Campamento Chavimochich to Canon del Pato

Well I’ve got to say today has probably been the best cycling day in Peru so far. I mean sure it was only some 85 kilometres, but the scenery has to be seen to be believed. Apparently the road we were on, was originally created as the basis of a train line that was to run through the mountains and valleys, but whether it was a lack of funding, the 1970 earthquake that devastated the region or otherwise, I don’t know.

I suspect however that the road, which still has a fair bit of traffic on it, even now at 9:00 PM, with buses and semi-trailers, was used quite extensively when the extensive irrigation system was put in. I mean, last night’s camping site had obviously been used as workers settlement area, at one point because there were still remnants of a shower and toilet block.

Initially, whilst at times there would be a rocky mountainous outcrop on one side of the road, on the other there were lush green fields, some with sugar cane, the other’s I don’t know but vegetables I suspect of all different sorts. Before riding to the designated lunch stop, we rode through several mud brick villages and it brought home to me at least just exactly how lucky I am to have been born in a country such as Australia, with running water, electricity at the end of a switch and so on…..

As is becoming my custom, I coerced my colleagues to stop for a Coke stop at around the 35-40KM mark and we nearly come unstuck asking for coke, because the shop keeper, was also selling coca powder (main ingredient for cocaine) mixed with some chalk. Apparently it’s legal, or at least accepted, here in Peru. Once the explanation had been provided and the correct substance procured we sat for fifteen minutes or so, the weather already beginning to get a bit hot!

On we subsequently trekked to the lunch spot, a beautiful setting just by the river. Unfortunately being one of the last in, we weren’t really in a position to take a bit of a dip in the water something that I would have loved to have done, not that anyone else, particularly the racer boys did either.

Following lunch we then trekked on, stopping at about the half way mark, for another coke cola, in a small village with a total of six residents, as the lovely little shop keeper subsequently told us. She invited us in to her home with everything from the small television to the lounge suite, covered in dust. battery  We had a bit of a natter to her, thanks to the fact that Carmen speaks Spanish, and it transpires that almost all of the residents in the village left or died during the earthquake but both her and her husband still managed to make ends meet via passing trade. Lovely lady doing it tough and yet she was so happy to have someone to talk to you’d think we had given her a winning lotto ticket or something.

We then rode the remaining bit to our campsite for the night, passing through a number of tunnels in the process. Riding on an undulating unpaved road in the dark is not easy, nor particularly easy. I think I could give that element of things a miss in the future, though it may have to New Year Resolution cause I suspect I’ll be doing it several more times before my journey ends! 

The only negative for the day was arriving into camp last, there were three of us, to find that once again all the fruit salad and soup had been consumed. Not too sure whether this is some people who arrive earlier taking several serves or a lack of catering but either way I wasn’t happy.

At any rate and wanting to end on a positive note with today being 100% unpaved, I have now set a new PB for distance ridden off road on my mountain bike. In saying that I’ve got to admit I am rather chuffed, though I suspect that there is more or a longer stretch of off road riding to be done before I am finished!