Rides bikes, paddles sea kayaks, takes pictures. Life on the road & my home in Cornwall.
Arriba…
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It was a bit of a late start leaving Arequipa… one last leisurely coffee then a chase around the steep suburbs above the city in search of a ferreteria selling stove fuel (‘ron de quemar’.. essentially ‘rum to burn’ – otherwise known as meths.. at least in the UK), by which time it was lunchtime and made sense to enjoy a set lunch from the cafe adjacent to the ferreteria.
It’s a steep climb out of Arequipa… and relentless. It goes all the way up to something like 4500m on a rough track that switchbacks its way up the flanks of Nevado Chachani (6057m). We made it to something like 3600m by sunset. Still suffering from the effects of the chest bug I’d collected I felt deeply, deeply shagged as I pitched my tent on a handy flat spot off the trail. The following day brought yet more climbing, high onto the puna with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. It felt like a long day, we made some 70km before making camp at sunset on a particularly windswept section of puna. Bitterly cold too, my waterbottles were frozen solid by midnight… and stupidly I left my water filter in the open on my bike so that’s busted now as a result of the freezing. I was quite fuddled that evening, the effects of altitude, not feeling well, and simple fatigue. Oh well, just going to have to manage without it now. I think springs in the high mountains should be ok to drink untreated, there’s so much UV in the sunlight to sterilise things, and little livestock above 4500m.
Anyway, I’ll tell the rest of the story in pictures and captions as usual. I’ve descended all the way to Chivay at 3600m for a few days r&r, I was getting quite run down with the chest bug becoming quite entrenched and not being fully acclimatized to altitude yet. It’s kind of a bummer that I have to climb all the way back up to 4700m from here but such is life. Chivay is a good place to rest, friendly, colourful, with lots of good food. I took a room above a cafe that has great coffee and cake. Very important.. I suspect I shall be here for a few days… some street photography to follow I expect and I have some work to catch up with. Amusingly my bike is parked upstairs at the back of the posh dining room :-) Also a good guide to whether or not a bike is overloaded, I carried my fully loaded bike up two flights of stairs in one go. It’s important I think to be able to manhandle your bike loaded, especially if making use of buses and trains, far less likely to have stuff nicked while you’re faffing with bags and stuff.
Right, that’ll do for now. I need to go find a lavanderia to get my riding clothes washed. I suppose…..
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2 thoughts on “Arriba…”
Thanks for the great read!
It looks like the Alpaca had some bike-packing bags of his own!
Thanks for the great read!
It looks like the Alpaca had some bike-packing bags of his own!
hehe, yeah, I think that might be for his lunch money or something….