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Published: November 3rd 2008
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The longest cycle day
and also the most fun Cusco, Puno, La Paz
Did the best days mountain biking I could have imagined in Cusco, but it was really hard work. It was a full 10 hour day with about 6 hours cycling in high altitude and it was also very hot.. about 30 degrees. We got picked up from the hotel and were dropped off in the middle of knowhere called Moray, and cycled along alot of dirt tracks and ancient mule routes for 2 hours with the most beautiful views. I naively thought that the trip was probably for beginners as it was fairly tame. How wrong I was, as after lunch we experienced some hardcore cycling with our kamikaze guide. Even though I have cycled a fair bit, some of the gradients we were supposed to go down scared the hell out of me. You can’t get a bike down a gradient when there are just boulders in the way! So sometimes we had to walk down while carrying our bike. It was like Peru’s version of Death Road! It was really good fun though and I really got into it. I hadn’t cycled this hard in my life and it was different but really good
at the same time. We made a massive descent into the Maras salt plains although on the way discovered my brakes didn’t work too well. My hands ended up like claws gripping the brakes so hard and I still kept moving! I even swopped with the guide but his were the same. At the end of the day I was on a high but absolutely knackered and could hardly pedal. The day finished with us cycling down a hill for 15 mins with no lights as he didn’t have any! Their health and safety is rather lacking here!!
For the next few days it had all caught up with me.. Lares trek, cycling, dodgy water & food and whatever.. as I was ill for a week. I have never felt so shit in my entire life and I lost half a stone! I know all travellers get ill from time to time but I didn’t think it would be like this. I think I was more annoyed that I missed out on some great nights out plus also the Lake Titicaca trip which involved a home stay. I actually got myself up and ready and was about to go
with them but was told there was no way I would survive a 3 hr boat ride with the way I was feeling. So I stayed in the hotel in dodgy Puno and had to order room service the entire 2 days the group were away. I say room service.. but I could only eat chicken broth. When the group got back I thought I was ok so went for dinner and I am embarrassed to say I ended up throwing it all up in the street on the way home.. classy! I had no warning so thank god we weren’t in a crowded place! In the end I got a doctor and was given 3 lots of tablets and told not to eat anything for 3 days which meant going to the thai & indian restaurant with the group was torture ...
We had to cross the Peru/Bolivia border to get to La Paz but were told by our guide Ruben that bolivian immigration really frown on peruvians bringing in tour groups and the penalty is 4 hours in jail! We half joked about letting him do time for a few hours, but then pretended we didn’t know
him and we dropped him off the bus a few yards before we got off. It was all very weird him standing in the queue and us pretending we had never met him before in our life. We had lunch in Copacabana which was really pretty with the bluest water you have ever seen. I was supposed to eat nothing but ordered chicken soup anyway, although it ended up being an entire baby chicken just sitting in a bowl of broth... weird. The highlight of my day was discovering this local shop sold Salt & Vinegar Pringles which I had been craving for weeks. I was so happy and bought them even though I couldn’t eat them. When I could, I would eat the entire thing in one go!!
The arrival into La Paz was amazing as it’s in a basin and is surrounded by mountains.. just beautiful. The city itself is rather ugly and just stinks of boot polish and pollution! La Paz is the highest city in the world so we had the effects of altitude again, and with really steep roads everywhere aswell, shopping is rather tiring.. someone is trying to tell me something! We had
a big night out to say goodbye to our tour guide and went clubbing. I decided to brave a Gin & Tonic and was cured from then on. Result.
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