05/21 Whew. Tough day today. Hit a total of 4859 feet climbing–about 3500 of it was on the first big climb which had lot’s of loose dirt and sand. The sun was just setting when I rode into town almost 10 hours after starting out this morning. Lady luck helped me out big time because my front tire was starting to go flat with only half an hour before sundown. I pumped some air into it and it lasted until I got here.

The views today made it all worth it. You can’t really do it any justice with a picture because the vistas went on forever. It was so quiet too. 3 cars passed me all day and outside of the villages, of which there were only 2, I hardly saw anyone.

At the top of the first pass I had a perfect view down the Cordillera Blanca range. From what I could see so far it’s pretty impressive looking but I think the Rocky Mountains are much more spectacular. There are trees in the Rocky Mountains to start with. I’ve barely seen any for 2 days. There is also wildlife. Today I saw a little snake but that was about it. The hostel I’m staying at has coat hangers made out of (hopefully) fake deer hooves. That’s kind of sick joke because I doubt there’s a healthy population of any mammals of the non-human type in… the country.

Elevation Profile
GPX track

Strange choice for a clothing rack.
Plaza in Corongo.
Some bridges... not so great.
One of the nearby mountains.
One of the hottest, driest villages I've been in.
052111 002.jpg
Mood:Good Weather:Sunny/Warm
Wind:Light Wind Direction:
Avg Speed:5.7 mph (9.2 km/h) Top Speed:17 mph (27.4 km/h)
Avg Grade:4% Max Grade:21%
Total Ascent:4874 ft (1485.6 m) Max Elevation:11207 ft (3415.9 m)
Distance:35.63 mi (57.3 km) Total Distance:19076 mi (30699.8 km)
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 26th, 2011 at 10:36 am and is filed under Leg 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply