Curahuasi, PE to Limatambo, PE

27.5 mi / 7.9 mph / 2723 ft. climbing
Home: Hostal La Posada de Carmen

Every pair of pass-and-valleys in these enormously-folded Andes is unique, but our days have definitely been following a pattern. This day was another one where we would finish with a big climb out of a deep hole, and thus needed to get to that bottom as early as possible, before the heat and the bugs rose up. So it was another up-at-4am, cook breakfast in the shower morning, and we were rolling downhill out of Curahuasi by 6:15am.

Sunrise view from our hotel bathroom in Curahuasi.

And a view out of the bedroom window in the opposite direction, with this mountain turned nearly as orange as the sun itself.

Our plan quickly ran into a problem though. The valley that dropped away on our left side, faster than the road itself descended, was too stunning to let it scroll past at maximum speed. We were “forced” to make frequent stops for photos, or to simply to gaze across the multi-tiered mountains simultaneously above and below us.

This conical mountain in the center of the valley would feature prominently in many of the views of this landscape.

The mountains behind the cone rise high enough to be covered in snow and ice.

And now the full range, from the snow on high to the deep-carved valley below.

All the topographic drama was generally on our left side and frequently behind us, but switchbacks would regularly turn us into the face of it all.

#FindRett riding in front of the endless mountains (she’s about halfway between the car and the bottom of the frame.

I’m sure this landscape would be arresting in any light, but being on the road early enough to see the streaming rays of sunrise surely makes it even more special.

Riding in the shade of both green- and white-cloaked mountains.

Some unusual sharply-carved mountains high above the (current!) river valley.

I don’t know why those lazy Incas didn’t build another Machu Picchu here (actually I do know, it’s too low and hot!)

It’s certainly not like being in Huaraz where we could see glacier-capped mountains outside our apartment every morning, but the absence allows the heart to grow fonder for the now-rare views of snow.

The fire isn’t responsible for the hazy purpling of the mountains, but it still adds to the photo!

See, Inca nobleman, there’s a little green wedge running down the mountain face just to the left of the big knob sticking up (that will look great in tourist photos 500 years later!) where you can build your estate.

The mountain’s shadow in this photo almost makes it look like the river just dead-ends into the bowl of cliff-faces. Even in full sun it would still look like quite a trap!

Down low enough that there are roadside ice cream shops!

There are supposedly places along the Apurimac River gorge that are twice as deep as the Grand Canyon; this carved-down cliff-face isn’t *that* tall, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either.

Even in our days a couple months ago when we were seeing snow-capped peaks constantly, this saturated-green + white combination was rarely seen.

Yep, this is a pretty nice place for a morning ride.

We spent half the descent and a quarter of ascent heading toward “Batman Mountain” there on the right.

This mountain next to “Batman” doesn’t have the ears, but it has the sheer up-and-down slopes that really make it feel like we’re getting closer to Machu Picchu.

It took us 1h45m to cover the 15 downhill miles to the bottom, which is really slow for a 2600-foot descent (though it did have ~300 feet of climbs embedded within). But that means we still made it to the bottom by 8am, at which point the 69°F temperature was unusually warm for us, but surely one of the cooler moments of the day at this 6100 foot elevation. Shortly after crossing the Apurimac River (and entering the district of Cusco), we stopped in a bit of shade where we could slowly stroll back-and-forth at bug-avoiding pace while stripping down our warm layers. After that 15-mile descent to do a meet-and-greet with the river that had carved this epic canyon, we only rode alongside the Apurimac for two miles before we agreed that we were heading in opposite directions, and headed more-steeply up along one of his tributaries instead (the “Rio Colorado”, speaking of the Grand Canyon!)

If you were at the mouth of the Amazon river in Brazil, and wanted to drive to the opposite bank, and the first two bridges you came to were closed, this is the bridge (Puente Cunyac) that you would need to drive to, 3790 miles upstream.

Crossing the Amazon River (system), known as the Apurimac River at this point, with only two other vehicle bridges further downstream (with the first being only 120 miles closer to its mouth).

Can’t you keep us in shade just a little longer, Mr. Mountain? Don’t you want everyone to notice how tall and sun-blocking you are?!

Thanks, cactus, in case we didn’t already know that we were at the lowest and hottest part of the valley.

Now in our hot-weather outfits, we kiss the Apurimac River at a curve.

We’ve now left the 2x-Grand-Canyon Apurimac gorge, and here in the “Colorado River” gorge, there are appropriately some Grand Canyon-colored walls rising up.

We countered the increasing heat of the rising sun by increasing our elevation up the 2500-foot climb, and while we weren’t quite fast enough for the latter to completely cancel out the former, the temperature (in the shade) rose only to 73-75°F for most of the way up. That was still brutally hot for Rett, who was especially flagging when the road traced the left side of the river (which it did for most of its run), rather than the nice period on the right side where we could be tucked up against the shade of the mountains.

There were sections of the ascent where there were occasionally tall trees, and along with the road and mountains and lighting, it unexpectedly reminded me very much of the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Climbing up the hot canyon of the “other” Colorado River.

But the bugs ended up being a bigger problem than the heat. They certainly weren’t the worst we’ve experienced, and were barely an issue while riding, but they made it impossible to stop to eat our lunch in peace. Even though we did a good job of snacking (the entire case of Reese’s NutRageous bars that we’d found in Abancay were proving to be a great buy!), the climb became increasingly-grueling without a proper break. Though at least unlike the hot climb into Abancay, today’s destination of Limantambo is small enough that it doesn’t add big-city traffic (or really any traffic!) to the mental and physical load. Finally a mile out from our hotel, facing a steep final climb, we stopped and set up our chairs on a sidewalk in the shade of a tree, high enough that the bugs had decreased enough for occasional rubs of my ankles to keep them from biting (or, tired enough that their bites went unnoticed).

I’m 90% sure that these are Inca terraces, just behind the soccer field on the west end of Limatambo, but apparently we’ve suddenly reached a place where Inca terraces are so unexciting that they don’t merit a single mention anywhere online!

Even with the fuel and the rest, that last mile was still really hard and hot, so the friendly welcome we received at Hostal La Posada de Carmen was much appreciated, especially since it wasn’t even noon! Our big room came with a wheeled rack perfect for hanging a lot of clothing, so along with the wide-open window and comfortable temperatures, Rett did a good-sized load of sink-laundry that dried quickly. The warm sunny afternoon was perfect for napping, which Rett did, while I did a quick exploration of the small town, and came away impressed and comforted by its attractive public spaces and narrow colonial (or earlier?) streets.

We had less luck when we went out for our dinner/grocery run. The highly-rated Peruvian place that we first tried had no good seating, because a group of guys were watching a loud football match in the main room, so we left there and settled on an unknown-to-Google pizza place, which turned out better-than-expected, though the bottle of wine we selected was rather sweet (but hey, they had wine!) Not sure whether we wanted to breakfast in our room, or go out in the morning, we visited half-a-dozen stores looking for yogurt (and I later went out on my own to visit the other half of the dozen in town), coming up empty. And asking at restaurants when they opened for breakfast didn’t result in any sufficiently-early answers. So we’ll see!

Limatambo’s plaza, where a seat in the shade feels absolutely perfect on this warm sunny day.

Our hotel is on a street that dead-ends into a school, and several snack carts arrived just before school let out to sell treats to the students.

Rett find’s a friend in Limatambo, at the top of a nice linear park that I hadn’t even seen before I declared it an attractive small town.

Limatambo’s angry big cat, at the bottom of the linear park (a giant condor sculpture sits near the middle).

The narrow streets of Limatambo at night.

Curahuasi, PE to Limatambo, PE

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