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Published: August 23rd 2008
Jen; having been thouroughly gringoed and fed trout to my eye balls we were ready to leave the tourist hot spot that is copacabana!! Not that i didnt like it. Its just that it doesnt really feel like much of a travelling experience when youre surrounded by english and american backpackers! We expected 5 fairly tough days riding to get to cusco the next tourist hotspot, and the first day was nearly 60 miles from Copacabana to Ilave, a town where we thought there would be some kind of accomodation.
It was only 10 miles to the peruvian border from copa and it was a totally fuss free border crossing; collected a couple more stamps for the passport and away we were!! Into the final country on our South American tour. Hard to know what to expect from peru as there are obvious highlights to look forward to like Macchu Picchu, and also heard some "watch out" type stories from other travellers. Anyway the days cycling was easy enough, fairly flat through some small villages and the standard yellowy brown landscape of the altiplano...and with the ever present headwind. Stopped off for some impromtu soup cooking at dinner time and
flagged down a couple of german touring cyclists who happened to be passing through! Those two made us look like real amateurs as they were away for 3 years so far and had toured through africa. And strangely looked immaculate! They mentioned that they had seen some french cyclists going our way with akid in tow, andthat they were only doing short milages so we may catch them up.
Ilave was charmless enough but fitted the bill for a stop off with a cheap shabby hotel and plenty of places to eat out...them all being chicken and chips places!! Ok for me but not so good for Ian. Good job he likes chips!! We also discovered the pleasures of Inca Cola. Which is yellow. And tastes like tizer. Hmm. Oh yeah thanks to carl and sarah for tip off about mint and choc casino biscuits. I think they contain drugs. In a good way.
Next day an early start as Peru is an hour behind bolivia which means it now goes dark around 5pm, and with another 60 miles to go to Juliaca there was no time to waste. it was again 30 miles or so of flattish
headwind terain to the large town of Puno where we decided to treat ourselves to a cafe stop. Difficult you might think with two fully loaded touring bikes to look out for, but no, arriving at the cafe colonial the waiters took our bikes and wheeled them right into the restaurant! Leaving us relaxed to enjoy some more excellent trout (yes, its a theme) and papaya milkshakes...
All good things come to an end and we pushed on towards Juliaca, to be greeted with a steep long climb out of town. Having just conquered it and starting the decscent but what should we see but another touring cyclist walking the opposite direction! This guy was a swiss cyclist and intrepid by the sounds of it because he was heading to the very tip of south america. Brrr!
Following the descent it was a really bizarly tough and dull 30 miles of flat headwing (again) to Juliaca. Juliaca is a fairly big town and has an airport so no problems finding accomodation, right? Well, Ian tried 5 or 6 different hotels, and they were all mysteriously expensive. We ended up in a half decent one but at about 3
infamous inca cola
looks radioactive...tastes..interesting.
an ecclectic mix of flavours like irn bru, lucazade and tizer and something we cant put our finger on!times the price of normal. Chinese place was pretty good for tea though.
Following the usual fracas over breakfast (when you check into a hotel they assure you it includes breakfast, in the morning it invariably doesnt) we had some fun leaving the town. Sunday nis market day and Juliav=ca has a big market so it was crazy. All the street are blocked up not with cars but with bicicle taxis which there are millions of!! many sporting quality mud flaps. And ian was pretty fed up we didnt have time to stop at any of the twenty or so bike stalls we passed. we headed over yet more flat and then the landscape changed to a more agreeable altiplano valley landscape that seemed deserted, however if you looked closely, there was always someone looking after some goats or llamas dotted about. This valley provided a nice stop off for lunch on the way to our destination Ayevida.
Ayevida is a small town with a HUGE church and a handy market (for egg butty breakfasts). Cue some more interesting ¨restaurant´and hotel experiences. The restaurant in question was a freezing hole of a place that insisted in keeping the
Juliaca
bike fest doors wide open, which was an open invitation to the towns dog population! Oh they didnt mind bikes inside here either, in fact you could probably have ridden them in. throw in a waiter who had bread one minute and not the next, and was determined i was vegetarian just because ian is, and it added up to a quality evening out. returning to the hotel it got better, as the staff there asked us to change rooms!! Apparently they had forgotten that our room was already reserved, and must have been reserved for gangsters by the scared looks on the hotel staff faces!! We eventually moved after extorting a heater out of them....(Heating is none existent despite regular sub zero tempuratures on the altiplano.)
The altiplano tends to be very sunny and warm during the day and very cold at night. When you stop for the night its best to hurry up and have a shower then put all the clothes you have on in layers as its hard to warm up once the sun goes down. The landscape is generally a barren yellow/ brown dotted with a selection of llamas (pronounced jama over here!) and alpacas, and
rush hour to juliaca market
a proper bike fest!! brillaint.. some sheep. The llamas always add interest as they are quite cute and more curious than sheep, and always break off the grazing to have a good look at you. Lots of them look like they have earrings because the farmers tie coloured wool in their ears presumably for identification.
An easy start up the valley the next morning was followed by a really tough afternoon of ploughing up a 4300 pass into the strengthened headwind. We were accompanied up the valley by the railway and it didnt help when a really posh looking train went sailing past us just at the hardest bit. It wasnt that incredidibly steep it was just the wind made it seem so. The top was a 4300 plus meter pass but it just didnt feel so much of and achievement because there was no spectacular view and no steep decsent to follow, just a gradual descent into yet more headwind. We broke it up nicely though by stopping at a little place called aguas calliente where you guessed it there are hot springs, for a late lunch. To get into the complex with the hot pools and restaurant etc you have to pay,
altiplano peru
more long and unwinding roads at 3800m but the local kids had got around that nicely by bathing startkers in a naturally occuring hot pool just by the entrance. They shouted us to join them but we thought better of it!!
yet more decsednt through pleasantly green steep sided vally led us to Sicuani our stop for the night where we located a cheap, pleasant room and found a really quality pizzeria (a rarety in south maerica) on a strangely deserted town square. (the town was bustling elsewhere)
Setting offv the next day we were hoping to put a real effort in and complete the 90 miles to Cusco that day. Hmm our plans were scuppered fairly soon after we set off. We were only 2 miles or so from the town when we saw a guy throwing a large rock into the road and wondered what he was up to. It was soon explained when we rounded the corner and ran into our first blockeado of many!! The blockade took the fform of loads of stones, glass and debris in the road running up to a wooden barrier controlled by a load of drunk peruvians! we went up to them and chatted for a bit
and eventually they decided to let us through. managed to dodge the one who leaned in for a kiss and made our escape! It turned out there were protests going on in the area due to poverty and some government stuff. Couldnt exactly decifer what! Several blockades were to follow and all let us through with no agression but a but of joking around. The toughest people were the old ladies who threated to tap us with sticks jokingly!! Nearly all the women especially in the rural areas wear the traditional outfit of the multilayered skirts which make them look thick waisted, woolen leg warmers, bowler hat and long plaited hair.
In the middle of all this we ran into Glen, a touring cyclinst from yorkshire going the other way. He immediately surprised us by asking if i was from clitheroe!! I wasnt aware it had a distinctive accent! Turns out he has family from there. Later that same day we finally caught up with the french couple we had been told about, who mysteriously didnt have a child but a swiss guy with them!!
Anyway what with the blockades and chattin and ever present headwind there was no chance
of getting to cusco that day so we were forced to stop at Urcos a non touristy with a selection of placed to stay, all basic, and the ever pesent chicken and chips joint to eat at.
Setting off the next day we expected problems with more blockades...but no the y had all disappeared. However, we did pick up a puncture due to all the broken glass left over from the debris of the blockades. But we counted ourselves lucky that it was onlt the one. I was glad to arrive in cusco when we finally got there as i had been really looking forward to it and in many ways it didnt disappoint. It was pretty easy to find our way to the area we wanted to stay in as we got chatting to a mountain biker who did bike guiding for work and he told us exactly where to go. Cusco doesnt look amazingly promising from the direction we approached it but when you get to the central older area you can see why peolpe like it.
The area we stayed in was uphill from the main square in a maze of narrow streets, all the
highest so far..
4300m...piece of pie really apart from the wind... buildings white painted with terracotta tile roofs like in france. The first place we called in at turned out to be a really nice B&B and we decided to treat oureslves, partly for my birthday and partly because ian wangled a good deal out of them!!
The main square is the plaza del armas (like nearly every town in peru!). Which is really pleasant and european in style with a catherdral on one side and an old church on another and galleried old buildings all around which now house shops cafes and even pubs. Cusco is megga touristy, but still a really good place to spend a few days. They keep it uncluttered with a strict system; if a tout comnes up to you selling pictures or whatever, he soon gets spotted by a warden and told to get lost sharpish!
Theres lots to see including 4 inca sites nearby, museums and the churches. And theres the rub; they have a really rubbish rip off system wherby you have to buy a tourist ticket for all the museums and inca sites togather, you cantjust go and see one. They decided to double the price of this ticket recently..
women on way to work
you see everyone doing manual jobs here..pick and shovel in hand in traditional clothese.. So we skipped that and went to see the cathedral and churches which are really impressive with huge gold altars, but more like museums than churches in atmosphere! dont think they can tell you to cover up and be respectful when they are squeezing it for all the money they can! didnt see anyone praying in there.
One really intersting place was the monastery Mercede. It has a really crazy little cellar room where a monk spent 12 years without coming outside and entertained himself by painting scenes of heaven and hell on the walls. It also has a priceless altar ornament (cant remember the name sorry) which is gold with loads of dieamonds and a huge pearl in a sort of mermaid shape as centrepiece..
We went to visit Macchu Picchu from Cusco. And yes i know there is a cheaper and more local economy friendly way to get there than the train but we didnt have time to spare. So it was a 5am start on my birthday, train jounrney and bus journey to the site, but it was really worth it. I know it looks spectacular on photos, but theres something even more special about
kid squad!!
cheeky as hell at first but would take up the offer of a ride on my bike!! it when youre there. Although there are a lot of tourists its such a big site that its not crowded. The Incan building is amazing but its the setting thats most impressive. You feel really high up despite being lower than cusco, and it definately makes it onto my list of stuff i would do again...when ive saved up!!
Following macchu pichu we had another day of relaxing, taking advantage of the great choice and variety of restaurants, and i had a look around the artisan markets. We really had to tear ourselves away because we knew we were going to have a challenge on our hands over the next 6 days (and at least 5 passes) to Nazca on the peruvian coast.........
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tarmac shes all over the road
non-member comment
HELLLOOOO! well arent you two having a good time! the pics are ace. i tried that inca cola by the way. two identical people just like you both came over to our house and gave me some to try and gave me an alpaca hat! xx