Bikepacking to La Paz by the back door – tracks and trails of the Cordillera Real via Condoriri basecamp. Bitterly cold with snow to negotiate on the high passes above 5000m.
Photography Archive
Titicaca etc
It wasn’t quite what I had planned for the road ahead, however there are far worse ways to spend an afternoon than introducing a ten year old Aymara lad to the delights of skimming stones on the shore of Lake Titicaca, not to mention enjoying other ten year old things, reminiscent of my own childhood, such as getting filthy scrambling up and down loose cliffs, messing in old boats and so on. The sort of …
Cusco Streets
It can be quite hard to deal with a forced change of plan sometimes, especially when coming to terms with dropping some bits that would have made for some really, really great, albeit very high, cold and difficult riding. As such my morale was quite low on arrival in Cusco. I hadn’t planned to come here again and all I could see initially was the degree to which the place has become defined by tourism …
Bits and bobs, and other stuff
A few remaining bits and bobs of street photography from Ayacucho. I finally left early on Sunday morning to arrive a day and half, and three collectivos/buses later in Cusco. I hadn’t planned to visit Cusco again but thanks to bronchitis and the time spent trying to recover it felt like the only place to head to. From Ayacucho buses seemed to mostly go to Lima.. or Cusco, direct or with various vias depending on …
Mi Familia Ayacuchana
With the exception of a few incidents, best forgotten, in Ecuador years ago, the people of South America have, over the years I’ve been visiting, been unfailingly awesome. So welcoming and ready to bring a lone bicycle traveller into their lives, especially here in Peru. It’s for that reason mainly that I realised that, no matter what happens with my chest, I must stay as long as I can. Things are much better, I have …
A little bit of Ayacucho
So very different to the quiet towns and villages of the highlands; noiser, grittier, busier, Ayacucho at times feels a little overwhelming to someone more used to the quiet places. There is good food, coffee, and cake however which helps enormously. It is a very different environment for street photography… I find it quite distracting and confusing, and the light doesn’t have the quality of the highland towns. Still, I’ve had a crack since I …
A Huancavelica Portfolio
Most folk are familiar with the Peru described by evocative Inca ruins, traditional Quechua & Aymara cultures and so on. There is also the Peru that is simply regular life for the inhabitants of the towns, villages, and ‘campo’. I was fortunate enough to explore that former aspect many years ago, beginning all the way back in 1998, and while I still find it interesting and attractive, I find myself more compelled to explore the ‘ordinary …
Purple Brolly
A final few bits and bobs of street photography from Jauja. I’m well enough I think to sling a leg over my bike and hit the trail at last, tomorrow, or at a stretch Sunday. Next stop is Huancavelica I think, about 350km of dirt, and around 8900m of climbing away. It’s been nice to get to know a few faces around town, and of course I always enjoy opportunities to hang out with a …
Dé-Jauja-vu
There is a long distance bus company in Jauja called Apocalipse (sic), the choice of such a name is, I suspect, not intended to be ironic*.. but it could be given the statistics for Peru’s notoriously dangerous mountain roads. I’m glad to be able to travel largely off-piste on a bicycle. Not just yet however as enjoying the interiors of Peru’s rural medical centres seems to have become something of a theme over the last …
Jauja
Jauja, pronounced “How-ha” is a small town in the central highlands east of Lima. Being just a seven hour bus ride from Lima, tiny by Peruvian standards, and sitting at an altitude of 3400m (11,200ft) in the fertile Mantaro valley it seemed like a good place to come and sit on my arse while acclimatising to the altitude and collecting my thoughts for the onward journey. I did not know this until after I arrived …
January Pictures
January has been a somewhat uninspiring month; I saw a comment from my sister a couple of days ago saying how it “feels like the 194th of January”.. so I know it’s not just me. Nearly at the end however and I should have some interesting “sewing of bike bags” news to share soon however. I’m also headed back to South America come spring because I like it there and this time, as it will likely be …
Cajamarca Bits
Just a little bit more street photography from Cajamarca. I love street photography… just hanging out with a 35mm lens and watching life go by. The sort of pictures that just happen and sometimes need to be looked at for more than a moment. I feel I need to go somewhere and do something in the autumn and I rather think a chilled out cruise on my bike between interesting places, simple fixed lens camera …
Superpowers
I had hoped I might at least acquire some superpowers, or a glow in the dark party trick as a consequence of being irradiated at a dodgy-looking backstreet x-ray clinic, one situated somewhat ominously next to a funeral parlour…. I looked at the label on the machine as the radiographer tried to get me into just the right position for a chest x-ray. “Korea – 2011” it said so no such luck. Probably just as …
Déjà vu
I’m in Cajamarca in the north of Peru but it seems as if I am back where I was a year ago dealing with that really rather nasty chest infection. Whether it left me permanently more susceptible or never really went away I don’t know. I was chesty a lot in the winter, my doc shrugged his shoulders and said “there’s a lot of it about”. I was also really chesty through spring into summer. …
Year end pictures
Almost the last day of the year. It’s raining, as per normal, and for once I’m trying to be grown up by getting on with some of the jobs that need doing when you live in a 200+ year old heap of granite… like fixing, filling, and painting. Inevitably however things like paint need time to dry, and frequent tea breaks are required so I thought I might just use this opportunity throw a few pictures …