05/27 Today turned out to be unexpectedly long. My trusty map showed the distance to Pomabamba to be 55 km. It was actually 68 km. Those extra 8 miles normally wouldn’t have been a problem except the road was in rough shape and it was raining almost all day. The temperature was in the high 40′s for most of the climb up to the pass at 12,420 feet. The cold wind quickly forced me to stop and change out of my wet clothes and into something dry–not something I’ve had to do at the side of the road before. There was also supposed to be a village at the half way point called Palo Seco but I never saw it. Only one village all day which worked out great because I got there at lunch time and they served some great chicken. It was a couple miles after the bridge.
Had it not been for a couple vehicles that came by when they did I don’t know where I would have ended up tonight. Twice today the road I was on intersected with another road and I had no idea which way to go. If you are heading along this route go left at the first junction and right at the second. Why they can’t put up a sign is beyond me. I stood in the rain at the first junction for 10 minutes because I didn’t know which way to go. The way I was thinking about going would have been wrong so I’m glad I waited. Having to ride unnecessary miles on this road is something I’d like to avoid.
After the pass, and where you make the right, the road descends all the way to Pomabamba (25 km or so). It just takes forever to get here because the road is so bad. I ended up arriving 1/2 hour after the sun had gone down. Riding down the mountain road with my headlamp illuminating the way was kind of fun but it killed my depth perception so I went over a couple unmarked speedbumps faster than my ass appreciated.
Once I got into town a helpful guy in a car guided me to the central plaza and I went looking for a hotel. It seems that there’s only one place in town with hot showers and it was full so I’ll try to head over tomorrow morning and see if something has opened up. I’m in Hostel Pomabamba tonight. Cold showers only.
This weather kind of messed up my plans a bit. I’m not going to ride across this mountain range to see the “most beautiful mountain in the world” if visibility is limited to 100 feet. Hopefully I can get out of here Sunday. Tomorrow can be a rest day to check out the much more touristy town than I expected.
Update: this hospedaje I switched to is so much better than Hostel Pomabamba. It’s less money (S20 vs S25), the room is much, much nicer, there’s a hot shower and I have a room with two beds. It’s called Las Begonias. The only bad thing is that the walls are paper thin so if your neighbors get frisky you’ll hear all about it. No rain today. Keeping my fingers crossed for a Sunday departure.
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