18/09/2013 Stage 27 Ayacucho- Ahuayno
The good days just keep on coming at the moment. Just a slight hiccup at the start when Malcolm realised he left a bag at the hotel. We had decided to take the bus to avoid a five hour climb to the top at 4100 m which was followed by 40 km of slightly undulating plateau.
 |
| with the bus gone it seemed a big lonely place |
Unfortunately
it took us nearly 20 km to persuade the bus driver to let us out. I
don't think he could understand why we might want to get off the bus.
After the bus drove away and we were stood there with our bags and
bikes I understood why, it suddenly seemed a very lonely place.
There was just miles and miles of nothing unless of course you count
the vicunas ( the high altitude cousin of the lama) I don't know if I
have got used to the altitude or if it was due to the acetazolamide
but I felt ok. Just shortness of breath l. It was beautiful
undulating riding and soon we started an incredible descent.
 |
| Vicunas |
More
than 2200m of downhill without a pedal stroke on mostly excellent
road surface with very sporadic traffic. The gradient was perfect,
very little braking even for a down hill chicken like me. And most
importantly the scenery was yet again breath taking. We had intended
to stop in Chumbes but is was only just gone 2 pm and we were lucky
enough to find a very knowledgeable man who could tell us exactly how
far it would be to the next village. The maps we have of rural Peru
can be fairly useless. Sometimes towns go by a different name than
the one on the map which can cause confusion or very small villages
are mentioned on the map yet bigger ones are missed off all together.
When we ask locals for directions they very often have no idea beyond
the very next village.
We eventually
descended to the valley floor and crossed the Rio Pampas and
followed the river upstream to Ahuayno where we eventually found a
nice hotel and were greeted by by three locals offering us beer, who
could refuse.
The price for
the huge descent will have to be paid for but it was brilliant.
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