Central Peru - Mountain Passes, Freezing Nights, and All Around Amazing Sights

Current Location: Huanuco, Peru

Distance Cycled to Date: 13,884 km

4000+ Meter Passes Crossed to Date: 3

Most eggs eaten by Keenan and Jeff in one day: 15 (Is this healthy? Definitely delicious!)

Number of chicken feet found in soup in the past week: 8 (Jeff - 4, Sarah - 2, Laura - 2, Keenan - 0)

Leaving Huaraz, we weren't exactly sure what to expect. We hadn't biked for nearly 2 weeks, and we had two Canadian girls with us who had never ridden touring bicycles in their lives. We had homemade racks and denim panniers, some cheap camping equipment, and we were heading on a poor dirt road over a double pass that would reach over 4,800 m, a height we had never even been close to on our bicycles. We knew it would be quite the introduction to cycle touring, and we were right. Mother nature even had a little fun with the inauguration, throwing down rain, hail, and snow - all on the first 3 days out of Huaraz. It was one of the hardest weeks of cycling that Jeff and I have had yet, and one of the most remote. We had a three day stretch where we saw 5 vehicles in total. All of these things added up to one of the best weeks that we've ever had!

We told Laura and Sarah that we'd give them grades after the first week, and we have to say, they both likely deserve something in the A to A+ range. Throughout the ridiculously rough dirt road, the endless climbing, the sub-zero night time temperatures and the breathless elevation, we never heard a single complaint. They are troopers. It was good to get to introduce others to our lifestyle, and have that enthusiasm that we had when we left. Every day we bike through tiny settlements, chased by kids yelling "gringo! gringo!" with ear to ear grins on their faces, and it's been great to be reminded just how amazing our everyday experiences are.

...

We've started to share our highlights and lowlights at the end of every day, and this week has been full of highlights. Here's a few:

-Seeing the rare Puya Raimondi plants in bloom, the largest bromelid flower in the world, that grows only at certain elevations in the Andes around 4000 metres, takes 100 years to mature, and blooms only every 6 to 7 years. Everytime we'd see one, we would all yell "Puya!" as loud as we could, letting our voices echo across the valley. You would think after yelling "Puya!" nearly a hundred times it would get old - but it just never does.

-As we were riding uphill, at nearly 4000 metres, an old man walking along the road asked where we were heading. We told him, and he explaimed 'I'll come with you!", and started jogging along beside. If you've ever tried running at 4000 metres, you'll know how hard this is. And then throw in going up a rocky gravel road, at a 5% grade. In dress shoes. Wearing a backpack. And being at least 60 years old. But he just kept on jogging, keeping up with me without seeming to tire at all. In fact, he just kept talking, carrying on a conversation, while I struggled with the effort of cycling, speaking, and breathing. For nearly two kilometres he kept up, until finally I had to stop for a break.

-One day as we were biking by some sheep, we noticed that Laura had started to baah back at them as they baahed at us. This sounds kind of strange, but we're all sort of strange people. We have a lot of fun. Anyway - it seemed like fun, so one day as I stopped to wait for the others to catch up I noticed a small lamb in amongst a group of sheep baah-ing, so I started to call back to it. I wasn't quite as good at the imitation as Laura, but it took notice. And then as we carried on the conversation, it left the other sheep and started to come towards me. By then everybody else had caught up, but that little lamb just kept coming, running up the steep ditch to get to us. I guess he realized then that whatever I was saying was nonsense, because he turned around to go back. But we shared a moment. And it was special.

-The set lunch menus at local restaurants just keep getting cheaper and cheaper. It's down to 3 soles now, which isn't much more than one Canadian dollar. And as the prices drop, the more entertaining our lunchtime discussions have become.

"What's that sticking out of your soup?"
"I think it's maybe a lung?"

"I've got a chicken foot in mine"

"Wait - nope, not a lung, that's a heart, definitely. Look at the artery sticking out."

"There is definitely an artery sticking out of this pork thing too."

"Don't worry about that cup - that stuff is only on the outside."
"Hmm... tastes like some sort of cleaning product"

"Mind if I finish that pig skin on your plate?"

-We saw our first llamas grazing in the wild. We took a whole lot of pictures. Llamas are sweet. Or possibly they were alpacas - we're still not really sure the difference. Alpacas are sweet too. Puya!

...

The scenery over the past week has been some of the best of the entire trip. We've found ourselves with 360 degree panoramas of snow capped peaks, deep valleys, and everything in between. We've had some amazing campsites, that make almost every campspot we've had pale in comparison. One night we camped just over a pass at 4700 m, and found out just how much elevation affects the temperatue. Normally Jeff and I fit with not much room to spare in our 2 and a half man tent, but as the temperature dropped we decided to all squeeze into it. We were all wearing nearly every piece of clothing we had, tucked in our sub-zero sleeping bags - and we survived it, though comfortably isn´t the word you would use to describe it.

Coming into Huanuco, we dropped from 4000 m down to 1900 m. Statistically that sounds pretty sweet, but the terrible gravel took away a bit of the fun. Now tomorrow we'll start our ascent back up to 4300 m again. PUYA!