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12 Jun 2014
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The Sacred Valley
Getting back to the city we decided to go on a tour of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, which was completed in 1654 after almost 100 years and is on the site of an Inca temple. This place is very impressive and they actually have the original first Christian Cross brought to the Americas by Francisco Pizarro the Conquistador of Peru.
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Today’s plan is a circle route 150 thru the Sacred Valley of the Inca from Pisac to Urubamba and back to the city.
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First don’t use your GPS to try to get out of the Cusco you will end up on crazy steep roads that lead nowhere, “roads” that are in reality staircases, or driving in circles. We finally gave up after 45 min and just backtracked to the route we knew near Saqsaywaman and the white Christ.
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The first 30 km to Pisac is over the mountains and down into the valley.
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12 Jun 2014
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The Sacred Valley
The next 40 km to Urubamba is along the valley floor. We decided to go a bit farther up the road and take the back road into Moray. This is a red dirt road up the mountainside on switchbacks with amazing views of the snow-capped peaks.
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12 Jun 2014
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Moray
The Moray site contains an Inca ruins, which consists of terraced circular depressions, the largest of which is 30 meters deep. The depth and orientation to the wind and sun create differences of up to 15 degrees in temperature. The theory is that this was an agriculture experimental station.
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12 Jun 2014
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Maras
Then we went further down the road to the town of Maras. Near here you go down another dirt road to the “Salerinas” or salt mines.
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These are salt evaporation ponds have been in use since pre-Inca times. The very salty water from a subterranean stream emerges at a spring and is directed into an intricate system of channels feeding several hundred terraced ponds.
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12 Jun 2014
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North to the mountains of Peru
Finally its time to leave the big city for the 1500 + km trip north to the Canyon del Pato, for what is supposed to be the number 1 day ride in all of South America…..
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Starting out from Cusco at 8 am we had plans for a big day (500 km), but ended up with only 297 km on what was probable the worst day of the trip so far.
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We got out of the city very quickly this time as we knew the route now, but only got 10 km to Poroy to get gas and Dan noted his front tire was a few pounds down. We topped it up and continued on. Shortly after this it started to rain and we donned our over suits.
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12 Jun 2014
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North to the mountains of Peru
About 20 min later Dan’s front was flat and we had to change it on the side of the road in the rain, but at least we are getting quick at it now. Looking at the rim there is a small dent and likely the tube was pinched the day before when he hit a manhole with no lid, but with just crossed with rebar.
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Heading farther up the mountain it was raining and so foggy I could barely see Dan in front of me.
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We headed up and down 3 mountains from 1800 m to 4200m.
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On the first there was a lot of construction with a muddy dirt road where the 3 S had been washed away by several slides over about 20 km.
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12 Jun 2014
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25 km muddy mountain detour
Then we came to a block in the road and they told us to go up this hill to get around the “deep excavation”. This was in fact a 25 km detour over the steep mountain on a very muddy dirt road in the now pouring rain. AGGGGH!!
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12 Jun 2014
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Snow
Now we were finally back on the pavement, but again headed up to 4200 m. As we watched the temperature drop rapidly we got worried. Luckily it did not go below 0 and we just had to deal with slush on the road and being pelted with freezing rain. This is probably the most worried we have ever been on the trip.
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We gave up on our plans to get to Ayacucho as it was now 5 pm. We made for the next town Andahuaylas. Arriving just at dusk we were exhausted took the first hotel that luckily had hot water. Our helmet pads and gloves were soaked, but our feet dry in our Daytona GTX boots! We were again disappointed in our Revitt H2O over suits and neither of us was dry, especially the underwear.
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12 Jun 2014
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North to the mountains of Peru
Well rested we were up and out early at 8 am and back on the 3S.
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The road was good for the first 250 km on amazing winding switchbacks again to 4200 m.
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12 Jun 2014
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North to the mountains of Peru
Driving along here I was trying to get a photo when my Contour fell off. The glue gave up at 2.5 degrees. Luckily there was deep drainage ditches so it was no too hard to find.
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Arriving at a small town the GPS said go straight, but the construction crew said no way. There was again a detour to the highway of about 30 km of dirt on a windy mountain “road” that dumped you back at the 3S, but this was onto about another 30 km of construction. There were several stoppages of 20 min where they were clearing the road of slide debris and piles of gravel.
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12 Jun 2014
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North to the mountains of Peru
Then there was 100 km of paved 1 lane road hanging on the side of the cliff, that actually had 2 way car and truck traffic. Luckily on the bikes we could pass. The hairpin corners were nerve racking with oncoming vehicles. What was the most crazy was the number of significant river crossings on the “ highway”. We were again racing the sunset to get off the road.
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15 Jun 2014
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Peru mountains day 3
We eventually found some no name town we would like to forget, with a “room” next to the pig sty (literally) about 40 min after dark and 400 km. This would probably be one of the worst places we have stayed in, but what can you expect for 8$. The one highlight of the day was a pretty good dinner we had. We just followed the police officers to the restaurant they were eating at.
After 2 days where our schedule had been decimated by weather, construction, and road conditions we were bagged and hoping for an easy day. Not so for ADV riders. After actually not a bad night sleep we decided to get an early start and were out the door at 720 and headed 45 min to Huancayo for breakfast and gas.
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Then we hit construction again and the road was actually closed, but they said the motos could make it. This said there was very rough “road” (more like a washed out river bed), several sections of mud, and twice we had to wait for the fresh deep gravel to be flattened for us by a machine so we could make it at all.
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15 Jun 2014
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Peru mountains day 3
Then we had 2 mountain passes over 4200 m to arrive at Junin, which is at 4000m for some lunch. The red stuff is quinoas. There are an amazing number of different kinds of potatoes here.
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In Peru many towns have these elaborate squares with crazy cartoon like themes.
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15 Jun 2014
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Cerro de Pasco
Farther up the Carretera Central we drove thru Cerro de Pasco, which is one of the highest cities in the world and the highest city in the world with over 50,000 inhabitants at 4330 m.
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15 Jun 2014
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OFF OFF road
Here is where our GPS led us astray again. We had lost our good paper map of Peru and so were relying on the GPS on the road. We should have made right at Cerro de Pasco on the 3N to get to Huanuco in 100 km, but instead we ended up on a private dirt road to a mining site.
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Leaving this first mine site there was one of the deepest mud puddles we have seen and in fact the water was half way up the doors of the car in front of us. Luckily there was a dry patch to the side “blocked” by rocks that we could get over. The dirt road then got even rougher and narrower.
After this we were on a mud “goat track”, which eventually became a dirt/mud track up the mountainside. We ran into some locals at the mountaintop who asked us where the hell were we going. They did confirm however that we could keep going this way to get back to the highway, so we did.
Farther down the road got much better and we ran into a mine worker who said if we keep going down all the switchbacks several thousand feet to the valley floor there is a gate thru which we can access the route to the 3N. Some of the hairpin steep curves were a bit much with large rocks and deeper dirt to negotiate. Once the road was dry it was no real problem.
The guard at the gate congratulated us for getting down the “road” and said that we were the first bikers he had ever heard of or seen there! Hey maybe we were the first to do something!
After leaving the mine property there was about another 10 km down the mountain to the 3N. The first few km were 4 tunnels basically bored thru the mountain. We were so happy to have our Rigid lights for the pitch-black riding on the rough road inside the tunnels.
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
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