¡Hola, South America!
I am here in Peru for over six weeks already and I experience two complete opposite sides of a fascinating country. At the beginning I cycle through a desert along the coast, the famous Panamericana, and at the end I enter the mountains up to Lake Titicaca.
But let’s start from the beginning. I came into Peru on Lima airport and took a taxi to my hostel in Miraflores, the business district close to Lima city. Some gear needs a little overlook and replacement and also my bike should get a new front fork. One screw from the front carrier is loose. The only way to fix that is to replace the whole front fork. I am corresponding with my bicycles company KOGA, while in Mexico and Cuba already. Hopefully they will send me the correct part from Europe. After arriving in the hostel I immediately check if the spare parts arrived. Unfortunately not. I had to wait a few days, by the way Miraflores is a good place to do that, correspond with customs and finally I get the long desired box. Thanks KOGA! I fixed everything with the help of a local bicycle shop and the next day I was ready to do my first kilometres in Peru. I start out early through intense Lima city traffic and a few evasive manoeuvres and f*** y**’s later I am safely out of town and ready to cycle further south.
Surprise, where am I? It looks like the airplane didn’t drop me off in South America. No, it seems like this is the middle of the Sahara desert. I am cycling through huge sand dunes and on the west I spot the Pacific Ocean. Some research a little later made all clear. This is the northern part of the Atacama Desert. First I thought you have to go down south to Chile to see it, but Atacama sand dunes reach far north till up to Lima. I speed up, the road is good and so I make progress the first few days. It’s just getting very hot after lunch. I shift to “desert schedule”, which means stand up at four o clock and start cycling in the dark at five already. So I am done with cycling at about eleven or twelve and ready for a nap. Along the Panamericana I celebrate my first 10 000km on this trip! Overnight I always stay in small hospedaches (hotels) along the road which are pretty cheap and save but very basic.
I pass Pisco, yes the place where the famous Pisco Sour has been created. Yes I know it’s a Peruvian drink. Yes I know it’s not from somewhere else. A few days later I end up in Huacachina near Ica. Cycling into Huacachina is an adventure on its own. Flanked by hundred meter high dunes you enter a small oasis, full of hotels and restaurants of course, in the middle of the desert west of Ica. I enjoyed my time there having party with a few westerners and going on a sand buggy and sandboarding ride through the dunes. As an Austrian I tried to show off on the sand board as much as I could and after a first crash in the sand I manage to board pretty ok. I enjoy my time till a with old oil cooked “Lomo Saltado” knocked me out completely. Throwing up all night long and diarrhoea for the next days were the consequences. But as Ben, a cyclist I met form the UK, told me this is an experience everyone must once have. I hope I had my share on that! I am very week for two weeks and cycling through the desert isn’t fun at all. Then two days before coming to Nazca I met “Frank the Survivor”. Still suffering from my stomach disaster, I lean on the wall next to a shop when he shows up. After the first few words in Spanish he realizes that English might be the better way to communicate and we finally make ourselves be understood. Once a cyclist meets another cyclist he meets a brother and we suffer the last few kilometres through the heat to the next town. We share our travel stories. He is out for 7 years already. Cycling from Spain through Europe and Asia down to Australia. Then to Japan and to Alaska. From there he made it down to Peru. He carries no camera, gps or map or any other electronics. Navigation works just by asking people. As if it would be the most natural thing on earth, we share the costs for a hotel room and go for dinner. After a following short day, still very weak, we arrive in Nazca. He goes to work he says.
I am curious, how is he making money? We walk to the “Plaza the Armas” (town square) and he enrols a big poster with a map showing his world trip and a few pictures on it. This is already drawing some attention of the surrounding people. Then he is starting to build small bicycles out of wires and by talking to the people he starts selling them. Some people in sales should watch this dude, I think to myself. He was not out for a trip, the trip was his life already. I think he can go on forever. He needs to push on, to be down in Cordoba (Yes, fellow country man, the famous Cordoba) for his brother’s wedding and sadly we need to say goodbye the next day.
I cycle alone again and start feeling better. The coastline was fantastic in some stretches. Especially before sunrise the sea is still covered with fog and the sunrays strive over the dunes and make it a free light show every morning. The area is fairly settled. Sometimes up to 100km without facilities. I always find a save spot to stay inside overnight though. Especially after Frank told me getting robbed along the Panamericana I was a little scared. The villages along the coast look poor. At night I stay inside or just go over to the shop or restaurant, but no long walks to somewhere. Over all I enjoy travelling again and climb up to Arequipa on 2300m to hang out, get used to the height, rest and get ready for the jump to Lake Titicaca. I loved Arequipa, could stay there longer. Arequipa is big (1 Mio people) you have everything you need there including a nice old town. As well I enjoyed the hostel I was in, feelings came up like staying in mountain huts for weeks when I was a child. It’s very cold and rainy. Completely the opposite like on the coast. It was the perfect spot to get used to some higher elevation. I didn’t know how it will be cycling over “Crucero Alto” at 4528m elevation. I was once on 4200m in the Pamir region in China, didn’t had any height sickness but felt the elevation and could not imagine performing much on that height. To do some extra “height training” I book a two days hiking trip to “Colca Canyon”. Didn’t thought much about it, some walking and bus driving, taking pictures and so on… Then I was surprised. The bus picked me up on 3:30 am and after a 3 hour drive we hike more than six ours steep downhill the first day. I didn’t even had a back bag with me and walked in my cycling shoes. We hike 1200m elevation downhill to an oasis and the next day up again to 3300m elevation. The area is fantastic. Down in the Canyon the climate is almost tropic. Figs and bananas grow there. Passing by little villages, with fields as big as a room along the slopes, all constructed over generations in small terraces to support the people. Every now and then a Condor circles over our heads and watches our hiking progress.
I am ready for the ride over to Puno and Lake Titicaca. After 6 days cycling over 4000m elevation through the fantastic scenery of the Andes I arrive at my destination. It is tough! During the day on the bike I am fine, but sleeping at night is very hard for me. Once I fall a sleep my body doesn’t get enough oxygen, so I wake up again and think I am out of air. Some deep breathing makes me feel better (at least most of the times) and I fall asleep again. Till I wake up again and so the circle goes on … Takes me five nights to get used to it and sleep ok. The toughest is the first climb up to 4000m. I arrive on a little toll station with some houses nearby. I already cycle for seven hours uphill and need a place to stay overnight. At the police station they tell me that there is no hostel or anything around here. I ask them if I can camp behind their building. Having the police guys close doesn’t harm I say to myself. No problem is their respond. So I go eat first and camp afterwards. In the restaurant I talked to the owners, an older lady and here two kids running the place. They offer me to sleep in the restaurant I just need to wait till all the customers had dinner and could then lay on the floor in my sleeping bag. Perfect I think. After a while I realize, to set up a tent would have been the better option. The whole thing turned out to be the final test of my endurance for this day. The music in the restaurant is, like everywhere in Latin America, on maximum volume. It is very cold and the wind blows through the holes in the windows. I am exhausted, wet, tired and I freeze. I wrap my sleeping bag around myself and wait till the last trucker finishes his dinner. I drink probably two litres of coca tea and as soon as the restaurant door is closed I disappear in my sleeping bag. First I freeze, then I boil. I have little fiver and sweat out the two litres of coca tea. My clothing is wet so I need to change it. What should I do tomorrow I think? I cannot stay in that restaurant the whole day. I fall asleep again and in the morning, I check my body temperature. Fiver, gone! So I take off.
The next days I find rooms to stay overnight but all very basic. No running water or hot shower, sometimes no electricity and the places are not heated. The first warm shower I enjoyed double, after coming to my final destination Puno.
I got a little cold and I am exhausted. Need to rest here in Puno on Lake Titicaca. I have to say that South America is nature wise great so far, but cycling wise much tougher than all the places I have cycled before on this trip. Right now I prepare to leave the country, get fit again and cross over to the next adventure chapter “Bolivia”.
Days travelled total: 220 d
Distance cycled total: 11 182 km
Distance cycled in Peru: 1370 km