05/18 Kind of a short day but I was getting annoyed so it was time to stop. It wasn’t even the horrible road that kept my average speed at 5 mph all day. It was riding on a horrible road and not knowing if I was even going the way I wanted. Upon entering a little village I stupidly assumed that I should keep heading down the mountain since my map and my GPS said so. Of course there were no signs and no one was around to ask.
After a mile the road started heading back north which didn’t seem right. Finally I saw some guy walking on the road way ahead of me. I caught up to him and yep, I was heading back to Pallasca. Smiling, I turned around and rode and pushed my way back up to the village. The right way was pointed out to me, which I would have never figured out on my own.
Huandoval is a bit rougher than the other villages in the area (no paved roads) but I was given a nice welcome by the mayor of the area and the owner of a mining company (a politician and a corporate CEO–always the right guys to be drinking together). They bought me a beer, gave me some water and we hung out drinking for a bit. The hotel is pricey (S25) but it has a private bathroom and hot water (once power comes back on in the village). It looks like they just remodeled the inside because it still has an unfinished look to it. It’s owned by some Americans from San Francisco but they have a local family managing it. The one advantage is that the entrances to the rooms are plenty tall enough so I don’t have to remember to duck.
My map doesn’t even show this village being on the road to Cabana which is where I thought I’d be staying tonight. Everyone here says the road heading back up into the mountains is the right one though. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
These little villages are putting the big cities to shame with their central plazas. They’ve all been extremely well-maintained with manicured lawns, bushes sculpted into animals and zero garbage laying around.
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