Peace Corps gives us access to basic Trek mountain bikes, and we a have a bike guru (Ben, Peru 18) here in Ancash that radiates a bicycling enthusiasm that can be very contagious. So one Sunday, a couple weeks ago, I took a 36 mile ride around the mountains near my site, and stopped by my site-mate's house, just to say how tired I was. It was roughly 4-5 hours of climbing, and involved me arriving at the zenith of my climb in the verge of tears, out of food, and without water. Needless to say a small tienda (store) owner in a small town I passed was glad to see me crawl in to buy nearly 20S/. of water and junk food. Judging by the dust on all the items, it was the best day of business she's had in the last decade. Here's some pics:
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| I woke up to a light dusting of snow in the Cordillera Negra. |
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| I was hoping to fish here. It looked good on the map, but due to landslide last month, the river was toast. |
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| Can't fish, might as well keep peddling. |
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| Headed down the Canon de Pato, but stopped after a few tunnels due to the traffic. |
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| The first tunnel of the Canon de Pato. |
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| The otherside. |
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| On the way back up the valley, I caught this guying taking a cable car. |
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| A high up chacra. |
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| My stead after the second flat tire (had three in total this day). |
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| Taking a break on a rock... roughly 1/3rd through my ride. |
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| A furry buddy joined me at my rock. |
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| He was tied up, but at least he a had a view. |
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| Papas/Potatoes (I think) as far as you could see. This was a very well kept chacra. |
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| It started to rain on my return, luckily I was on the way down. |
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| This landslide had me a little creeped out, but made me glad I was on the bike and not trusting a combi driver in a hurry. |
