Cycle, eat, sleep, repeat

Well that´s been our longest pedalling session yet; a whole 7 days without a break. We have covered about 550km from Cuzco to the border and are now in Copacabana, Bolivia. Although it is not the Brazilian Copacabana, we have just been sunning ourselves on the beach at Lake Titicaca. The route included bleak high plateau puna and some much appreciated thermal baths. We had 10 weeks in Peru in all and it was a facinating though challenging time. We´ll miss the splendid, at times tremendous, scenery and the calm dignity of the Indians in the highlands. Conversely we hope no longer to be taunted as "Gringos" or seemingly woken every morning at 5am by a shouting contest amongst hotel staff. Cycling regularly has certainly changed our dietary behaviour; we scutinise food packets to ensure they have the maximum calorific intake, shovel sugar into our tea and consume at least two litres of vile pop every day. So we are looking forward to the next month in the Bolivia of dramatic altiplano, salt lakes and more llamas.

Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and beyond

Apologies for the blog silence over the last week or so but we have been on a mini-break! As predicted, it took us a while to 'acclimatise' to touristy Cuzco but it didn't take long to get used to the endless variety of food and drink available - all at four times the usual price but worth every Sol. We ended up staying a week - not just because of the apple pastries but also beacuse train tickets to Machu Picchu were in short supply and though Clive had been before on his previous tour of the continent, we decided that it could not be missed.

And I wasn't disappointed. It is truly amazing, for me more because of the dramatic high-mountain setting than the actual site, though if you can fight through the tour groups, there is some incredible stonework. It's a long day out, involving a four-hour train journey from Cuzco (down the beautiful Urubamba valley), about five hours at the site and then five hours back on the train. When we arrived, in an attempt to get away from the crowds, we headed straight for Waynapicchu, the big pointy peak in the background. It is more of a scramble than a walk up a very steep, rocky path, culminating in an almost vertical set of steps up to the fortification at the top (fun in a vertiginous sort of way!). And the view of the site from the top is amazing - really atmospheric.

We finally pedalled out of Cuzco on 17th Nov and we are now on our way to Puno on a lovely tarmac road with only one high pass, then we hit the altiplano. On our way out of Cuzco yesterday, having seen only three cyclists since Quito, we were astonished to pass what almost amounted to a peloton on the hard shoulder. A German couple, who have done 60,000km on their round-the-world trip and, pictured right, a Swiss couple plus four-year-old son in a trailer on their way from Canada to Tierra del Fuego. Truly remarkable.

Ayacucho

It was a real pleasure to arrive in Ayacucho after a tough few days on the road. It's at a mere 2,700m, so to us the air felt thick and it was beautifully warm and bright. For most of the eighties and early nineties, the city and surrounding highlands were off-limits to tourists because of the activities of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), though the horrors are now almost impossible to imagine as you wander around in the sunshine admiring all the colonial architecture, enjoying local hospitality and the excellent ice-cream.

This post is specifically for the benefit of everyone who knows Hazel, a friend of mine who spent three months as a volunteer with an American organisation called Cross-Cultural Solutions (CSS), working at a primary school, a nursery and an orphanage. Hazel arranged for us to meet the co-ordinator of CSS, Marisol, and as a result, we had a very sociable couple of days. We arrived in the city just as the Todos los Santos (All Saints' Day) festival was getting underway - Ayacucho is famous for its festivals throughout the year and so it was good to witness what seemed to be the whole town turn out for a massive street party.

The following day we were supposed to be resting our weary legs but it turned out that Marisol's husband is also a cyclist and he was going out for a ride with a small group so we couldn't resist joining in the fun - especially as it meant the joy of a ride without panniers! It ended up being quite a long 70km day, with a hot but really beautiful pedal up to a village for lunch. Took a while and several litres of Inca Kola to cool off after all that (see photo)!

Then before we parted company with Marisol and her family, she took us to see the results of one of the projects Hazel worked on - the building of a wall and a toilet block at a primary school in a really poor area on the outskirts of Ayacucho. It was great to see what a difference the addition of the most basic facilities can make and Marisol was obviously very proud of all the work that Hazel and the other volunteers had done to make this happen.

Despite its inaccessibility, Ayacucho is clearly growing in importance as a tourist destination - we saw more gringos than any other town since Quito (good preparation for Cuzco, where we will be in a few days' time) but it is still totally unspoilt and is definitely on my list of places to revisit one day.

Huancayo to Abancay

A while since the last post but it's been all work and no play! We've moved from Huancayo to Abancay over 12 days by various means. Firstly we took the train to Huancavelica; an aged and bumpy affair that left late and arrived later still. Then there was a three-day leg to Ayacucho. The first day turned out to be a bit of a marathon and we caught a big hailstorm at 4200m in the afternoon. How we laughed as we descended for 20km on 2" of hail, which then turned to mud covering us thoroughly. That evening's beer was well-earned. So we skipped the next day with a taxi trip over some more seriously rugged terrain (NB: In the photo its brakes are being worked on before we set off. Actually quite reassuring.). We wrapped up with three solid bike days and an intervening 10-hour bus journey from Ayacucho to Andahuaylas. The Peruvian Highlands are the same profile as an egg box; i.e. it is all up and down (with part of the winding 56km descent to Abancay shown). However we are nearing the Altiplano (high plateau) of S. Peru and Bolivia, so the legs should get some relief soon. And if you think we're making life difficult for ourselves, check out the tandem picture - an Austrian couple 40,000km into a three-year round the world trip. Too much!