Cuzco

Hello!

I went on a travel marathon lasting 36 hours. I left Lima that afternoon, not even wanting to spend a night there and took a good bus company for the 20 hr trip to Cuzco. Covered some serious ground! I´m bus lagged and still trying to catch up on sleep and not get sick again from being run down. Cuzco is a cool city. Lots of history and Inca stone work everywhere, narrow cobbled streets. Its touristy and its impossible to walk around without someone trying to sell you something or push their restaurant menu in your face. Its the most expensive town I´ve been in so far, but overall I like it.

I still have my bike stuff with me, just couldn't let go of it and also want to avoid Lima as much as possible! I´m glad too because there is a cool loop I can ride for a few days near cuzco, the sacred valley. I can leave all my camping stuff and go light connecting towns and hiking to ruins. That's my plan now. The Inca trail is closed for february so I missed out on that! bummer! I think I´m going to bike to the nearest town, then catch the train, then Hike up to Manchu pichu crazy early before the buses start running. I´m going to do some research today to figure out the timing of it all.

Pic of Cuzco, posted by Laura :)

Lima to Cuzco

Just a little news from Eric this morning...

" I took a night buss from Huaraz to Lima, I got in at 5am and had to wait until things opened up to blow some time. I'm at the South American explorers house now and I'm on a big 20hr bus ride to Cuzco at 2 this afternoon. Not looking forward to it as I bought the last seat on the bus and its not a good one, my big legs dont fit very well anywhere!"

High altitude swimming & hiking trek

I got back in Huaraz again last night. I set off again on Sunday to try to do that big loop that I got sick on the ast time. Anyway I started out with another 8 days worth of food, but went in the opposite direction Up the Santa Cruz valley. It was really Beautiful and I had the place to myself. The weather was on and off, sun then rain then sun, then rain all night then overcast. On the second night I was camped up at the southern side of Alpamayo and Quitaharu in this awesome cirque where I also set a new altitude record for lake swimming (14,200´).

Anyway to make a long story short, my stove crapped out on me. I can only attribute it to bad fuel as I tore the whole thing apart and it was functioning perfect, but the vaporized gas wouldn't light or stay lit. Never seen anything like it! I even bought the fuel from the same place as last time when it worked fine. So I made due on my lunch food for the next two nights and ended the santa cruz trek in its normal manner rather than making a big loop of the range. Always fun carrying 10 lbs of uncookable food over a 15,000´ pass! Anyway getting back yesterday was an adventure in numb ass as I spent 6 hrs in a combi on bad roads and over another big pass to get back to Huaraz. Crazyness. Not sure what's next. Thinking third time is a charm for another trek in the Huaywash, and visiting Siula Grande but also getting a litte stir crazy for a new area. Also just procrastinating making the decision of whether or not to store my bike in Lima or bringing it to Cuzco and try to bike in Bolivia. More later

Love, Eric

Huaraz

Hi again, here are some new pictures that Eric sent along from his hiking trip, and some shots of the bike house in Trujillo. In the third picture you can see Eric's tent in the background...what a spot! ;=) Laura
A new link from Eric http://www.gdargaud.net/Climbing/Peru.html

back from the hike

Hello,
Just a quickie as I´m kinda fussy.My big hike didnt really go so well. I was packed up with 10 days of food and took combi´s for 3 hours toget to the small village where the trail started. Iwas fighting a cold before I started but figured I just needed to get my body moving after stagnating inTrujillo. So the first day was nice, an afternoon wandering through Quechwa villages and countryside,then eventually climbing up to another village and come ruins. It being the rainy season here, started downpouring just as I was going to stop and set up my tent on the edge of the village.

So the next day it had cleared a bit but still high clouds. I didnt feel too hot, like I could have slept all day easily but I wanted to get away from the eyes of enquiring minds,So I decided to just gain some elevation and call it a short day. So I hiked 2.5 hrs and made camp on the only flat ground for miles at just below 13,000. I felt wasted, altitude wise I was fine, but I was definetely not good. Three peruvian guys my age had come through just doing a similar hike to what I planned in reverse.. so as soon as we stopped chatting and they left I crashed in my sleeping bag. Took my temperature at it was 102, shit! along with the usual chills, loss of appitite, pounding headache and other funs with a fever and head cold. (I cant remember when I last had a fever..? any takers?) So next day was the same all day between 100 and 102. I thought of descending, but it would have run me down more and I had all the comforts of a dry camp and good water.. so I waited rained all day.

Day 4- Woke up feeling better, fever gone but spent. I was happy that I could read my book so I spent the whole day reading and nappping rained all day again.. went to bed last night happy to be on the up swing. THis morning I got up to the usual mist and sprinkles, and was done with lying in the same spot for 72 hours. So Packed up and decision time, try to go up to the next camp at a lake finally up there.. or head back. I gave it a good 10minutes of up before my legs made it clear that this wasnt happening. 4500´down and four hours later of feeling wasted I got in a mountain taxi (the toyota tercel wagon) headed to Caraz then on to Huaraz. Feel pretty out of it. I started zithromax just in case two days ago, not sure if its a bacterial thing or what but I gave it a shot to see if it would knock the fever down and it might have..? on the other side,just coming off of Flagyl and starting another antiboitic gives me a vague hint of a clue of the strange things our bowels do in these situations.anyway off to bed, I´ll be here for a while.
love Eric

Hiking trip

Hello there,
Eric's sis checking in. Eric has left Trujillo and taken a bus to Huaraz. From there he is taking a 10 day backpacking trip solo in the mountains of Cordillera Blanca, Peru. This is the area where Eric is. http://www.huaraz.com/
His knee has been acting up, so he is giving the biking a rest and hiking for awhile. Will post when I get an update from Eric. Hope you are enjoying the blog! Here is a pic of the area where Eric is right now.
;=) Laura

Trujillo

What a change!
I spent 10 hrs today on two busses and am now in the metropolitiann city of Trujillo on the coast. The descent from the mountains was quite spectacular (and long) as it changed to very very arid quickly. The coast area is very very barren desert with small oasis where irragation has been. I was debating forever yesterday on what to do and very last minute decided that the best way to rest my knee was to not wait in a town staring at mountains...So my plan is to stay on the coast for a few days and hit the beach and some more ruin sites. Our buss broke down for 2 hrs, but I had the upper deck front seat for the best views form a buss I´ve ever had! Must go eat, its been about 8rs and I´m totally dehydrated. I´m going to try to track down a family here who is famous for putting up cyclists, but tonight I checked into a hotel.
more later

love Eric

Celendin

Spent New Year's Eve up on a 11,300´pass leading into the Rio Maranon Valley which was freakin amazing!! Took me all day to descend 8500´of vert down to the swelting heat of the upper 90´s at the river,felt just like the grand canyon! So me and a aussie couple biking got at 3 am yesterday to beat the heat and start climbing back out. Biggest climb Ive ever done touring and it the road was crap too boot! So now I´m in the nice town of Celendin resting up. My problem knee is giving me problems and I´m re-thinking how the rest of this trip is going to pan out.
Cheers! Eric

Huge pass pictures

The Grand Canyon of Peru

Hi here,

I made it to Celedin, a nice little town. Had a crazy last 3 days. Bottom line is that the Rio Marnon is the equivelant of the Grand Canyon. I got out of town on saturday, I thought that I´d much rather be camping on new years then fighting to sleep though Peruvian drunken celebrations. I had a great great ride up 4+ hrs to this pass at 11,300´ and camped right on a ridge just as the sun was setting. Just nice to get high again. So yesterday as the fog cleared and I started descending I came to realize just how big the rio marnon valley was! It just kept going and going. it took me about 5 hours of going all downhill and dropped 8400´vert to the town of scorcing village of Balsas.

It was soooooooooo hot down there!total Dry heat like mid-90´s felt like desert Arizona.I was spent just from descending and the heat killed any other energy I had. Turns out that an awesome Australian couple had just come down from the other side and we shared tales and how ridiculous this place was. It was too hot to even think about climbing sothe three of us got a bare bones cement box to call a room and we spent the day sweating and eating mangoes with the plan on starting riding pre-dawn. My mild giardia of sorts made it self know all afternoon and Iwas a bit miserable in the heat! Anyway I had my doubts about climbing out of the valley and had no-problems taking a ride if it came. So we were up at 3:00 this morning and riding by 4 by headlamp, we parted ways and I started heading up alone again. It was still hot even in the dark but was really good to get higher before the sun came up!

Pretty incredible morning, such an amazing area! So í was doing about 1000´of vert an hour and just kept that up, and the road just kept going and going. It was hands down the hardest climb I´ve ever done, very very rocky and bumpy constantly stearing around rocks and abusive up and up I got to the top around 1:30 after a total a hair over 7000´vert. then a more bumpy descent into Celedin. Pheww!!!! I did not think I was going to make it, I had barely enough food and my knee was bothering me as usual but held up. Going to spend 2 nights here and rest up and pack on the weight I probably lost today...Hopefully some photos later, after sleep.

Lots of love and happy new years!
Eric