I often lament, facetiously, that other bike tourers are far better at collecting “stories” than we are. The best of those stories span a wide dynamic range, usually involving risk or danger, but then also rescue and humanity. Due to our risk-tolerance being lower than average, few of our stories would draw the interest of… Read more…

Day 11 All the exhilaration and anguish that our lifestyle can bring was compressed into this one very long day. It began with a repeat of our ride from five days ago, up 2400 feet on paved PE-14A to Pitec, and the trailhead to Laguna Churup. The ride was just as excellent, and in a… Read more…

Day 9: Laguna Paron Unlike our previous three expeditions from Huaraz, we didn’t build in a rest-day after yesterday’s bike ride, and in fact were waking up at 5am. But, we wouldn’t be pedaling our bikes anywhere. Instead, a van was taking us on a multi-hour drive to Laguna Paron, a turquoise alpine lake. Rett… Read more…

Day 8 This day, instead of a bike ride, we would learn some history of this land. Haha, no, we were still doing a bike ride, but halfway up the mountain we made a stop at Willcahuian, a set of stone buildings constructed by the Wari culture (or maybe the earlier Recuay culture), sometime between… Read more…

Day 6 After a day of rest, it was time to try a longer, higher bike ride. It would still be an unloaded out-and-back (or more-accurately, “up-and-down”), but this time on pavement the whole way. It quickly turned into what must be one of the most-spectacular day-rides in the world. Minimal traffic on the narrow… Read more…

Day 4 One practical definition of “paradise” (or at least one aspect of it) can be “a place where the climate requires no artificial heating or cooling to make humans comfortable”. A place where it never became necessary to draw hard lines of separation between indoor and outdoor living. Usually that conjures images of ocean-mediated… Read more…