31.2 mi / 4.9 mph / 2700 ft. climbing
Home: Hotel Señor de Mayo

We got breakfast at a place recommended on iOverlander just steps from our hotel, and it was the most efficient breakfast we’ve had in Peru. The woman running the place was in constant motion, taking orders, delivering food, cashing out, all interleaved together. We might have been in and out in about 10 minutes!

The exit from La Unión was also efficient, even though it climbed more steeply than the entry had descended. But it continued to be paved, and it felt easy to me (Rett was a bit more challenged by the grade and narrow switchbacking road threading between houses that didn’t disappear until halfway up).

At the top was something very unusual: a broad plateau, gridded into acre-sized properties. On the map, it looks like a city-sized subdivision, physically larger than the actual town of La Unión in the valley below. But since I knew it wasn’t a “town”, I wondered if it was like the vast never-populated subdivision on the southwest side of the Big Island of Hawaii. On arrival, it looked like many of the squares in the grid were occupied, but by small-scale farmers. Which makes me wonder if it was some sort of government-planned/social-housing project: “Are you sick and tired of farming on your triangular plot of land with a 25% slope (the ad-hoc property type of most rural Peruvians)? Move to Gellaycancha instead, where the flat, fertile ground will make your life 70% easier!”

Soon after the grid of adobe walls ended, so did the pavement. The road split, and we chose the left fork, toward Rondos, even though it’s the longer route, with the hope that the gravel surface might be better. It didn’t start great, and got worse as we climbed, necessitating a lot of walking.

Thankfully the gravel surface got a bit better on the downhill, and as we got closer to Rondos, the valleys deepened and once again became National Park-worthy.

After leaving Rondos, we stayed up on the higher road (109) rather than taking the route (732/1138) that hugs the river before rejoining. It’s shorter, has less climbing, and it’s what everyone else who has gone this way has taken. And it was the most bone-rattling road we’ve been on. The 3.3 miles to the junction took forever, and once rejoined, the surface got quite a bit better again into Baños. So to anyone else considering this route, be a pioneer and try the river road. There’s no way it could be worse!

Rett was mentally done though, and for better or worse, was just flying over the bumpy gravel, bashing her way to our destination. She was also screaming bloody murder at any dogs who approached, and her rock-throwing arm was firing at will. I’m definitely glad that we didn’t try to ride from Huallanca to Baños all in one day!

When we got to our chosen hotel, it was a little confusing what door was theirs, but when I tried one, I immediately knew it was correct because there was another touring bike already parked in the courtyard! And then another one, a tandem! And then while we waited for our room to be cleaned, another couple showed up! Suddenly we were in a place where seven bicycle travelers would be staying. We commiserated a bit (they were all Europeans), but then we ran out to find a tienda with beers before showering and going out to dinner.

Day 2

Unlike all the other bike tourers, we were lucky to get a first floor room, with our bikes right outside our door. Also unlike all the other bike tourers, we were taking a rest day, which gave me a chance to do some overdue bike maintenance. It’s nice that hotels find spots in their shops or wherever to store our bikes, but it means that lately I haven’t had access to them at the times I would normally do maintenance.

Among other things, I finished straightening Rett’s derailleur hanger/dropout, replaced my front brake pads (Peru burns through them like toilet paper), swapped/patched some tubes, zip-tied Rett’s broken bottle cage, and lubed our chains.

Baños isn’t a high-class town, so while our hotel was likely one of the best, it had a CRT TV, a single outlet far from the bed, and a not-very-hot shower. But the bathroom wall faced the sun (rare for a wall in a Peruvian town to not be shared with a neighboring building), so the bathroom was much warmer than the bedroom.

The upside to relatively-primitive accomodations is that I feel less shame about acting in relatively-primitive ways, such as setting up our gasoline-powered stove in the shower to do some cooking. We also went from seven bike tourers to just us tonight, so the hotel had maybe one other guest.

The restaurant we went to both nights also wasn’t great, but it got the job done. The second night, the town’s power went out while we were eating, but a battery-powered LED immediately flipped on, and none of the other diners seemed particularly fazed, suggesting this happens frequently.