Initially, it was in great condition, and what made the early morning even better, was that the road was rolling gently, but in a general downhill manner. Looking over to my right, I could see a town on the other side of a deep valley, and something inside told me that I would be heading for this town. The only problem was, that there was no he suspension bridge – If there had have been, I would have been there within ten minutes. No, instead I cycled downhill on my side of the valley, and when reaching the bottom, crossed a small river, and headed back uphill again.
That said, Peruvian bridge building in these parts consists of a few logs and layers of rock and dirt. The Incas would have been ashamed !
Two hours later, I was in that town I had spotted, having detoured hugely where the as-the-crow-flies route would have been ten minutes. The towns name was Chachicadan, which has a thermal pool fed from a nearby volcano. I was more interested in a brunch, however, and the caldo with a cup of coffee did nicely.
Leaving Cachicadan, the road turned, and remained, quite terrible, with rocks, boulders, stones, gravel and inches of dust littering the uneven way.
I must confess to having a “What the fuck am I doing” moment, but that’s what the I-Not and Rammstein are there for! A two and a half hour uphill cycle along this poor unsealed road eventually brought me to the peak, and below me, I could see a town way down low.
The descent could have been a fun filled one, had the road not been in shit state, so instead, it turned out to be a ball crushing, arse numbing, headache inducing, hand jarring bumpy downhill section that saw me go not much faster than I had been pedalling uphill. Eventually, I arrived at the town of Angasmarca, whose charm lay in just how dusty the entire place was. There was a cheapy place to stay, so it being 14.00 I called it a day.
I hope to get to the town of Mollepata tomorrow, where I will see if the river road is viable. If it is, it will knock two days off my journey to Huaraz.
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