PowerCycle

04/07 What I wouldn’t give for a good nights sleep. Now I think I know why my energy level ran out so fast yesterday. If it’s not stupid dogs barking all night it’s some guy snoring in the next room. Gotta love thin walls. He was snoring by 9pm which could only mean an early start. Sure enough at 4:45am he turns on the radio to listen to some (loud) mariachi. It’s probably been over a week since I’ve had more than six hours of sleep in a night.

Turns out Canchaque was another 2 miles. Finding a place to stay was easy. There are three right hostels on the main plaza. The rest of the town branches out in each direction before the steep hills prevent further development. It’s obvious very, very few gringo pass through and I suspect even less stay the night. I became quite the celebrity riding up the steep road into the main square and walking around brought the area to a standstill. Everyone is very friendly though and it’s a cool little place to hang out for a day.

It was raining when I woke up so I hung out hoping it would stop. At 10am it did. The clouds never went away, the entire area seems like it’s covered in a perpetual layer of mist and low-hanging clouds. The rainy season was supposed to have ended in the highlands in March but it might be running late thanks to La Nina. It started raining again by 3pm which means an early start tomorrow.

The road to Huancabamba is definitely dirt the rest of the way Several people told me that when they asked how far I was going. I walked over to the edge of town to check out what the road was like and it doesn’t look bad. The ground is hard packed and with little standing water. I’ve been checking out all the buses/trucks coming in and it didn’t look like they had too hard a time of it. It’s going to be a tough day though. Huancabamba is at 6,400 feet, in a valley, and I’m just a tad over 4,000 feet. Normally that wouldn’t be much of a climb but these roads are steep and if it’s wet it’ll be a lot of work. The lady working here said there’s no where to get water but I don’t think she understood me. There has to be small villages on the way up. I’ll bring enough just in case.