We began the morning with a becoming-customary wander around town in search of a place serving breakfast (Google seems particularly useless for this task in Peru). After 20 minutes with no luck, we resorted to asking our hotel host for a recommendation. He (with the help of his wife on the phone) recommended the central… Read more…

It was 28F in the morning, enough to frost the tent for the first time (and then cause dripping inside when 7am sun melted it all at once), but not enough to freeze our water supplies. Thankfully the wind was negligible, so breakfast was chilly but manageable. While I was walking around and packing up,… Read more…

Our tree- and mountain-shaded campsite at 12,500 ft. was down to 40°F by bedtime, and 32°F when we woke this morning. “Warm” enough that our water didn’t freeze! The light traffic on the gravel “National Highway” dropped to nearly nothing overnight, so it was easy to sleep, even on our not-entirely-flat tent floor (the mattress… Read more…

We took a wander around town looking for a place for breakfast, and settled on a option around the corner. There was one group inside (who surprisingly seemed like tourists as well), but then a lot of other people dropped in, so apparently we picked the right place. No menu, so a bit of guesswork… Read more…

By normal standards, today’s ride would be very short, with more downhill than uphill. But we’ve never encountered roads as slowing as Peru’s, and it would take us more than two hours of pedaling time at the very slow average speed of 6.5mph to go from town to town. Chacas and San Luis are just… Read more…

Our successful traversal of one high pass in the Peruvian Andes did a lot to quell my fears about our ability to ride through this challenging country. But up next would be something even more-challenging: an ascent to (and descent from) another high pass, but this time on a terrible gravel road, rather than smooth… Read more…