Day 3
Tarma to Maria's Hideaway in the Sky
Distance: 135 Km 84 miles
Climbing: 1,800 meters 6,000 feet
Ending elevation: 13,000 feet
Road Surface: 40K gravel, remainder paved
Today was one of those days. Not enough daylight to finish the ride, due to a late 8:00 am start, a stop at a cave, and another stop for shopping. We started in the morning with a pleasant temperature, going through Tarma's busy market area and gradually getting out of town. After passing through a few small towns, we hit the first gravel road of the trip - decent surface, actually. Some gradual, then some, uh, less gradual climbing eventually led to our first rest stop at the Huagapo Cave. I arrived with Wim and Nancy, and Brian and Janet, and we were informed by the rest stop crew that we shouldn't continue on, since the bus was not there yet.
So, we hiked up to the cave and looked around; not a very exciting cave, though we heard that it got better if you waded through the underground creek into deeper passages (right). Below is a shot first of the creek coming out of the cave, then me inside climbing an old ladder back into the depths, and finally a photo looking out as we left. There went one hour.
Finally got back on the bike, continued climbing, first past a donkey expressing his displeasure:
Then we hit a great climb up a number of switchbacks on dirt:
That was as good as they come; getting us back up to around 13,000 feet, to the small town of San Pedro De Cajus. Here we stopped for a designated shopping spree - everyone was buying alpaca hats, sweaters, rugs, etc from the small shops around the square. Here are a couple looms from one of the shops:
While there a bunch of kids from a school across the street came over to see what was happening. Side note: in many of the towns, when we stopped at our rest stops, we would get surrounded by people who would look at us in fascination. Below I was joined by some kids who were doing conejo (rabbit) ears on me:
Finally after an hour here, we got going again with yet another climb of switchbacks on dirt up from the town. Here's a shot looking back at San Pedro.
After hitting the summit of this climb at about 15,000 feet, we dropped for a bit on the gravel before hitting a paved road. I was riding with Lon at this point, and after a few minutes on pavement, we got hit by a couple hail storms followed by downpours. It's great to get wet at this altitude! There was a gradual drop for a while, but pesky winds kept it from being fast. We finally got to the lunch stop at about 90 Km at 3:30, and we still had about 50 K to go. Not enough daylight. I quickly scarfed a warm bowl of soup and some rice with chicken, and headed back out. It was getting cold, fighting the wind, going slow.
We had one more climb left for the day. I was in front, watching the dusk come in, and picking up some sprinkles from above. The bus came by as I was within 3 K of the top of this last climb, so I flagged it down and joined the others who were already sagged. Wimped out. It was dark by the time we approached a place to stop for the night - they had moved the stop up a little ways from the original stop. There was general confusion as the support crew looked for a place to camp. eventually Lon showed up riding down the hill in the dark. They ended up talking to a woman at an adobe house next to the road, who graciously offered for us to stay in her home. There were 5 or 6 riders still out on the road, all who came in eventually in good shape, considering that the downhill was very wet and very dark.
So, we set up some tents, and the rest of us slept on cots inside the house. We didn't eat until late, and it was very cold and damp out - this was at 13,000 feet, mind you. And, no where to clean up - I went to bed without even washing up from the day's ride - yuck. When getting ready for bed, I heard some noise next to me in the corner. Flashed my light over there, and saw two chickens sleeping in the corner. Not much sleep that night - listening to snoring, people getting up in the middle of the night, trucks going by all night (this was on a hairpin turn), and of course with the altitude.
The next morning was groggy - there was some laughter, and I turned around to see Maria walk out of the room with two little lambs, who apparently sleep inside. Yep; Mary and her little lambs. Here's a couple shots from the inside, and a couple from the outside:
I forgot to mention that we've been drinking coca tea every morning - quite mild, actually. First couple days they were in civilized tea bags, but they ran out, so we switched to leaves:
What a day.
Day 4 - Fast downhill day to Huanaco