And then there were 3...

Petr was heading the same way as us, so we rode with him till Caraz. The three of us rode 15km out of Chau before taking a private gravel road for 50km.

Early morning riding in the desert

This road belongs to a Brazilian energy company and is gated at either end. The guard kindly opened the gate for us and off we went. This road was uninhabited apart from a few construction areas and aqua-ducts.

Start of private road

We joined back up to the public road and had 8km of tarseal to the next village of Chuquicara. Petr speaks fluent Spanish so he was fantastic. Since there were no hostals in this village (our original plan had been to camp on the private road before the village), Petr made friends with a restaurant owner who had an empty kiosk which she said we could sleep in for the night.

Restaurant/accommodation provider

Cosy and cramped but perfect. The ladies of the village invited us to play a volleyball match, and to our surprise they put money on the line, one sole (NZ 50c) per person to play, winning team takes all (which was not us).

Our ´3 person´cabin for the night

Washing off in Rio Santa

We left the next morning knowing we had a section of bad gravel road for a few kilometers. What we did not know was the bad gravel lasted the entire 55km of the day. This made the day before seem easy. Although not so far in distance, the day turned into a 7 hours of riding!

Through this canyon, there are several carbon mines, we heard a number of bomb blasts over the day, and saw a few miners along the way. The structures around the mines didn’t look very stable, and the miners were not wearing masks and were completely coated in black dust.

We slowly made our way through the canyon, and just as the energy levels where nearing rock bottom and the water was getting low, we hit a 5km hill into the village Yuramarca.

An exhausted Leanne

The next morning we rode to Caraz, through the Canon del Pato. This road was one of the highlights so far, we passed through 35 one lane tunnels over a 10km stretch.

This was a fantastic ride, with many stops to take photos. A little hairy at times when confronted with traffic in the tunnels, but all went well.

Happy to arrive in Caraz

Upon arriving in Caraz we met the 2 German girls from Trujillo. They had bussed to a village just before the Canon del Pato and rode up the same day. We still cant believe we have been with in 30 minutes of each other again! After dinner and beer with Renate and Carman (the German girls), we hung out with Petr for the rest of the night. He headed off early the next day whereas we are staying in Caraz for a couple of nights to rest and look around.

Next stop for us will be Huaraz.