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…

“Embrace the risk”, says Henry Brown’s subconscious, precisely the opposite of what comes naturally to his cautious, risk-assessing self. Mr. Brown is Paddington’s foster father from the children’s books (played by the Earl of Grantham from ‘Downton Abbey’), and the risk he is embracing is getting on a plane and flying from his comfortable home Read more…