Day 81/164: Juli to Copacabana* – 63km

Climbing 675 meters, down 674 meters

Another short ride today. We have the border crossing into Bolivia and you can never be confident it will go smoothly. The trucks are not allowed to cross where we do and have to go over 300 kilometres to the border by La Paz. Our daily bags were loaded onto a local truck so we would have our tents etc if the trucks were held up. Turns out it was luckily this plan was put in place, as the trucks were held up till the early hours of the following morning due to protest action in La Paz.

It was very cold getting up and having breakfast. The ride out of town was quite steep and I had to stop at about 3 kilometres to take clothes off as I was already too warm. There were great lake views.

One lady was moving her sheep and I had to laugh as a lamb was not following the plan and got threatened with a long stick. It must have had experience with the stick as it soon got back into line. One of the two sheep dogs ran at me barking, but it was not sure what to do when I said “Good boy” and it sort of made a groaning noise and ran off.

The border crossing went smoothly. The American riders had to pay about $160 USA dollars and provide heaps of documentation. Apparently it is payback for what Bolivian’s experience when they try to enter USA, but for everyone else it was straight forward.

We enter Bolivia (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Once we got through the border the first thing I noticed was no tuk tuks. There were a number of Taxi vans and a few taxis. The traffic was quieter but this may change as we get further into Bolivia.

There was only 8 kilometres to Copacabana*, about 6 kilometres was a hill. Given the short riding day and the lack of complications at the border I was in Copacabana* by midday. I had some lunch in the village and then headed to camp.

On the road to Copacabana (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

View of Copacabana

We are staying at Samawi Hostel on the lake front (camping). There was not a lot of space for camping, and there were rooms available, so given how cold it gets at night I got a room. Alas: cold showers only, the whole of Copacabana is currently without power. Apparently this happens frequently as the grid gets over loaded. I caught up with some blogs and emails ready to send when I next have wifi, which will probably be in two days time in La Paz. Then I dozed the rest of the afternoon.

Our camping spot tonight (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

The time difference has changed and we are now ahead an hour. At the rider’s meeting we found out about the trucks being held up in La Paz due to protest action. We were told there was a possibility that they may not get here at all. However there was a back up plan with local transport for our day bags and the cooking equipment. Fortunately the trucks did arrive in the early hours of the morning.

I am pleased I have a room as it was very cold eating dinner. When I got back to my room it was considerably warmer than outside. Alas, no nice hot water bottle, but the power did come back on at about 7pm.

Dinner was meat kebabs, a vegetable ragout (like a tomato paste vegetable stew but not sure how to spell it), various condiments, and pita bread.

Dinner is cooking (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

*Editor’s note: This is not THE Copacabana from that awesome song, as I was excitedly led to believe. Apparently there are TWO Copacabana’s – one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and this one in Bolivia. So no Lola’s where Kaye is.

Copacabana, Bolivia (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Copacabana Bolivia (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Sunset over lake Titicaca (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Day 79/164: Rest Day in Puno

Breakfast was included with the hotel stay and such joy when I got down to the restaurant: a toaster! 😀 😀 I have certainly missed being able to have toast. There was also butter but no grapefruit marmalade, so not quite perfect but pretty close. They did have some very nice honey and some pineapple jam.

As there is only one rest day I decided not to do the full day tour to the floating islands and planned to do a three hour one instead. I went down to the wharf, about two kilometres from the hotel, politely declining the numerous offers of rides in a tuk tuk.

The trip to see two islands is $20 sole, plus a $5 landing fee. You had to wait for the boat to have ten passengers before it would leave but that did not take long. The first mate was a boy aged about 8, who was in charge of the ropes and telling the passengers when they could go up to the top of the boat etc.

Boats that take tourists out to the floating Islands

On the boat

The trip out took about 30 minutes to the first island. We had an explanation of how the islands were made and what they ate (Editor’s note: I honestly have no idea what Kaye means by this . . . maybe the islands are like the one in Life of Pi?).

Then we were each taken to one of the individual’s houses to look inside, then that person took you to their market table to sell you either weaving, jewellery or small boats made out of the reeds. The islands surface was dry reeds – you would not like to see a fire!

View of the floating island, ground surface covered in dried reeds

Island people waiting to welcome us onto the floating island

Sitting with the one of the island woman holding the wall hanging I bought

Floating islands

Then we had to pay another ten sole to go on a traditional boat to the next island. The traditional boats are made of reeds also. This boat was not rowed however, it was pushed by a dingy with an outboard motor.

Boat being rowed not pushed by dingy

Editor’s caption: Kaye looking too cool for school on the boat to a floating island

The next island was the chance to buy food and beverages at hugely inflated prices, twice that as on the mainland. The whole experience was a bit tacky and about milking every possible $ out of the tourist. The longer trips are a bit more of a real experience but overall I was happy with the trip. I got to go on a floating island on Lake Titicaca.

Kaye on the restaurant island (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

View of Puno from boat

After getting back to the mainland I had lunch then back to the hotel. The plan was to Skype with a couple of my children and catch up with the blog and emails. Once again problems with the wifi: too many riders crashing the system. I could not get Skype to connect! Again! Most frustrating and disappointing when you have limited access to wifi. One of the riders was telling me that you can also do a Skype like thing through Facebook that works better. Will have to look into it.

I ended up dozing off to sleep in the sun and woke up and it was dark.

Usually on rest days I still eat early but tonight it was after 7pm before I left the hotel. All the restaurants were packed. One had an hour long wait just to order. I managed to find a place that was not as busy but just in time, as it filled up within 5 minutes of getting there. I had a quick Pizza and headed back to the hotel to pack and try again with the Skype. There was an eclipse of the moon so watched that for a while. Very clear sky, so easy to see.

Looking at the rider’s whiteboard it looks like the next four days are going to be quite easy. Nothing over 83 kilometres, and nothing with climbing over 950 meters. We will still be at about 3,800 meters in altitude every day though. I am still having problems with asthma and altitude sickness, so a few easier days will be great.

No luck still with the skype :/. Into bed with my hot water bottle, it would be great if I could have one of these delivered to my tent every night.

Day 53/164: Huanchaco to Guadalupito – 123km

1,325 meters up – 1,345 meters down

I left on my bike with a borrowed back wheel – Britten one of the TDA staff also has a cyclo-cross but is on leave for 5 days so I have his wheel. My wheel will be re-spoked today and back on my bike tomorrow.

Heading off out of town I was distressed to see two dead dogs, both the result of road accidents, in quick succession – thankfully I didn’t see the accidents. One of the dogs was not young, and I wondered if maybe it had got hard of hearing as it got older. I wonder whether they were cared about dogs, and if their owners would be looking for them which is sad, but even sadder if they were strays that no one would care about, and they would just stay there.

On the notes we had been warned to look out for debris between 8 to 18 kilometres, and there was debris on the side of the road. The notes, however, had not said watch out for the really crazy town where you will be in rush hour traffic. The mini vans (taxis) will stop right in front of you and then drive out into you, none use their indicator, but they all make good use of their horn!

Thankfully I got through the town intact, then there were a few climbs up and down.

There was quite a bit of construction and everywhere there was they have young girls waving red flags to slow the traffic down – not that the traffic took any notice. What a boring job standing there all day, maybe you have to spend 3 months doing this before you can move onto another job?

After lunch the scenery changed back to desert, with hills of boulders, and a head wind. Not much of a road shoulder, and lots of trucks and buses!

A view of the desert on pretty much any day in Peru

At 92 kilometres, Cathy and I caught up with another cyclist John who is feeling ill, gastro again. Sue is also not riding today, with gastro so bad that she has to hold onto a rubbish bag. John did not feel like walking or riding, so we waited for the lunch truck to come along and pick him up. The hour looking up at the hill we had to climb was a bit off-putting but I resisted the temptation to jump onto the truck also when it arrived.

After we saw John safely onto the bus we set off again up the hill, then down into a head wind. The highway is two lanes, but running parallel there is a new two lane highway stil under construction but fully bike rideable. We stayed on this highway all the way to camp. Every now and then we had to get off the bike and clamber over the barriers that are there to stop the general traffic using it as well.

Unlike Colombia and Ecuador where there was a certain tolerance for cyclists, here the Peruvian motorists don’t think we should be on the road at all! It does not help that there are hardly any cyclists here and those you do see are not recreational cyclists slowly going along the shoulder of the road. This is where the motorists believe we should be and they toot angrily at us!

The problem with the shoulder of the road is it has holes, rubbish, deal animals and tuk tuks – so not good riding.

After the downhill there was about 15 kilometres riding along a straight that never seemed to end, into a head wind. Finally we got to the camp, staying at Bungalows Gemma. The highway finished just at the front of the camp, we jokingly said “hopefully they will not be working all night! Well, ha! By the next morning this stretch was nearly finished as there was pounding of the road, and trucks and heavy machinery going until about 2am. Guess it made a change from roosters, dogs, and bars.

Another view of the desert, pretty much any day in Peru

Day 50/164: Rest day in Pacasmayo

Not surprisingly I did not wake up feeling the best I ever had. I felt a bit like I had after the farewell party in Venice! Very seedy but thankfully unlike then I did not have a canal boat trip that I had to go on that day.

I had breakfast, then more water, and then went for a walk around the town. Jackie, who had joined me drinking the pisco sour, came to breakfast wearing dark glasses and also feeling fragile.

View of Pacasmayo

Walking down hill my legs were sore and I am very thankful not to be riding today. Interesting town, I walked down to the pier. It used to be where people and goods were unloaded and then shipped across Peru. A number of dogs, cats, pelicans, and vultures, were hanging hopefully around the fish market at the pier.

View of the pier from the hill in town

View of town from the pier

Cats sitting by fish market on pier in Pacasmayo

Pelicans keeping close eye on fish market in Pacasmayo

Fishing boats

Vultures in Pacasmayo

This place is now very popular as a surf beach, and as a claim to surf beach fame it can create waves that you can ride for up to 4 minutes. According to the surfers that is very rare.

The amazing surf on the beach here (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

TDA staff head down to surf (Photo credit: Sue’s blog)

For such a small city there are a lot of tuk tuks, and every time you cross a road you have to look out. Just like in Cartagena, and the rest of South America so far, pedestrian crossings mean nothing. I had lunch at a shop in the plaza square, then headed back to the hotel to catch up on the blog!

At 6pm I headed down to the laundry to pick up my washing. I have been very fortunate and all my washing is back, even though it is damp and had to be aired in my room. Some of the riders have some or none of their washing. One of the riders got a bag back with his name on it, but nothing in the bag was his. A number of people the washing had not been started and they were told to come back the next day!

We are going to have a box at the hotel to put all the laundry that is not ours in and hopefully washing can be reunited with the correct owner. Always a problem relying on a local provider but there was not the option here to do our own. So far I have been lucky and have only lost one pair of riding shorts.

I watched a lovely sunset and had dinner at the hotel. I thought I had ordered something like a tortilla but when it arrived it was a lump of beef in a thick cheese sauce! Was quite tasty, I had a nice glass of red wine with it and retired for an early night (early for a rest day at about 8:30pm, was an hour and half past riding day bedtime).

Sunset over the waves (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

There was a street fair / party that started after I had gone to bed and I woke up a few times with it still going on but managed to go back to sleep. If I had known it was going to be on I may have stayed up a bit later, but probably not.

It was nice to go to sleep with the luxury of another rest day and not having to set the alarm clock for the second day in a row.

Possibly a distant relative of Benji’s

A vulture airing its wings

Another picture of vultures in Pacasmayo

Late afternoon light (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

View from Sue’s hotel room corridor this evening (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Day 48/164: Pasabar to Chiclayo – 113km

Up 700 meters, down 775 meters.

Not such a good sleep last night – just because a weird bunch of Lycra clad cyclists go to bed at 7pm does not mean the locals do. Quite a lot of talking and laughing, thankfully I had the iPod and ears muffs!

The soccer field has overhead lights, and these were on for a while, and then came back on at 5am.

When one of the riders woke up it was so light they thought they had overslept. Being so close to the equator there is not much time from dark to light in the morning, and light to dark at night. So usually we are getting up in the dark and going to bed in the dark.

As I don’t have my keys to lose every day I instead play “hunt for my overhead light” – if only I would put it in the same place each day! If I forget until it is dark more challenge is added to this by having to crawl around inside the tent going through everything with the light from the cell phone. My aim from now on is to put it in my toilet bag every morning (which I plan to do as soon as I find it).

To add variety today we had a team challenge, we had to get into a team of 4 and guess how long it will take to ride 25 kilometres-ish (maybe slightly more or less) without knowing the road and how much of today’s 700 meters climb is in it. I am in a combined NZ/OZ team called the Anzac biscuits. You can over estimate your time, but if you underestimate you’re out, and it’s based on the time that the last rider in the team crosses the line.  Given that we don’t know the gradient we are cautious and overestimate based on the expected speed of the slowest rider in the team (me).

It is for fun and there is no prize, but some of the teams are deadly serious and are warming up and have stripped everything off their bike. I considered if I should take off my panniers, but I already spend a few minutes each day trying to close my daily bag so that’s not an option anyway.

There was less gradient than we expected so we come in under our time. Going up the hill to the end I was feeling the pressure, was huffing and puffing and pushing as fast as I could. My team could hear me behind them, thankfully no one in my team was yelling at me to hurry up.

One of the teams had a rider who is also not great on hills who thought he was going to throw up, and in another team one of the riders was screaming and yelling at his team. Anyone would have thought there was serious prize money at stake.

The ANZAC biscuits: L-R: Brett and Jackie from Australia, Peter and me from New Zealand

With this behind me, I set off for the rest of the ride. There were some ruins along the way, pyramids in Tucane built out of sandstone, that I stopped to have a look at. I need to google some info about them as everything I have seen written was in Spanish.

Me in front of the pyramids

The pre Incan pyramids (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Detail of the Pre Incan pyramid (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

The road is not good to ride on, the shoulder has numerous pot holes but the road has trucks, buses and Tuk Tuks everywhere. Even when you are on the shoulder they blare their horns at you. They are much more aggressive than Colombia and  Ecuador, with us and with each other. They are also less kind to animals, and there is a distressing amount of animal carnage at the roadside. Also distressing are the vultures feasting. I can just imagine vultures as the birds in the horror movie (called I think Birds). There is also rubbish everywhere again.

Because of the team challenge and the rest of the day not being a race day, most of the riders are riding in groups. The group I was with got stopped and questioned by the Policia – an interesting conversation when they did not speak English and none of us spoke Spanish. We showed them on our notes where we were going, they took photos of us and – we thought – drove off happily.

However about 5 kilometres up the road along came 3 Policia on motorcycles with their sirens going and one headed over to us. Once again a challenging conversation, and he did not seem very happy with us. We got an escort for the remaining 16 kilometres to camp. It was a bit scary as he seemed really grumpy and he had a gun. It was useful though in controlling the traffic, and he stopped the traffic at two intersections so we could go across. However we were very relieved when we got to camp to see Cristiano. We left Cristiano to deal with him and went thankfully inside the camp.

Cristiano said after being asked for his documentation and having his photo taken, the cop said he had been told to ensure we got safely to camp – by it turns out the cops in the car who had stopped us.

The place we are staying has rooms at a reasonable price so a lot of the riders got one. Nice to have a room to myself, and not have to pack up the tent in the morning, and be able to get dressed standing. As it turns out also thankfully to stop being savaged by bugs. I put two types of spray on for dinner and still got bitten. In the morning I got bitten through my bike shorts and riding top as well.

This place is meant to have wifi but like the place in Las Lomas I could not get onto it. So rather than get frustrated I decided to turn the iPad off. Hopefully the hotel for the rest day will have good wifi.

I am looking forward to the rest day. Even though the days have been shorter and not much climbing, I have never ridden 7 days in a row before, and the legs are getting weary.

Dinner was goat curry, couscous, coleslaw.

On the road today (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Day 46/164: Las Lomas to Chulucanas – 84km (or not!)

Up 500 meters, down 645 meters.

We were going to be bush camping (no running water, shower or toilets) on a soccer field in Chulucanas. The soccer fields here are dry patches of dirt, so with the short day we weren’t motivated to rush to camp. I rode with Jackie for the day.

There are so many dogs here, most places seem to have at least two, plus there are strays in between towns, scavenging through the rubbish that is dumped there. I assume they are strays as they look underfed. A number of the dogs out the front of houses also look like they could do with a few good meals.

The road is full of tuk tuks, and carts and horses, if it wasn’t for the occasional motorbike and car you could easily think it was a 100 years ago.

We came to a town called Tambo Grande, it was crazy – tuk tuks darting everywhere, people, roadworks, unpaved roads, and traffic shooting out from everywhere, with very little – if any – regard for the traffic rules.

Tambo Grande (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Not surprisingly in the chaos Jackie and I missed a flag at a roundabout. Luckily Jackie realized pretty quickly, and we made our way back again to the roundabout and got back onto the right road. A couple of quite aggressive dogs rushed, out but thankfully a local on a motorbike cut them off.

Turning left at the Farmers Statue (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

We stopped for a drink and less than 5 kilometres later we were at the lunch truck at 9:15 am! The first riders were through before 8am. Today is going to be even shorter than planned as we are not staying at the soccer field any more, we are now stopping at 76 kilometres, at a proper campsite with showers/ toilets, a restaurant, and grass rather than dirt :D.

After lunch the road was basically flat, and before lunch there was not much climbing. The climbing must be between the 76km and the 85km we were meant to be doing today.

We came across a dip in the road with water in it, but thankfully we had seen locals going off road on a dirt road around it, as it looked pretty deep. There were two more dips like this, one with an off road option while the other looked really shallow. Luckily Jackie rode right to the very left of it and I followed her – four riders who went through the middle came off their bikes as it was slimy and slippery.

We went through a few quiet sleepy towns where even the dogs did not raise their heads from their dozing as we went through. Then we came to another crazy busy town, once again tuk tuks everywhere.

At the outskirts we came across one of the riders – Chris – whose chain had got caught in his cassette. We could not get it out so suggested that he and his bike got in a Tuk tuk and followed us to camp. The only problem is we did not know the name of the camp, or exactly how far it was, as we were originally going to be biking 83 kilometres and staying on a dirt soccer field, however Cristiano has found a better option at 76 kilometres yay! So off we went with Chris holding onto his bike. Thankfully it was only a few kilometres.

We got to camp, it was great – grass, a large covered restaurant area, and a pool. Certainly different than what we had been expecting (aka dreading).

My bike has started to make worrying noises and is getting harder to shift gears, so it went to bike clinic today and had something done with a bearing, and the gears adjusted, plus a check over, so hopefully it will not be as noisy. Jackie said she did not have to check if I was behind her, she could hear me!

We have had a change of route, instead of going through the mountains in Peru we are going to follow the coast. This is because there are no suitable places to camp for such a large group in the mountains, even bush camping. I am secretly quite delighted as I was not looking forward to altitude problems again. Another positive is we also pick up another rest day in Pacasmayo at the end of 7 days riding by the Pacific Ocean 😀

Dinner was pork stew, Israel couscous, and beans.

Tuk Tuk birthing station in Tambo Grande (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Day 45/164: Macara to Las Lomas – 61km

Up 600 meters (turned out to be 700), and down 1,100 meters.

I had a reasonable sleep, with the usual roosters dawn chorus competition of course – but at least they waited until about 5am!

We had a nice short day, allowing plenty of time for the border crossing. We set off about 6:30am with 9 kilometres to ride to the border. School is back in and at 6:30 the children are arriving for school. A number of utes and small trucks arrive with their back-trays crammed with school children.

Welcome to Peru – where the old bridge used to be (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Getting out of Ecuador was pretty quick, then across to the Peru border counter. This took ages as they had a network issue, so the line seemed to hardly move.

The queue for Immigration (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Waiting at the border (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

While we were waiting in the line we noticed a puppy that was about 4-5 months wake up, stretch, then wander over and start gnawing on the handle bars of one of the rider’s bike. When the puppy was yelled at he moved down to the saddle bag and started gnawing that, and when yelled at again he slinked off to find mischief elsewhere.

Then a healthy adult goat appears and wanders up and down the road chewing on plants.

Finally the queue starts to move and our passports are stamped. We still have to wait around for the dinner truck to go through in case they want to search the bags, so we go to get a drink while we wait. Next thing Mr Goat appears again, and trots into a restaurant across the road confidently like he has a reservation! Then suddenly he see the owner, and he’s off down the road at rapid speed with the owner throwing stones after him. I suspect he has had enough success in the past with this manoeuvre to make the risk worthwhile. The dinner truck is waved through and we are off.

Welcome to Peru, on the new bridge (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Immediately you can tell we are in a differently country, the people look different, the houses are different, and there no yellow taxis. There are Tuk Tuk’s galore (motorbike in front and covered seats behind) as well as some white ute taxis. The country is very dry here, you can tell we are not far from the desert with cactus and dry dirt roads, and houses without grass.

A Tuk Tuk

The local taxis (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

The people are more friendly than in Ecuador. A number smiled and waved at us. There are a number of loose donkeys grazing at the side of the road, and herds of goats. Unlike in Ecuador they are not tied up.

We had rolling hills which are great as you can get up the hill quite a way with the momentum from coming down. As it was only a 60 kilometre ride I was pushing myself to go as fast as I could. I am also concentrating on changing to smallest gears as late as possible and changing up as soon as I can. On rolling hills you can do this as you know you will soon have the downhill to recover.

There are lots of dogs, at one shop I saw about 11 dogs, and some quite large dogs, milling around. Thankfully none so far (bar one very small dog with big dog aspirations) have been aggressive.

The town where we are staying is basically a town square with some surrounding shops. It is very hot and dry. We are staying tonight at Salon Communal Santa Isabel, which is the community centre, so tent city again! But the other option is outside in the beating down sun, on a patch of dirt, in 38 degrees heat and possibly will get hotter.

Tent City

A number of the locals have lined up outside the building to watch our goings on with great interest. There are adults sitting on the tuk tuks, and children milling around the door.

Taxi drivers watching us (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

Passers by stop to watch (Photo and caption credit: Sue’s blog)

After getting the tent sorted I went off into town to find a cash flow, and a cold beer. The cash flow worked ok, thankfully, as I suspect it is the only one in this town. I have had some problems in some other towns where some cash flow machines don’t work and others do. The machine only gave $100 dollar notes which are too big to cash in most of the shops. So I went into the bank, which has an interesting system where you don’t queue in a line or at the teller, you sit in a seat and as each person gets served you move up one seat.

Playing musical chairs at the bank (Photo credit: Sue’s blog)

I had a cold beer and then returned to the camp site to get my clothes to have a shower – the restaurant down the road was letting us use their shower. The restaurant also has wifi. I had a shower, but despite trying a number of times did not manage to get onto the wifi.

The place where we are staying has no running water, and the toilet has to be flushed by using a bucket, and pulling the water up from a well.

By dinner time there were about 30 townspeople gathered around watching us eat with great interest.

Dinner was Israeli couscous, beef stew, and broccoli.

Locals watching dinner preparation