Tuesday 2 June 2015

Tarma to Huaraz

 We were on the road by 7am and descended out of Tarma to a town of Acobamba where we turned off the main road and took a quiet valley back road to the town of Junin.
It was amazing to be away from the main road, the yelling locals and the diesel fumes.

 Maize drying outside

The crops were quite different in this area.  Brocolli, spinach, lettuces, beetroot, maize and flowers were growing.  The locals and dogs were a lot more relaxed and friendly.







We didn´t stay here but  we both really liked passing through the town of Piedro de Cajar.  Apparently it is the textile capital of the area and a haven for artists.


 Just out of Piedro de Cajar we stopped for lunch at some Inca Ruins.  Incaredible!




We arrived in Junin by midafternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the markets of the small chilly town.   We resisted the urge to purchase Guinea Pigs! and settled on vegetables for dinner instead.


The following day we slept in until 8:30 as Debbie wasn´t feeling great (maybe she should have eaten the guinea pig afterall!)
The day was pretty average.  It was cold,  there were lots of trucks on the road going to and from the Mine of Cerro de Pasco, and the road was very flat but we spent the whole day above 4000m so it wasn´t easy.  It was nice to have a flat road for a change but without the diesel fumes would have been better. 
We saw the usual Pigs, dogs, sheep etc but a lot more Llamas today.

Lago Junin
 Every Peruvian town has a plaza - we thought this was particularly entertaining with a big Maca statue
 Amazing to see a cemetry in Peru with some graves larger and more elaborate than many of the homes
 Lots of Llamas along this stretch
 Arriving in the mining town of Cerro de Pasco at 4400m
 The sign says it is the highest town of its size in the world.  
It has over 70,000 inhabitants but why anyone would want to live here remains a mystery to us.  We did some reading online before arriving and we were supprised to read that the locals are being poisoned by the metals seeping into the ground and water supplies and that the mine is simply growing and taking over the town.  Needless to say we bought our water and ate our precious dehy meals from NZ 
It was also voted Peru´s ugliest city
 This is a  statue in the main square of  Daniel Carrion a legendary Medical Student from Cerro de  Pasco who injected himself with Carrion disease - which was named in his honor
 The ugly city

We were pleased to get out of Cerro de Pasco  and had been promised a 90km downhill to Huanaco. Who wouldn´t be excited at that?!
It didn´t start well when we couldn´t find the road we wanted  out of town (a gravel backroad to link us to the  main road) We were made to backtrack to the road we had come in on - neither of us were particularly impressed....
The road started well and we even overtook two vehicles!  Tarseal switchbacks passing small villages and farms.
However... after about 20km the road deteriorated badly, the traffic started and we were constantly attacked by very aggressive dogs. Debbie even had one hang onto one of her panniers as she frantically tried to escape it leaving teeth markes in her waterproof ortliebs! grrr, not impressed.
After this we gave up on growling  ¨A tu casa¨ (go home) or squirting water from our bottles at them and loaded our pockets with rocks to throw at them!
We didn´t take too many photos on this not so great  90km downhill as we were battling headwinds, roadworks, traffic,  scary dogs and unfrienly locals.  Things didn´t improve when we arrrived in Huanco.  It was probably the most hectic-manic city entrance we´ve ever had.  Debbie got cut off by a tuktuk and her back wheel fell into a cattlestop like grate in the road. Awesome - one badly buckled back wheel.   We crawled into the nearest bike shop where we spent all of  2 hours nervously watching a boy cut our spokes, wrench screws and  who knows what to get it trued. Thankfully we had spare spokes and a spoke wrench for him to use and miraculosly at the end of 2 hours all spokes were inplace and the wheel was pretty true.   
The best part was that it came to a grand total of 6 soles  ($3NZD) for his hard work!!!


We did our homework on Googlemaps the night before and had a very smooth exit from Huanaco the next morning.  Sigh, we found ourselves on a quiet narrow country road with heaps of potholes to slow the  traffic ... for us it was a pleasure to ride on!
What an amazing day. The people were friendly, the dogs were less aggressive and the traffic was almost non-existant.  What a nice change to the day before.

We love seeing pigs as they never chase, bark or bite us!

 A man plowing his field the hard way
 you wouln´t be able to get a tractor onto some of these steep paddocks anyway!

Inca crown just after the 4200m pass at Villa Union


 We stopped for the night at Chavinillo  where we walked up to some more inca ruins.
 After helping some ladies carry a big bucket up a steep hill we were offered a guide up to the ruins.  This  10year old boy showed us the way - boy was he fast. .. we could hardly keep up.  He hardly puffed as we climbed for well over 20mins straight up a hill.   He couldn´t believe it when we handed him a Sole for his efforts. We sent him home and enjoyed the ruins and views for a while.


On the way back down from the ruins we joined in with the locals in a  game of Volleyball.  Debbie got cheers from the spectators when she spiked the ball and won  the point on one of her first touches of the ball! What we thought would be a 10min muck around turned into a 2 hour volleyball marathon.  We had to stop when it became so dark we couldn´t see the ball! Emma gave up earlier and soon had a huddle of young kids around her wanting to speak in English and learn about us.  What a cool experience.

....the photo. Oh yea,  The game was interrupted a few times by ladies herding their donkeys, sheep or cattle along the street and straight through the volleyball court.

We were  on the road by 7am and treated to another day of quiet roads and great scenery. We followed the beautiful valley passed kids, pigs and villages and arrived at La Union midafternoon.  We had planned to visit some ruins there but soon after arriving it started pouring with rain.  We resorted to spending a bit of time at an internet cafe - however didn´t bother trying to upload photos as it was painfully slow.

 La Union

Today was the day we would climb to 4800m - our highest pass to date.  We were on the road by 6:20 and had a lovely climb alongside a river through a  big rocky canyon.


There wasn´t much traffic and it was blissfully peaceful.
Thankfully we haven´t yet seen a bull fight but we have passed several of these stadiums.

 The climb to 4400 on this road before our gravel road which took us into a National Park and up to 4800m




check out the switchbacks!



 Into the national park and up to the pass
 We were incredibly lucky with the weather - the forecast was for thunderstorms and we spent most of the day in just a vest.

 The scenery speaks for itself  - Two very happy girls.



Our high altitude campsite at 4600m
We hadn´t intended to camp up so high but met a German couple in a BMW  who told us they hadn´t seen any sign of the restaurant we were aiming for (we had seen it on google maps and read about it in someone´s blog).  At 4pm we decided to set up camp as it gets dark early and very very cold!
It was a beautiful campsite and for the first time since we were in Peru we had no noise! We couldn´t believe how peaceful it was.  It was good for our souls.
However.... at 4600m it was pretty impossible to sleep soundly as your body craves more oxygen and you wake up gasping for breath.  It is quite a scary feeling to wake up gasping like you are dying...having a heart attack.... 
needless to say we were up and at em at first light keen to get down the valley and into the oxygen and warmth..... and to Huaraz - our goal for this section of the ride



 While packing up camp we were visited by two local farmers herding their cattle up to our valley.  They stopped for a chat and couldn´t have asked us better questions or spoken more clearly... we understood every word they said and were able to answer all of their questions.

The descent into the valley was cold but beautiful. It was snowing at times and there was a bitterly cold wind (but to our backs) and we were extremely pleased to be heading down the valley and off the high tops.


 On the way down we passed some interpretive signs.  Here is some rockart.



Out of the National Park and back to Peru!  Gone from the tranquil peaceful valleys and high mountains and back to the chaos - traffic, fumes, people, dogs and cars.

We had talked about reaching Huaraz for so long-  In our heads this trekking capital of Peru with snowcapped mountains surrounding it was going to be the most amazing city we had ever been to.  However... on entering it, we realised it was just another dirty Peruvian city. Our dreams were shattered.

Barley drying on the roadside

However ... it is now our second day here and we have discovered some pretty amazing cafe´s and areas of the city.
We are looking forward to meeting some friends (Richard and Susan) here tonight and spending the next couple of weeks exploring the surrounding mountains and valleys on foot.... 






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