Our bodies are rested after a day off the bike, cleaning and repairing Bici, cleaning the panniers and laundering our clothes. We enjoyed Caraz and would have stayed and possibly have taken a tour if the beds weren’t so impossibly hard.

We started out early under a bristol blue sky, winding our way up the canyon, now populated and farmed. Flowers, artichokes and all types of vegetables were growing thanks to numerous cascades pounding down the mountainsides toward the Rio Santa. And then we started to see them: the Codillero Blancos, topped with snow and peaking at between 5900 and 6768 meters (Huascaran Mountain being the tallest). We were speechless but took loads of pictures!

1. Mountain view 2. Mother & Daughter 3. Judee and Grandmother

We really enjoy the Peruvian people, but have been shy about taking pictures. Today, as we stopped for a mid-morning break, we met the cutest grandma who WANTED us to take photos of her very shy granddaughter. Perhaps, we will ask more of our Andean acquaintances for more photo ops!
Huaraz is the head of the Huascaran valley, dividing the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Negra, two mountain ranges separated by the Rio Santa. This is a destination for climbers and trekkers world wide and we met a number of French, Swiss, and German adventurers. There are an abundance of back packers also here to partake of many bus/van guided tours to glacier lakes, extremely high over-views, and to see pre-Incan ruins.

4. Mountain view and donkey 5. Mountains 6. citizens of Chavin

Open to the public 9 years ago, Chavin de Huantar intrigued us, so on 6-28 we took an all day tour up and over a 4500 meter mountain pass and into another valley to see this amazing site. This city and its temples constructed of rock, some brought from many miles away had a sophisticated understanding of astronomy and mathematics plus a calendar!

7. Chavin people 8. Chavin Site 9- Judee on roof top, Huaraz

6-29

We left Huaraz and continued our ascent over the pass, heading back to the coast. The grade was not that steep, but the altitude tends to slow us down – the pass is 4,100 meters. We left the agriculture and come into large grassy plains with Andean people grazing their sheep, cows and goats. We kept expecting to see lamas, but the ones at Chavin or in touristed places are more common.

1. Judee and fish vendor 2. Judee & Mountains 3. Our campsite

After 65 km we stopped by the river, made dinner and crawled into the tent for what I think will be a VERY COLD night – at less the 20 km from the pass – pretty high!

6-30

We woke early, but it was still soooo cold, we rolled over until the sun hit the tent. Ice formed on our tent from our breath and the melting ice began to pour off the ceiling onto the sleeping bags. Two people never moved so fast to dress, tear down camp, and make breakfast. We didn’t get on the road until 9:30!
We are at about 3800m climbing to 4100m in the next 16 km – a bleak but awe inspiring landscape. A spiky grass grows that feels more like cactus than grass, many varieties of spiky plants grow very close to the ground. The valley is broad with the Rio Santa snaking through it. And we saw a small herd of lamas!

After we crested the pass, we were greeted with notorious switch backs on a ‘holey’ road. In a couple of places road crews were attempting to rectify the problems. The descent was slow and cautious – however, we dropped to sea level in 120 kms. – the same 4100 m elevation that took us 5+ days and 349 kms to climb up. The canyon had gardens of flowers hanging from its sides; some planted, some wild, sweet with pleasant fragrances. As we dropped lower, the agriculture re-appeared, and as we got to where we could smell the sea, a fog came into view, obliterating views to the sea.

1. View from camp 2. Live sheep on van 3. Art at top of pass

We looked for a campsite, but it was only 2:30pm – so we kept riding. Soon we were in an area populated by chile farms with the produce laid out drying among their stick shacks. Then we dropped lower and into miles of sugar cane. There was no place to stop, so we pressed on and at 5pm arrived in Baranca – 146km (84miles) from our departure point this morning – our longest day. Amazing what an 80 km downhill can do for our averages!

4. Flowers at top of pass 5. On the way down from pass 6. Drying Chilies

From here our plans are to take a bus through Lima to Nasca – many kilometers south to avoid both the pacific desert coast with its unrelenting winds and Lima itself, known to be ugly, polluted and dangerous for tourists.

7-3

We made it to Nasca and are preparing for about 2 weeks riding up to Cusco. Today we will take a flight in a small plane to see the Nasca Lines – huge drawings in the desert created by the pre-Incan civilization about 400 AD. There are tremendous numbers of ancient cultures here, most being excavated since the 1980’s. The information is still new – but the stick structures that many used then are still being used today! There are mummies, so well preserved by this desert environment that the skin is still on their faces. Woven articles, so fine, are still intact. We are so lucky to be able to see this!