Day 26: Laguna 531 We’ve ascended to glacial lakes in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountain range by a couple of different methods: group tours (Paron, 69) and completely-independent bike-and-hike (Churup). Our fourth (and likely final) ascent, to Laguna 513, was a bit different. For some reason, there is no high-volume infrastructure for funneling tourists to Laguna… Read more…

Days 14-21 A few days after Rett’s crash, we needed to move out of Eva/Nancy’s aptly-named “Cozy House” AirBNB, because someone else had the temerity to book it for three nights. To allow for the changeover/cleaning process between when we returned, we booked a week at another AirBNB. It was a a few blocks closer… Read more…

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…