Day 18

Day 18

This blog is starting to take up so much of my time already. I’m thinking of cutting back to every other day now but we’ll see what happens.

I wasn’t in a rush to leave today as I thought I had a short ride ahead of me. I slept in a bit, did a workout on the roof with that lovely view you all saw and worked on the site a bit before I packed up and left at about 8:45 or so. The ride out of town was incredible. All downhill and the mountains I could see from my hostel last night were clear in my view for about 2 hours on the way out. The road was all dirt going down maybe 6000′ to the base of the river you guys saw in my pics yesterday. My brakes must be on their way out even though I put them on in Quito. The amount of braking I’ve been doing is insane.

After riding downhill for a few hours I realized I haven’t gotten fuel since yesterday morning and after looking at the maps this morning I don’t think there’s going to be a gas station coming up anytime soon. Thank god I have the 7 gallon tank on this bike or else I would have ran out a while ago!

When I got to the river there was a narrow road but paved going along this river for about 40-50 miles maybe. I was rocking and rolling on this road. The center of the road had a bunch of gravel and sand so every time I hit it I would get a bit sketched out. The road was wild though, it was right on the edge of a cliff going down to the river the whole way. One wrong move and me and the bike are gone forever if we get launched off this road. I was ripping, having a great time listening to music and enjoying being on paved roads again.

After that part ended I found a little town in the middle of nowhere for food and gas. before I pulled in though cops stopped me asking for paperwork. I showed it to them and off I went to get some fuel. I filled up three gallons only to keep the bike light and got some food in case I wouldn’t eat the rest of the day and off I went. Some more twisty roads on the edge of a river some more until I get to Canon Del Pato. It’s a road I’ve been dreaming of riding for a while. It’s a tight narrow road in a gorge with a river below and there are a bunch of dark tunnels. The road is wide enough for one car only so if another car comes by I don’t know what they do but with my bike I just slide on over to the edge and let them pass without hitting me hopefully.

Once Canon Del Pato was over I was a bit disappointed. I thought it was going to be 50kms of the road like that but it was only maybe 10. I stopped for a few pictures and kept riding. I got to my next town where I was supposed to sleep but the next destination was maybe an hour ahead so I figured why pull over at 1pm when I got 5 more hours of daylight left. I hooked a left to go up this mountain where there are two turquoise lakes in a gorge up on a mountain. There is a peak next to the lakes which is at 21k feet that’s snowcapped. I took a ride up there and was expecting to camp up there for the night but from the reviews I read on the road going around the whole national park I wasn’t ready to beat my bike up anymore. I doubt I would see anything cooler than what I saw last week.

I hung out at the lake a bit until it started to rain and I headed back down the mountain. I googled Lima and hit go! I had a 9 hour ride so I was just going to ride as far as I could today and get a hotel wherever I ended up at 5pm. Huarez is where I ended up and got myself a nice little hostel here. I passed 4 guys on bikes from the Netherlands and Belgium on the way here and they’re probably staying In Huaraz as well.

Tomorrow morning I have a 7 hour ride to Lima. I can’t believe half of Peru is almost done already once I get to Lima since that’s the halfway point. A couple people I talked to back at home said the south is way way better than the north which I find hard to believe but i’m excited for it if that’s true. When I get to Lima I’m going to do some laundry, get some oil for an oil change and some tools for my bike. Oh and I’ll relax a bit since my back is killing me!