Today was a day of climbing through some of the most unique terrain in the world. In the morning, we rode 80km south on the coast before we veered East and off-road heading towards the Andes. A great way to wake-up, get some adrenaline going, and get our daily nature fix as we followed a beautiful river coming from the Andes far away.
We could see the mountains approaching in the distance but had no idea of what we were in for.
El Canon del Pato lives up to its reputation. Wow. We climbed from 0 ft to 11,000 ft through a narrow, very deep, granite, and spectacular canyon with 40+ single vehicle dark tunnels carved into the walls of the canyons.
Riding on a road, carved off of a granite wall, suspended way above the canyon, going through dark tunnels, and switching from pavement to dirt was beautiful. All senses in full alert. The pictures below are better at describing what we experienced.
We stopped in Yuracmarca for lunch and met John who learned to make true Italian gelato from an Italian when he was living in Panama. Had some mango and Maracuya gelato that was so good.
We talked about how Covid hit Peru so hard. He lost his mother, sister, uncle, and 2 cousins and now he is back to take care of his father.
But, he was smiling and philosophical about what happened and happy to be back here where he says he belongs and with his family and his father in the mountains. A good reminder that at the end of the day, family is everything.
Once we climbed to about 9,000 ft, a completely new world materialized. On the plateau and valley up there, we found towns, people, traffic, crops, commerce, all next to a wall of mountains that went even higher.
We rode next to a string of permanently snow capped mountains that included the Nevado Champara (19,200 ft), Alpamayo (19,500 ft.), Huandoy (21,000 ft), Huascaran (22,500 ft), Huantsan (21,200 ft.). Apparently, this whole region is very popular with climbers from around the world.
After a unique ride, we made it to Huaraz (10,300 ft) and to our hotel for the night. A lot of outdoor sport outfitters around here. We had dinner at an amazing Indian food restaurant (the Chef was Peruvian).
Tomorrow, we head back down to the coast to Lima.
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