Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

At last had a reasonable night's sleep, despite the noise from the wedding in town going on until sometime around 4am. Woke just before 5am and showered, packed and dressed ready for the early ride out to the canyon then went and ate some breakfast. It then transpired that we would not be leaving for the canyon until 6.30am, so I had some time to kill. Several others had ditched their luggage and panniers to lighten their bikes for the canyon, but I decided to ride it as I had been doing all along, fully laden, so I wouldn't have to return to the hotel once back out of the canyon. When the main group was ready to leave, Nick turned up still in his civvies and confused as to why everyone was all togged up and sat on their bikes... he'd missed the whole “ride into the canyon early to see the condors” thing. He said he'd be 5 minutes, so I waited whilst the rest set off. Five minutes later he re-appeared, still in his civvies and said to get off as he'd be another 15 minutes...

So I left alone and found the right road out of town and towards Colca Canyon. The road was initially good tarmac twisting up the valley but this didn't last as it then became a dirt road, solid, well-packed dirt with some sections of light gravel and ideal for brisk off-road riding. I was soon enjoying myself, stood up and tramping along at around 35mph when I came across Richard & Karen stopped with Simon. I stopped to discover Simon had suffered his 2nd puncture of the trip and Richard & Karen had stopped with him to try and contact Jeff. With the situation fully under control, I left them to it and continued on my merry way. All the way up the valley I had to catch and overtake a seemingly endless stream of minibuses and coaches ferrying tourists up to the viewpoint at the head of the canyon. The dust clouds they created made this an exciting prospect, as the closer I got to them the less I could see, but they were well disciplined and moved over to let me fly past. Some of them were stopped at viewpoints overlooking the canyon and had disgorged their contents so they could stand near the edge and take pictures, but as soon as I roared into sight trailing a cloud of dust, their cameras turned on me! Who'd have thought that the sight of me riding off-road would warrant complete strangers to take my photo...

About half-way up the canyon road was a long tunnel, which was particularly hazardous as the surface inside was soft and sandy, and the dust from the last vehicle to pass through it hung in the still air, reducing visibility to a few feet. With lights on full and horn constantly blaring I crawled through the tunnel in a state of heightened awareness (read: “fear”). Relieved to emerge the other side without being squashed, I continued to make my way to the end of the road and pulled into the parking area with just Kevin, Ozzy Andy and Nigel already there... and so we made our way to the overlooks, and sat on the wall admiring the view and waiting for the condors...





When the rest of the group had arrived and we'd sat chatting for around 45 minutes, Max & Christine decided that the condor-watching was like the bears in Stewart (remember them? Seems like a lifetime ago...) in that the more we waited the less likely they were to appear, and left. Within 5 minutes of them leaving, we spotted a condor, deep in the valley below, circling and gaining height on the thermals. Even from the distance we were from it, perhaps just over half a mile, it looked impressively large. Gradually it worked its way upwards, circling between the ridges of the canyon and rising on the hot thermals, using the rising hot air to provide lift, never flapping its wings. The subtle movements of its wings allowed it to twist and turn, gaining valuable height without putting in any effort. Sometimes it was only possible to see the bird by its shadow, as it blended perfectly into the brown hillside. After about 15 minutes it had risen from the depths of the canyon to right above the ridge on which the various viewpoints were situated, hundreds of tourist's eyes raised to sky watching this majestic bird soar above out heads. Boy, do I wish I'd still got my new camera as I'm sure I'd have got a half-decent photograph, but all I got was this – cut and pasted and enlarged as much as possible, but still as blurry as hell...





Good job the human eye is better than my camera, as the images in my memory are much clearer... We didn't just see one condor, either, as we saw 4, all starting at the bottom of the canyon and riding the thermals up to the ridge and then high into the sky above before disappearing off into the distance. What a wonderful way to start the day, a great dirt ride and then sat in the relative peace and quiet (it was a lot quieter when the coach party of noisy kids had gone) looking over a fantastic deep canyon and watching the condors fly... days just don't start much better than this...

I also had the joy of riding back out of the canyon, when I'd got my breath back from the short walk back up to the car park, the altitude (about 3,700m) still affecting me. Riding with much greater confidence having successfully ridden in, and upping my pace so the bike floated over the horrible corrugations (small ridges in the dirt making it like riding over a corrugated roof), I was soon racing down the canyon. The bike was much harder to turn on the worn road tyres than previously when we had a knobbly front tyre, necessitating a slight change of technique, pushing the bike over into the turns and pushing hard on the inside footpeg. It was great fun, if a little exhausting, and I was glad when I turned one corner and had my breath taken away by the view, so pulled over to admire it more closely (and to get my breath back).





I made it out of the canyon in one piece, though my handlebars had worked their way loose and dropped, which meant that when I sat back down again once on the tarmac, they were way too low. Halfway up the mountain working my way back the way we'd ridden in the day before I stopped to adjust them and met up with Kevin, Aaron and Nick. Kevin quickly departed, blasting off in a cloud of dust, and when I'd finished my adjustments, Aaron, Nick and I set off together. On the way in we'd encountered snow on the high mountain pass (over 4,800m) but today was sunny, but cold and windy. We managed once more to avoid the herds of alpaca and llama that decided to cross the road in front of us, and soon were on the long descent back to the main road, the tarmac giving way to the pot-holed mess that had resulted in my fuel pipe becoming dislodged on the way up yesterday. Today we attacked it with more vigour, using the increased speed to allow the bike to float over the worst of the potholes, letting the suspension do its job. These bikes are just incredible at this, for all their weight they just soak up this punishment without complaint. Well, almost without complaint, as my handlebars again dropped with the punishment of me leaning on them to turn the bike, so at one stage they were resting on the tank and I was unable to steer... forced to stop and adjust them once more, I lost sight of Aaron and Nick, but when moving again at least I wasn't in their dust and could up the pace a little more...

At the end of the dirt road was a café, and with Kevin, Aaron and Nick parked up, I stopped and joined them for a coffee and fried-egg sandwich (proper biker breakfast!). Then we rode together as a group across the rest of the altiplano and down the mountain towards Arequipa. The last stretch of mountain road was well surfaced and twisty, with a lot of slow-moving trucks providing some overtaking entertainment, and we made quick progress to the city. Following Kevin meant we didn't have to worry about making sense of the route notes, and with a quick stop to refuel we arrived at the hotel around 2pm. After a quick shower and change, and a nice chat with Tracy on Skype, I wandered round town with Nick and Al, admiring the beautiful white cathedral in the main square, with its backdrop of snow-capped mountains...





As we walked round the square, we were approached by a women in traditional dress promoting a roof-top bar/restaurant and as the beer was only 5-soles (a pound) we went and sat high in the sky overlooking the square and enjoyed a couple of cold ones, which will at least give me another picture for the beer gallery...





After a further meandering round town, and checking out the restaurants for that evening, we returned to the hotel. I chatted some more to Tracy before falling asleep, waking at 6.30pm with a start wondering why I was fully dressed. Jim was also asleep, and just as I went into the bathroom the phone rang, Nick wondering why I wasn't in reception as arranged. I asked for 5 minutes and tried to wake myself up before joining the group to head out into town. With Aaron, Simon, Nick, Van Al and Jeff in our little group we walked round to the Zingaro, which had good reviews on the Internet. And it proved an inspired choice, as the food was truly excellent, from the shrimp-stuffed chilli pepper starter through the chicken wrapped in cheese and bacon main course through to the crepe suzette (how 70's!) dessert and the excellent bottle(s) of Argentinian Malbec. Van-Al (50-something, single, looking for someone) has been pestering me to post a picture of him on the website in case it improves his love-life, so here's an appropriate one of him about to stuff his geordie face with crepe suzette...





If you'd like to meet him, please post a comment to this post, and I'll arrange for the men in white coats to bring you one of those fashionable “fasten round the back” jackets and move you to secure accommodation...

After dinner, whilst the bulk of the group went off in search of nightlife, Van Al and I returned to the hotel, and our respective rooms. For once I was in bed before Jim had even got back to the room, and was fast asleep within seconds, so didn't even hear him come in later that evening. With a rest-day tomorrow, and our last day in Peru, I think a good night's sleep is in order...