Living in Peru : your everyday companion

This long planned expedition was made on the long weekend from june 28th to july 2nd 2007. We crossed part of the Omas and Mala rivers basins, visiting some towns like: Coayllo, Omas, San Pedro de Pilas, Tamara and Quinocay. Our goal was to pass from one basin to the other cycling but couldn't achieve this for reasons beyond our control, however the shared experience by the four of us was much beyond the expected.

This cycle touring experience can't be defined with a single word but many that won't be enough: friendship, generousity, solidarity, enthusiasm, hospitality, sense of humor, respect, camaraderie, cooperation, good manners, optimism, joy, nostalgia and finally love and gratefulness.

The trip started late as usual, we departed Lima on june 28th about at 9 p.m., it was scheduled at 7 p.m. (peruvian time, the old style),  towards Maria Nelly and Sydney's country houses.

At Sydney's, dinner, wine, banana cake with ice cream and the chat was great, all five stars. Thanks Syd!

In the morning on the 29th, breakfast at Maria Nelly's was identically good and generous. Thanks Lele!

As soon as everything was ready: luggage, three bikes, Sydney's truck, equipment, etc., the tree of us started cycling, one driving on that cold and humid morning. The 10 kms from Mala to Asia were cycled alongside the highway.

The cycling trip by the Asia valley begins just front of La Huaca facility and crosses the coastal desert contaminated with garbage deposits and demolition debris from the near flourishing Asia beach neighbourhood, followed by the poor and languishing town of Santa Rosa de Asia - what a contrast! Afterwards Coayllo, old town, small and calm which that day, june 29th, celebrates Saint Peter patron with procession, band, service at the church, party, fireworks, etc.

A brief rest with stretching session preceded the departure toward Omas along a road that shortly after showed its general profile: a long and progressive 55 km length ascent that placed each of us in its corresponding position according to our fitness condition: 1st Sydney, 2nd not too far behind Bruno and 3rd far back away Anibal. The truck, driven by Maria Nelly, was shifting positions from behind them to in front of them.

The toponimies of the route: Sequilao, Uquira, Huavinchurco, Francia, La Yesera, Los Gentiles, Tierra Amarilla and Cata slowly passed fell behind us, according to the pace of the phisically demanding cycling, under the oblique sun rays on this nice late june afternoon.

However the strong ascents right after Cata were not finished by any of the first two energetic bikers whom left their power along the way. The last one also paid in full with painful cramps the consequence of inactivity for three weeks without cycling due to an accident that affected his ribs.

That night the bikes were safely stored in the Municipality's library, here we noticed the poor books collection and the need of them, so the idea for collecting books to be donated to this library was born here. This help will be appreciated by local students. You, the person reading this chronicle are kindly called to cooperate with this charity. Please contact us Cicloturismo Peru Phone: 4337981 (Lima) cicloturismo_peru@yahoo.es

After dinner we took a short walk around the plaza under the moonlight to take few photo shots adjusting the exposure settings without using flash to get natural illumination pictures and a brief skywatching session to identify Scorpius among the stars near Jupiter.

It was cold and we were tired, so going to bed was mandatory. So ended the day of Saint Peter.

Everything was fine, except getting sleep was curiously difficult until late after midnight. With Bruno we held an entertaining, ample and varied conversation. An interesting and useful exchange of opinions that drained the cycling theme until Morfeus did his job.

Saturday june 30th arrived, after getting things ready we had excellent banana juice made with Frugos at the juice store next to the left of the local restaurant where we ended with coffee and cheese sandwiches. The bikes needed some cleaning and lube that was done just before leaving uphill to San Pedro de Pilas. The steep ascent to Pilas is hard, about 1,000 m in just 16 km so the truck did the trip with us in it.

 There was a party at Pilas for Saint Peter's celebration, it was evident due to the people in the streets, the band, the bells of the church and the priest calling for the religious service, the flower garlands ready for the procession and the drunks, some unconcious laying on the ground others friendly and hospitable. Also foreign visitors were present that day, it was nice to find a friend called Marcela Caillaux and her party of friends whom were there giving charity help to the local children. What a great surprise was to know that Marcela, Maria Nelly and another friends studied together at the same school (many, many yeras ago J). Truly, the world is not big enough.

Greetings, introductions, pictures, hellos and good byes. The band of three bikers and one driver left toward Tamari, Tres Cruces and Quinocay. We were blessed with a beautiful andean scenery, pure air a a nice dirt road that was perceived optimistically as an inverted downhill that again challenged our physical capacities and the best gears combination to overcome it. After two hours a mandatory stop for rest and lunch nicely seating on a huge rock under an old tree. Crackers, cheese bought from a nearby goats shepherd camp, raisins, granola, glupchi (gatorade or similar drink) and chocolate were on the menu. That was enough.

In this place we found a shepherd's camp with goat and cow milk, cheeses drying under the sun on an interesting wooden structure specially made to store and dry the cheeses. At first there was nobody, just a little dog, soon after the owner showed up and kindly sold us 2 delicious cheeses and a piece of fox skin recently hunted.

Soon after we continued our way uphill in the truck to the summit called Tres Cruces at 3,600 m.a.s.l. from where an impressive sight of the territory is possible. On one side, the basin of Omas valley, on the other side the higher section of the Mala valley basin and far on the northeast horizon the snow topped peaks of the Llongote and Pichcahuajra ranges.

From this point a funny downhill begins along one of the most beautiful andean trails. The afternoon hours illuminated by the golden sunlight gave the landscape a magical feeling, the wind, the colours of the country fields, the golden hill covered with wheat and barley, the cows and donkeys on the way, the moving shadows and the changing colours of the sky, the scent of the vegetation and soil, all these details converted this moment into a magical trip, hallucinating and almost unreal.

Late in the afternoon the cross at the entrance of Quinocay welcomed us with a final steep ascent demanding torque to the gears: 1:1 setting.

There was also a party in Quinocay with band, drunks, etc., and hospitable friendly people with curious children observing these aliens wearing strange clothes and riding nice bikes. The mayor of the town was very helpful and attended to our needs of accomodation ordering someone to provide us a room to spend the night. We fortunely got a room including 2 beds and three matresses to be shared by the four of us.

According to our plans and based on the information available in the maps and satellite images from Google Earth, the route to follow is through a furrow drain pass from Quinocay to Viscas to continue by the Mala river valley downhill to La Capilla where a delicious shrimp based lunch was planned (actually this was the main goal of the expedition J) and further on to Mala.

Here at Quinocay we were told by the local people that temporarily it is not possible to pass to the Mala valley due to the construction of a new bridge that blocks the road by the only crossing point. When this was said Sydney, Maria Nelly and Bruno turned their eyes to me because since the beginning I insisted that there is a croosing to the Mala valley, I saw it clearly in the Google Earth, despite the fact that someone had said there is not a crossing. The point was the satellite image was taken before the bridge construction had started just 15 days before.

The case is closed. The itinerary, now is forced to be changed by returning part of the way done the day before back up to where the road splits in two to take the branch leading downhill to Pie de la Cuesta and further to Omas and Asia.

The way to our improvised accomodation took us around the town, it was twilight time, the time of moving and rapid changing colours in the sky from light blue to deep dark blue and purple, in the chromatic transit zone of the sky two bright bodies: Venus and Saturn outshining the firmament made one of the most beautiful backgrounds and an excellent opportunity to make some photo shots with nice results.

The dinner of soup, crackers, ice cream and tea at the local market added to the interesting chat was nice.

To sleep we had 2 beds and 3 matresses, the math formula applied to this elements resulted in the following relationship: 1:1 and 3:2, in other words: one, me, to sleep in one bed and one matress; and three to sleep sharing two matresses. A good reason lead to this conclusion: arachnids are not my favorite pets so one bed was for me that night. Wise decision, later I walked out to use the bathroom and found entering the room one sample of an invertebrate arthropod, arachnid class, scorpionida subclass member which sadly ended its life under my Reebok boots.

Sunday july 1st 2007, the day started with the moon still above the horizon. Good photo opportunity, but couldn't get good results. Couldn't manage the rapid light level change. Maybe next time.

The procedures for getting things ready and loading the bikes on the truck have evolutioned considerably at this time, now it is an almost perfect ritual. So soon we were going back uphill admiring the morning andean landscape with its subtle light details and charm that were converted into nice pictures.

At the summit, where the road splits in two we started cycling downhill, funny and fast by the trail leading to Pie de la Cuesta. Now Maria Nelly driving again. Bruno and me advanced quickly and arrived to the little town so named at the foot of the hill, where all the population is formed by 4 people, an elderly couple, their son and daughter in law. Here we had a nice and interesting chat with the old lady for a long time. Long enough to be concerned about the other two that didn't arrive yet. The delay was a bad signal. Later they arrived with the truck rolling on the rear right tire flat and broken and with no spare tire. Complicated situation, even more considering that the nearest tire repair shop would be about 16 km away downhill, and no cars nor nothing is expected to pass by in the next coming hours or days.

Options? Only one, to take the flat tire to the repair shop, get a new tire and bring it back to the truck with any transportation that could be found available. Sounded easy but was really difficult under those circumstances. Chances to get a new tire were null. Anyhow it was decided to take the tire loaded on the rack of my bike and secured to me with an improvised harness to avoid dropping it.

After a brief essay of cycling with the tire loaded on the bike and needed fixing adjustments left with Bruno after me. A couple of kilometers down the way we found a motorcycle parked on the side of the road and inmediately thought that would be a useful resource that we might get. After a brief negociation with the owner, he accepted to help us taking the tire to the repair shop and then to bring it back to the truck.

Now the way downhill was speedy, almost flying downhill following the motorcycle. At Omas the repair shop was closed, the owner went to the parties in the towns up in the mountains, that was normal but bad for us. The next repair shop is at Esquina de Omas about 6 km further downhill. Here the tire repairman friendly and calm looked and relooked the tire moving his head to both sides, finally said, no way, this tire can not be repaired, its fully broken. A new tire was needed or a used one but in good condition. That was too much to ask for such circumstances. He looked among his old tires stock. Nothing.

On the way coming down here I remembered having seen some old tires stored somewhre near a local shop. I went to see and after looking a bit found an old tire that with some repair work would be useful.

"Let's see if we can make it work," said the repairmanan and started his job after finding an old tube on which he applied almost "magically" with half dozen patches to get it inflated. He put a reinforcing piece of rubber inside the tire to protect the tube of the big deep cut it had and after a hard work fitted the tire in the rim and got it ready. At least that rolls, driving slowly chances to arrive to Asia are good.

We loaded the fixed tire on the motorcycle, paid the repair man and the driver's service to deliver it up to the truck. So, now things seemed to be fine and we decided to go back to Omas to wait for the truck. The way to Omas was hard again, five very steep ascents demanded lots of energy and directed us straight to the juice store to have the excellent banana juice made with Frugos while resting and waiting for the truck.

Three hours had passed since the motorcycle left with the truck's tire, but yet the truck didn't come to us. It was too long, according with our calculations the whole thing wouldn't have taken more than 1 ½ hours maximum, so something had happened. Now things seemed to be difficult again, those were 16 km along a very steep hill. There were no options, just going cycling. After two kilometers we found the truck coming down What happened? Nothing -they said. Everything fine. The motorcycle arrived with the tire, mounted it to the truck and here we are. That was three hours ago! Well, it seems that the driver took his time to deliver the tire, after having been paid he had no reason to hurry and did it after having lunch and resting for a while. The truck had to wait anyway, yes or yes, without any other option.

The relaxing feeling returned to all of us and decided to have lunch at a restaurant located nearby on the way.

What followed was easy and calm. Now it was my turn to drive slowly, very slowly and the other three expeditioners went cycling. When they left I realized that I was now alone in the truck but with a tire in delicate condition and with good chances to get the tire flat again, that was not going to be nice if it happened. Luckily two partisans asked me to take them down to Asia, I acceded inmediately thinking that they might help me in case of a flat tire.

So things passed smoothly and slowly advancing toward Asia until it got dark and found the bikers waiting to get into the truck to finally arrive to Asia and further to Mala to the country houses of Maria Nelly and Sydney where this time Bruno delighted us with his cooking skills for the after expedition dinner that was spirited with the nice home made pisco invited by Sydney. It was already too late to come back to Lima, so we stayed there one more night.

Conclusion

The route connecting the valleys of Asia and Mala across the high mountains is an excellent cycle touring option with beautiful and varied landscapes changing from the dry coastal desert to the greeny mid altitude yunga region and to the mountainous scenery of the highlands with nice picturesque towns populated by friendly and hospitable people.

All the way uphill is physically very demanding, long and hard. The truck helped a lot to accomplish the route.

The pass connecting both basins located between Quinocay and Viscas is temporarily interrupted by the construction of a new bridge that will allow permament pass between both valleys, the work will be finished in October 2007.