Well we had a blast today! Only covered 386kms but we went over two mountain passes that were at 4500 metres asl and had km after km of windy torturous roads. We were in our element!
We had breakfast at our hotel at Palpa at around 7 but seemed to take a while to get on the road. Our first stop was at the roadside tower which is supposed to give you a view of some of the Nasca Lines. They could be fake but what the hell; they were interesting anyway.
The bikes looked good from up there too.
As we were getting set to go this bus of locals arrived. We thought at first that they were part of the show but no, they were just passing through. We all had to have our photos taken with the ladies.
They made a great scene on the tower.
We rode through Nasca (also spelt Nazca) and headed out on Pe30a. It is a great road. With people scratching out a living somehow. Shirley liked the contrast with the lime green plastic chairs.
Then we hit the twisties! They went on and on!
Double hairpin signs.
And trucks working hard to get round the corners.
Some didn't make it.
At one point Ebony clicked over 40,000kms. Not too bad for an eleven month old bike.
Then we got into the national parks.
With llamas....
Alpacas
And some sheep.
And cattle.
We stopped for lunch somewhere. The chef was so impressed with the bikes that he took a photo and made it the wallpaper on the cafe computer.
Back on the road and more high passes. Somehow the altitude affected my clutch (on the bike, silly!) and I had to change without the clutch over the highest points. Very strange.
Shirley took this photo. I like the juxtaposition of old and new.
At the very top of the second pass we passed these intriguing high lakes.
These stone wall corrals were pretty amazing too.
And the kids along the way thought Kiwi was a bit of all right.
We were chasing our tails a bit. We wanted to make this town Chalhuanca for the night but weren't sure if it had a hostel or not. We got in at 530 and were relieved to find one. Very basic but pretty clean and very friendly. The owner used to be a teacher so of course it's good!
Right beside a lovely trout stream that I can hear as I type.
And a view over the town.
Interesting town in that the whole place is wired for free wifi. We are at the far end of town but logged into the network. This is in high Peru. Intriguing. And good!
We are all tired so it will be an early bed. We are still at 2,500 metres asl or so so we will be watching for altitude sickness. We will be watching for altitude sickness. And of course we will be watching for altitude sickness. Which apparently makes you lose concentration so we will be watching for it.
Today's run: 386kms
Cumulative: 30,757kms
Tipovers: 7
Location:Chalhuanca, Peru.
Sounds like Shirley is feeling a bit better, I hope.
ReplyDelete