PowerCycle

04/30 I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to ride into Celendin. The weather was perfect. It’s sure a lot easier to ride in 75 F weather instead of 100 F weather. There were some great views of the valley from a mile up and plenty of places to stop and take pictures thanks to extremely long switchbacks running alongside the mountain. The unpaved road was a good shape the entire way.

The plan is to stay here for 2 nights and then head for the big city of Cajamarca. I was hoping they had a bicycle shop in Celendin so I could replace the 2 metal tire levers I lost a few days ago but no such luck. K&M let me borrow an extra they had since I only had one left. Pizza was a letdown at the Hostel/Restaurant Celendin where I’m staying. The room isn’t bad but ano hot showers here.

There’s a big crowd in the plaza listening to a rally for one of the guys running for the President of Peru. The announcers have been yelling for so long that they’re losing their voices. The 200 db speaker system is helping to compensate for it though. They’ve been going strong for 9 hours now.

GPX track

04/29 No luck getting to Celendin today. My home for the night is behind a restaurant about 14 grueling miles up fairly steep hills from Balsas. It was 2pm by the time I got here and I’d been riding for 6 hours. Half of the time was spent trying to cool down under the few shady spots along the road. The temperature never dropped below 100F all day and that just killed me. I went through almost all my 4 liters of water but at least filtering was an option thanks to several little streams that ran along or over the road.

The restaurant doubles as a rest stop/gas station/store and they have showers and cold beer. I have a nice spot under a tree out back so I should be well rested for the remaining 20 miles to Celendin.

GPX track

04/28 Leimebamba turned out to be a rather productive layover and a great place to spend a couple days. The people were extremely friendly and the kids almost always greet you when you walk by which I’ve rarely seen before.

I ended up staying an extra day thanks to steady rain yesterday morning. A shoe repair guy did a great job of gluing the toe back together on my hiking shoe. Another guy in the same shop made me 2 small leather straps that I can use to secure my front panniers to the rack. I feel a little better about this rather than having a section of chain dangling near my spokes. They also make nice souvenirs from Peru.

My Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 camera is turning out not to be so tough. The LCD screen wouldn’t come on until I dropped it on the floor (a highly technical trick I learned long ago). That got it working again but its days may be numbered. It’s only 16 months old too. No problems with it today. Keeping my fingers crossed.

A quick moto-taxi ride got me over to the Museo Leimebamba where I was able to view artifacts from the Chachapoyas civilization, including the mummies that they brought back from the Laguna de los Cóndores. The museum was very modern and everything was presented in glass cases with signs in 3 languages. It was very impressive and well worth the S10 to get in. Across the road is a place called Kentikafé that serves gourmet coffee and feeds a local population of hummingbirds– over 16 different species drink some 5kg of sugar per day.

A fairly massive 20 mile climb was on the agenda today and it didn’t disappoint. Climbed up near 12,000 feet on a road that was often covered in a thin layer of fender-clogging mud. Rain started falling an hour before the pass and it didn’t let up until I was on my way down. It got down into the high 40′s and with the wind, especially going downhill, I was hating life for a while. It’s 80 F down here in the valley at 3,000 feet.

The downhill from the pass, called Abra de Barro Negro (Black Mud Pass), was rather epic. At 36 miles, it was by far the longest descent on my trip. Traffic was very light and the dirt road wasn’t in bad shape but I couldn’t go too fast thanks to some serious drop offs almost the entire way. The scenery after the pass was absolutely incredible, especially for the last 10 miles. It’s a shame camping spots were non-existent. This area was one of my favorite spots over the last 2 years of riding. A park with some hiking trails and camp sites would have been perfect for this area.

I found out things start not working when bouncing along for 4 hours down a hill. The spoke-mounted magnet for my bike computer kept twisting around which resulted in no data being collected for short periods of time. My GPS also kept shutting off on the really bumpy sections. This happened before with it so I don’t think it’s dying or anything (which is good because I love it).

When I got down to the river I thought I was in the village of Balsas but it was down another dirt road about a 1/2 mile away. There’s one cheap, but decent enough, hospedaje for $3.50. Another even bigger climb awaits tomorrow. The pass before Celendín hits 10,000 feet which would make for a 7,000 foot climb if I try to make it in one day. We’ll see. I’m feeling pretty good after today so it’s doable. According to the Lonely Planet guide there are 2 pizza places which is a great incentive for getting there really hungry tomorrow night.

GPX track

04/25 Easy day riding along a very gradual uphill (mostly). The road was unpaved although it was hard packed and in excellent condition. Found K&M in the La Casona. Karin negotiated a great room for me– S40 (it normally goes for S160).

There’s a big fat climb out of here so I’ll take tomorrow off and tackle the mountain on Wednesday. The pass is over 12,000 feet up and I’m at 7,400 feet now. There’s also a museum here that’s supposed to be pretty good. In it they have some wrapped and unwrapped mummies that you can check out. They found them at a Chachapoyas civilization burial site at Laguna de los Cóndores which is about a 12 hour hike from town.

GPX track