Days 139 to 142: Huaraz, PER to Ayacucho, PER

Day 139: Huaraz, PER

I woke up at 8 am, feeling sick. Stomach problems, so we called it a rest day.



Day 140: Huaraz, PER to Huanuco, PER (260 km)

The day started off with some great riding through the Huascaran national park. 

Once again we rode above 4000 m, and it got cold and started raining a little. At some point we ran into these strange palm trees. Not sure what they are called, I'll have to google that eventually.

We set our new record for highest altitude reached on our motorcycles. Just a few meters shy of 4800 m.

There was a couple of muddy spots. Here, I got stuck. We pushed the bike for not even 15 seconds and we were both out of breath. The high altitude really makes a difference when making a physical effort... or is it just me being out of shape. I'm not sure anymore..haha.

We rode about 80 km through the national park, and then got on some pretty good pavement for another 100 km or so, until we ran into this:

The road was washed out, but we managed to make it through, as the stream of water across wasn't very deep.

The rest of the ride to Huanuco was more or less fun. Very tight roads in bad shape, with occasional obstacles, such as this one.

In Huanuco, we scored our best hotel in a while. Comfortable room, hot shower and fast wifi. We almost felt like staying an extra day just to enjoy this luxury..haha.

Day 141: Huanuco, PER to Huancayo, PER (410 km)

After a few days with a daily average of 9-10 hours in the saddle and no more than 250 km/day, we were beginning to be a little bummed out by our slow progress. Fortunately, we got lucky on day 141, and we hit a few hours of good high speed pavement. For the first time in a while, we reached 120 km/h. 


I kind of got excited to see this on the road. This is a part of a grinding mill, the type of equipment I have been working on for the past five years at my previous job with Metso.

Later in the afternoon, the roads got bad again, but we still managed to cover just over 400 km, so it has been a 'productive' day of riding.

Days 135 to 138: Chachapoyas, PER to Huaraz, PER

Day 135: Chachapoyas, PER to Cajamarca, PER (330 km)

Day 135 was the day of extremes. On that day, we did our best riding on the trip (on par with the Copper Canyon in Mexico), followed by hands down the worst riding conditions towards the evening.

The first 230 km of the day were epic: no rain, awesome roads and spectacular scenery. 

I think this guy was enjoying the view as much as I was...

Some places reminded me a lot of the mountains I drove though in Morocco.

On every longer motorcycle trip, there comes a day you make a particularly bad decision. Day 135 was that day.

After an epic 230 km, we pulled into a town called Celendin at around 5 pm. We debated whether to call it a day (what we should have done), or to continue for another 100 km to the city of Cajamarca. We made the dumb decision to continue on.

Not long after Celendin, the road was closed and we had to take a detour. As there was no signs, we got lost soon after. An hour later, we were back on track, but because of the long detour, we haven't made any progress at all. The road went from bad, to worse, to brand new pavement. We got excited that this is it, smooth cruising to Cajamarca from there. Nope. About 10 km later, the road went to shit again, and it started raining HARD. By now, it was getting dark, and we were struggling on muddy mountain roads, with another 80 km to go. Lots of cursing going on in my helmet at the time.

We finally made it to Cajamarca at around 9 pm, having ridden the last 2 hours in the dark and under heavy rain. My boots were full of water and I was feeling a little miserable. On top of that, we spent an additional hour riding in circles around the centro, unable to find a hotel that had secure parking. Definitely a memorable day, as much for the good as for the bad.

Day 136: Cajamarca, PER to Huamachuco, PER (200 km)

A rather short 200 km day of pretty fun riding on pavement. No photos, as there was nothing that would match the amazing scenery from the previous day. 

We called it an early day in Huamachuco and had chinese food for late lunch. It is very surprising how popular chinese restaurants are in Peru: there are several in every town that we have been to. Here, they are called ''chifa''.

Other observations:

So far none of the hotels have heating in the rooms, so they provide you with layers of blankets. These things are so heavy that I almost injured a muscle in my shoulder while pulling up my cover in the middle of the night..lol.

Internet connections in hotels have been crap so far in Peru, and it is becoming a bit of a problem to keep the blog up to date.

The one thing I really enjoy about the cold temperature in the mountains is that t-shirts and underwear can now last a good 2-3 days, before flipping them to the other side (just kidding ;). No more sweating = less laundry to do.

My boots are unfortunately no longer waterproof. On to plan B.

Huanachuco:  view from our hotel room, right on the central plaza.

Huamachuco: solution to no heating: many layers of blankets (heavy)

Huamachuco: our hotel

Huamachuco: our hotel

We're not the cleanest guys around, lately.

Day 137: Huamachuco, PER to Pallasca, PER (260 km)

This was our toughest riding day of the trip. We hit some difficult roads in the mountains, and had a lot of problems navigating. We have a paper map of Peru, and two different map sets on our GPS's (OpenStreet and Google maps), and all three were contradicting each other. There were no signs neither, so we got lost a couple of times in the day.

Starting from Huamachuco, we drove by a gold mine exploited by a canadian company, Barrick Gold (a client at my previous job with Metso).

Lots of mining going on in Peru. We encountered a few other mine sites on that day.

We eventually reached 4000 m and it got cold. Took a few photos at this lagoon.

Lama

More scenic mountain roads

Then, the real struggle began. We kept getting lost and the roads got real bad.

We finally found our way and got out of the muddy sections. It took time and a lot of effort, though... We were pretty exhausted.

We finally made it to a village called Pallasca, and got a basic room in the only ''hotel'' in town. The locals were looking at us like we just got off a space ship. Definitely not a touristic spot. 

It has been a grueling day, and we were both pretty burned out. I watched a movie on my notebook before going to sleep: ''Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer.'' A real POS: do not waste your time watching it..lol.

Our room in Pallasca.

The bikes at the hotel in Pallasca. There was dense fog all over the village.

Day 138: Pallasca, PER to Huaraz, PER


Wheels rolling at 8:30 am. We drive down a challenging road for about an hour and 35 km, and then realize we went in the wrong direction. Lots of cursing and we turn around. Navigation is definitely a bitch, lately.

At 10:30 am, we're back to square one. The local police points us in the right direction, and off we go. The roads are bad at first, but gradually get better as we keep descending in altitude. It keeps raining on and off, as it's been the pattern for the past few days. I'm really looking forward to having dry boots again...

View of Pallasca, in the morning.

Not the safest road around...

The landscape changes and it now looks arid. There's hope for dry boots!

We were then getting close to the Canyon del Pato, which we were looking forward to drive through. Heard good things about it.

And then we had a big ''Oh, Shit!'' moment. The only bridge we could take to get there (without a 1-2 detour) was under construction.

Fortunately, there was a walkway on the bridge for the workers, which was just wide enough for the bikes. We took all the luggage off, and two guys helped us to get the DR's across. It was a touchy operation, but it all worked out. Phew.

And finally, a few minutes later we were at the entrance of the Canyon del Pato.

The ride through the canyon was actually much shorter than expected. About 20 kms and were were out. Then it was pavement again, and a smooth ride all the way to Huaraz.

I wasn't feeling too good that day. Not sure if it was fatigue or illness, but I was exhausted by the time we reached our destination. We found a hotel, had dinner, and I passed out in my bed at 8 pm. Haven't slept this early in a long while.