the canyon Rio Santa…tomorrow at some hour we will all take off south. Judee is feeling better (her reoccurring cough and sinus infection seems to be on the wane).

Note: I am having a hard time adjusting to Latin time with Lucho´s family…so it’s good we are moving on. Maybe it’s just that we have been on our own schedule for so long that change is difficult. Hopefully I will adjust to travelling with M & A.

6-22

Up at 8:45, showers, breakfast and off to Lucho´s. We arrive a little past 10am and M & A are waiting. Lucho puts on his riding clothes and we are off to Chao. Lucho guides us through the back streets out of the city and onto the Pan Am. Soon we are out of the city and climbing up into the coastal sand dues and mountains. Sand all around, right down to the Pacific. To our amazement we start to run into green fields of asparagus…huge fields in the sand growing right up to the bottoms of the mountains. This is agricultural area supported by water pumped from deep underground…then drip watered as are the orchards we see.
Lucho soon leaves us and we take the lead with a great swooping down hill for miles. Blue skies and sun…we sweat but the humidity is low and the wind brisk, so we don’t feel the heat until we stop. Had lunch at a roadside restaurant and Judee ordered Pato---so I got Duck instead of turkey (Pavo). Well, ok, I ate it. Not too bad!

Soon after lunch we can across another German cyclist heading north. Hans was coming from Ushuaia and was carrying only 4 kilos. WOW – talk about minimalist. I would say we carry a lot more even when we are credit card travelling! Hans had biked all over the world and seems very comfortable going solo. Age-wise he seemed like he was retired. We told him about Lucho´s place in Trujillo and he yodelled as he slid off into the distance!

1. Hans - German cyclist 2. Mewes and Astrid riding into the desert

Astrid set a fast pace after lunch and we sailed 66 kms into Chao a little after 4pm. Took showers and did laundry. At the laundry site, I was introduced to a zoo of animals and birds. I was pecked by a penguin, flashed by a peacock, and whistled at by two parrots and stared at by monkeys while I laundered our clothes. What a delightful surprise!

Tomorrow we leave the Pan Am for a dirt road which climbs thousands of meters up into the high Andes. For the next 150 k approximately we will be without support services and need to carry 10 litres of water and 3 days of meals. Rough camping here we come!

6-23

A day in the desert on a dirt road, climbing into the Andes... blue sky and sun, dripping with sweat and dusty, rocks and sandy soil under our wheels. M & A sometimes lead, sometimes we lead. There is no vegetation for miles. We follow a river valley, green at the bottom with the river sparkling in the desert light. As we climb the valley narrows into a canyon and the noise from the rushing river increases. Today we stopped and cooked pasta with bread and Pepsi at the road side. M & A are well practiced and are up and cooking before we are ever set up…stove going, soup hot, bread for dipping, we eat sitting on the ground.
Hours later we roll into a village for a 4pm dinner of chicken and rice, then decide to check out the gas station next door to see if we can camp there for the night. The station attendant says OK, so we set up our tents and guess what? There were showers in the men’s bathroom…clean, cold water. WOW what a nice surprise. I thought we would be camping along side the road…dirty and tired. Instead we are clean and even shared beers as the sun set behind the mountains sitting with our back against the walls of the gas station. There was a slight breeze blowing the little tree in front and the attendant and his friend were playing the guitar and singing wonderful, soft Peruvian tunes. A very good 2nd day with M & A.

1. Early morning on Bici 2. M & A & Judee - Can you find them? 3. Narrow canyon overhang

6-24

Today we continued our upward progress on a stretch of really bad, rough and rocky dirt road for 56k, climbing approx 920m. The climbing isn’t steep, just constant – but the road is battering the tandem and us. By the end of the day, we had fallen 4 times – twice because of road conditions (soft dirt or big rocks) and twice because Art had just gotten so tired he couldn’t keep us upright when we stopped the bike! We began before 8 am and rode until a little after 5pm. It was one of the toughest riding days I can remember.

But, the spectacular and majestic beauty of this area is overwhelming. There is no way to photograph the immense size of the rock formation, the depth of the canyon (at times, invisible to one’s eye) the colours of sulphur, carbon, and iron painting the mountainsides is beyond description and photographic imaging. Little villages appeared where water seeped into the canyon, harnessed by impressive and intricate irrigation systems that supported an amazing wealth of edible plants and trees grown to supply the people living there. Wonderful people. Friendly people. Beautiful, often in native dress. Curious. This is truly Peru!

We set up camp near on of these towns, bathed in water that poured through an irrigation ditch for about 2 hours before it was closed. We pulled cactus thorns out of flat tires before we could be ready for the next day’s journey.

6-25

Awoke to crisp, blue skies and shared thoughts on last nights abundance of stars and gentle breezes and soft temperatures…shook off the pains from yesterday, bathed in the ditch, flowing again this morning and take off after breakfast.

Our bike and gear are coated with 1” of dust from yesterday and we will be too in about 3 or 4 more switchbacks on this dry, dust road. Today, we need to take it easy. We feel as if we have been riding all day even though we have just started!

We stop at little villages for supplies – lots more water and coke and then we snake up the canyon – a lot more of the same majestic scenery of yesterday for about 15km. We arrive at Huallania, a good sized village, home to a large hydro-electric project in an affluent village, where we eat and rest. We have been on the road for 4 hours already as we begin the switchback above the town and onward up the canyon. I thought we had seen some of the most incredible scenery on earth when we come into Canon del Pato – so narrow we pass through 35 tunnels in about 10km! To photograph a waterfall/cascade I had to use 3 frames, one on top of the other – like 3 panoramics stitched together! Massive! The force of the water echoes off the canyon walls.

1. Switch backs 2. Art and the tunnel 3. Snow capped mountains

After we completed the tunnels – asphalt!! Smooth, fast running asphalt and only 30km to Cañaz, our goal for hostal and restaurants. Exhausted, sore, but exultant, we enjoyed a last meal with A & M. They are heading on the Huaraz in the morning but we are staying here an extra day to lick our wounds and try to rid Bici of the dusty coast he has acquired. We would not have missed the experience, but feel these rough, grave/boulder roads are not what Bici and our older bones were made for!

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