Day 34/35
38,094 – 38,470 376 Miles today (15,770 Miles Overall)
Huachachina, Peru – Abancay, Peru
Sitting down for a full day at the oasis town was nice. I got to catch up on a lot of stuff I wanted to do to the bike. First thing in the morning I noticed I had a nail sticking out of the tire. I pulled it out and it ended up being 3 inches long and air started to pour out. I plugged it so at least that was taken care of. So happy I didn’t get a flat on the side of the road on the way to the Oasis the other day. I went out into town and got a bike wash finally, installed 20mm handlebar risers so I’m not bending over while standing up off roading, adjusted the chain, lubed it, organized all my luggage, and cleaned my windshield for the first time since I left NY.
Yesterday was kind of a lazy day other than that. First thing in the morning I went for a hike to the top of the sand dune and then did a solid workout on the roof of the Hostel. I ended up laying on the ground reading a book next to the pool for a few hours in the afternoon working on that tan again which ended up backfiring on me since I’m red like a lobster now. I lost my sunscreen somewhere along the way. At sunset I tried to go for another hike to the sand dune but some asshat wanted me to pay a park fee. Theres people walking all over the place and not paying. So I told him I wasnt going to the top just walking to the other side of the lake. I went to the other side and tried to sneak up and some other guy busted me. I turned around and started walking back to the first guy and just made a sprint up the sand dune. I was cracking up cuz this guy had zero chance of catching me. After he was done running and screaming for about 15-20 seconds he gave up and I scattered off into the crowd of people. Suckerrrrrr
I got up early this morning because I was literally so excited to hit the road and go ride. I was wide awake at 3 but couldn’t really start going anywhere till 6 the latest because the Nazca Lines were two hours away and they opened at 8. I ended up staying in bed wide awake and ended up hitting the road at 5:45am.The morning ended up with a bit of a shitty start. It was 50 degrees and foggy as hell with high winds. After about 1:30 it cleared up. I stopped for a delicious breakfast with a huge cup of fresh Pina juice. hurtle after I stopped at the Nazca Lines. I wish I could have done the plane tour for $75 but they do it out of the beach town I was at the other day and I didn’t know until last night. I was cracking up when I pulled up to the site. These guys built a road right through one of the designs and didn’t even know it until a long time after. It was a cool sight to see but I only saw about 3 of the designs. The rest are scattered all over the desert. Pretty wild how they have been around for about 2000 years.
Back on the bike and I started my ride into the Andes mountains. I very quickly came up to a road block and blasted right past it. 20 Minutes later I come up to another and its blocked off real well. But I met a local from Cusco that’s returning home with his KTM 1290 he just bought in Lima a week ago. He said the road will be closed for over an hour so we just hung out and chatted about all kinds of things. He was riding all the way back to Cusco and I was cutting out a bit before him so we decided to ride together. I passed him pretty quickly in the turns but when the road opened up to a straight line my bike was getting slow since we climbed up to 15,000 feet and he would catch up. We were playing cat mouse all day catching unto each other when the roads went from straight to twists to straight.
The altitude really kills my bike and slows it down its crazy to see how much it affects it. It was damn cold up there too. It was 50F with some strong winds coming from all directions. We saw some alpine lakes up there which were super blue but I didn’t want to stop and take pics because of how cold and miserable it was up there. We rode in that altitude for hours and hours. I finally came to my part of the ride where I was going to turn off to a place called Pampachiri but I really was over this cold weather and it was 2 hours on a not so great road just to get to the destination and then I have no idea how the road was on the other side. He talked me out of going to the small town so we ended up riding together for a few more hours. When we dropped out of the altitude the temps went from 50 to 96 in a matter of minutes. Even at 9000′ it was that hot I couldn’t believe it. We stopped for some fuel and then we split off. I wanted to take it easy in the twisties because I probably won’t get to see much more of this anymore. I stopped for some delicious trout for $4 and a little bit after that I stopped to go for a swim in the river we’ve been riding next to for hours. It was so nice this river, so clean and blue. The gorge was so deep and beautiful the whole way I couldn’t wait to jump in.
After my little swim in ended up riding to a town called Abancay where I found a hostel and the owner let me park my bike in the lobby. I went out for a little food and found a woman selling delicious strawberries on the street. I got about 2 pounds for $1.25. Score
I was contemplating camping tonight by the river but I really needed wifi to figure out my next few days with this whole Machu Picchu thing. I was going to do a 5 day tour but all the tickets are sold out for the next 3-4 weeks so I’m gonna have to figure out a way to get my ass up there for a one day trip or maybe a 2 day hike if I can find a place that has tickets somehow.
