PowerCycle

07/05 Made it to Ayachuco (pop. 151,019), famous for its 33 churches, which represent one for each year of Jesus’ life. There is also a tradition in the city that all houses must have a little church on the roof. The road blocks I’d heard about never materialized. Ayachuco was actually the headquarters of the Shining Path, a rebel movement that during the 80′s waged a brutal war with the Peruvian government. About 70,000 people died in the rebellion and the counter-insurgency campaign it triggered. Ayacucho was almost completely off-limits to travelers during the decade. In 1992 their leader was captured and the area was opened back up again for tourism. The department is very poor and its not uncommon for protests to fire up.

No fireworks last night for 4th but Happy Independence Day anyway. I’ll be here for at least 2 days. Staying at the Hostel Florida (of course).

The day after leaving Santa Ines I only rode for 20 miles before stopping in the small village of Rumichaca. The first restaurant I could find also happened to rent a room out and with rain threatening, I took it. It was a good decision (at the time) because it started an hour later. The strong wind and cool temperatures would have made riding horrible. It had been raining before I left that morning so I was glad to even get the 20 miles in. Just before the village I was stopped at a checkpoint and had to show my passport. Its been a while since that happened. I was probably the only person the guy stopped since whenever the last gringo on a bike came through.

Rumichaca ended up being a disaster unfortunately. I had just closed my eyes to go to sleep at 11pm when the door opens and a guy walks in (no lock–actually no door handle). I’m like, “WTF!” but that doesn’t translate into anything constructive. It seems that they neglected to tell me that the room, with a single bed and a bunk bed, is a dorm room. Of course I had my stuff scattered all over the room and on the empty bunk beds so while he’s telling me that we’re going to be roommates I’m throwing my things into the corner. He crawls into the bottom bunk since it was the only bed with blankets on it and I went to find the owner. Not sure why I bothered. I can’t actually argue in Spanish but he knew I was pissed.

I head back up to the room and low and behold, another guy sticks his head in. This guy was screwed because there were no more blankets and I didn’t have any to give him since I was using my sleeping bag. He just crawled into bed with the 1st guy. That was another WTF moment for me. I was still fuming but what choice did I have. I tried to sleep but they did the pillow talk thing for an hour and then one of their cell phones rang but the guy was already asleep. The new message ring tone went off all night every freaking minute. Then one of them started to snore. That whole mess was a big lesson learned.

Night number two was spent in the village of Ninobamba (km 58 from Rumichaca, 12,957 feet). The population is probably 3–all of whom work at the restaurant which seems to be the only business around. I ended up camping across the street where there used to be an old hotel. No guys showed up wanting into my tent so I slept pretty good.

The scenery was just amazing for the entire day riding to Ninobamba. Snow was everywhere and although I didn’t dive into it at the side of the road the option was there. The pass on the way to Ninobamba topped out at 15,656 feet. The rain started about 4pm but the tent was pitched by then. Brutal winds again today right up until the rain started. The road was paved from Rumichaca and it’ll likely stay that way to Ayacucho.

My odometer caught my eye at one point… I’ve now ridden for 20,000 miles.