Peru Archive

On from Espinar

It’s been a while so I think I will split this into two posts… one today and one tomorrow. When I last wrote I was in Espinar and planning a slightly easier route for a while in the hope that it would help me get rid of the lingering chest bug… but there was still the matter of a 4700m pass to get over in order to get away from Espinar and find that mellower …

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Onwards and Upwards…

.. at last. I was able to leave Chivay after just over 2 weeks of convalescence so to speak. Still not 100% and with a persistent chesty cough I decided I was going anyway. I did however take it easy on the first day, just cruising gently back up the valley of the Rio Colca, back to Sibayo at just under 4000m and 36km away. As I cruised slowly up the valley I met an …

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Onwards… perhaps

Hopefully this will be my last post from Chivay. It has been two weeks and I feel at something of a crossroads. Yesterday I went for a short spin up the valley on my unloaded bike, just to see how I was… I was OK, but not brilliant. My chest is still bit tight and I have periods of feeling really tired and weak. Whatever that infection was it really screwed me over. Morale is …

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A little bit more Chivay

One is still in Chivay. It’s been a week now. The last couple of days I have been navigating the apparent chaos of the Peruvian rural healthcare system, and, having found my way around it I’ve been really happy despite ending up with a large, and somewhat painful needle in my arm… not to mention being told I must not eat any cuy (guinea pig) for the next few days…..!  Now, I’m generally shy of …

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Chivay

… not unexpectedly, some street photography from Chivay. It’s a lovely little town and so far being forced to stick around hasn’t been a chore, rather the opposite.. although I am having periods of low morale as the days tick by and I still feel weak and chesty…  But as always when I spend a bit of time in a place the place seems to make time for me. There are some friendly folk around, …

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Arriba…

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 …

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Arequipa… part 2

We delayed departure from Arequipa by a day to spend a little more time exploring what is a rather wonderful town. There are a ton of riding photos and stories from the road to come tomorrow, I have my feet up in Chivay today, but this set I think are best kept separate from those… so without further ado….. oh no, wait… before that – a couple of recommendations in particular if you’re heading this …

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via Arequipa

Hitting the road tomorrow so now seemed like a good opportunity to sling up a quick post with some pics. In Arequipa at present in the south. I had thought I might go north to begin with but the wet season seems to be lingering much longer up that way (it’s an el Niño year)… and purely by chance an old riding friend happened to be flying into Peru from New Mexico earlier this week …

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la última entrada de América del Sur ….

I fly out of here tomorrow so this will be my last post from South America… for the time being ;-) I’m feeling a bit crap today, haven’t had a lot of sleep this week for various reasons…. so I think I had better go and buy an alarm clock for tomorrow morning as I have a feeling I may sleep in if I’m not careful. My bike is all packed now got hold of …

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Chinchero, fake Soles etc

…a breakfast of oats & quinoa with a mug of coffee in the plaza at Ollantaytambo sorted me out well for the climb back up out of the Sacred Valley… 20km gentle climb back up-river by way of a warm-up to the scruffy little cross-roads town of Urabamba and then a further 30km of steep switchbacks that took me all the way back up to 3900m ASL. My plan was to go only as far …

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Pisac, Ollantaytambo y un gato bizco…

as I write I’m in the pretty little pueblo of Ollantaytambo nestled among steep mountainsides at the northern end of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.. Most of the time it is a tranquil little place but later in the day it gets busy as the tour buses make their stop off. It’s an interesting little place, aside from the almost obligatory Inca fortress on the mountainside above this pueblo retains much of the original …

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Ice cold ‘n nice rocks in Cuzco .. :-)

…despite the title the weather here is perfect.. clear days around 25 degs C with cool evenings and chilly nights…  when a title sprung to mind I was thinking more of a bottle of Peru’s finest… served ice cold :-) The last couple of days since parking my bike in the corner of my room have been wonderfully lazy, the lower altitude (3400m) and good food mean I’m feeling really good again and happy as… …

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los últimos días: Puno a Cuzco

… in the words of Jim Morrison… This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end….. …ahh but I’m getting ahead of myself,  last time I wrote I was still in Puno, this is another long one by the way so you might want to get a mug of tea, or a beer or something before reading …

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floating on a bed of reeds…

Well I stayed in Puno an extra day, due in part to a chance chat with a local chap last night who knew someone who ran a tour boat out to the Uros Islands.. so this morning I was down on the dock at about 7.45am watching various tour groups depart on boats for the various islands scattered around the lake. My new friend showed up and I was given a ride by one of …

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