Que Pasa! Got a little catching up to do – great week, awesome weather, did some incredible riding and met some cool peeps. Tuesday morning hit hearts café for some juevos rancheros and coffee. Ran into two people from Toronto, the girl Jade works for one of the NGO’s helping locals produce and sell weaving etc. Jade and Adam looking to do a bike tour before heading back to Canada so we took them up to Maliga Pass for a mix of the mega avalanche DH course and the Road. We skipped the real tough technical sections (cruised the paved road to avoid them) and took them on the relatively intermediate terrain. They both did sick, learnt a lot and had a great time – really got into the riding by the end. Spent about an hour or so at the store in the little town at the bottom, drank some beers and bought them out of snacks and bread. They have these buns/flatbread type things here which are .30 cense for a pack of 5 – pretty much what I snack on for lunch while riding. Really getting into the other Peruvian snacks; cookies, ice creams etc. all so cheap and so good. For a quarter you can get some pretty dank munch. Getting a lot more organized now as I have been doing the 3-7 mile road rides back to the hostal on a daily basis. I have found this goes much better with music. I bring my sweet chill pill speakers (which go very loud) and hook them up to my ipod facing out of the mesh pocket in my back pack. My designated pedaling through Peruvian towns and countryside music is Bela Fleck and the Flecktons live art cd’s. This is absolutely perfect, puts a big smile on my face and helps keep a great pace. The locals find it pretty hilarious as I cruise through the towns and by the field workers blasting some jams from my backpack, kids love to run after me – I will usually slow down to give them a chance and some high fives. I am beat from riding and staying up late, took it real easy for the rest of the day and went to bed early. Wednesday we are up early again to prepare for a tour with some French people, however they never showed. We had the cab prepared so sam and I took it to a nearby ridge line above one of the mountain towns; Puma Marka. At the top we hid our bikes in the bushes and spent another 20 mins or so hiking up to some pre Inca ruins. Pre Incan is pretty god damn old considering most of the Incan ruins around here range from 500-700 years old. Hiking at high altitude is extremely hard. Took some pics, chilled a bit and headed back to the bikes. Had a sweet ride down the ridge, downhill all the way right back to the hostal – very convenient. Had some real tough sections including a big rock you ride onto with about a 1.5 to 2 foot drop off the end. Doesn’t sound like much but you drop into a knarly rock garden with the rocks so sharp and large you basically cant ride over them. Front wheel has to be perfectly placed into a small rut between rocks followed by the rear. You literally have centimeters on either side for your pedals to not hit rocks. Also the trail is about 3 feet wide. Also there is a large cactus patch on your right. Don’t worry it gets better, also there is an abrupt hundred foot or so drop down on your left, so yea don’t fall left, just prepare yourself to fall to the right aiming for the cactus. This spot has been talked up to me and the combination of elements I just described makes it far far too tempting to pass up. Roled into it a couple times and stopped on the big rock before dropping. Third time found my balls and went for it, actually made it relatively gracefully. However, there is a right hander about 7 feet or so after landing and the rock garden is real flat. I couldn’t carry enough speed to make it out so stopped a little short. I will be back, I will conquer and make it through without stopping. Hit up our local spot for a “menu.” This is a pretty clutch element in my life right now. All the little local restaurants (kinda hole in the walls) offer “menus” for lunch, this is basically a special. You have no idea what you are going to get but it roughly follows these guidelines: You always get a huge bowl of soup to start with veggies, potatoes and a chunk of some kind of unidentified meat in it. Very good soup. Then you get a plate of food, always has some kind of meat, I think I have had beef once or twice, pork a couple times and not really sure about the others. The meat always has a pretty tasty sauce on it served with a few veggies and a plate of rice maybe with mashed potatoes. Oh yea you also get a cup of juice. All this for a whopping 5 soles. Yes that is about $1.80. I would happily pay that just for the soup even by Peru’s pricing standards, I really don’t know how they do it. Good thing we rode in the morning, the rest of the afternoon rained. The weather has been stunning since I have been here, I expected far worse. This is really the 2nd rainy afternoon we have had since I got here, although it will often rain for a while once it is dark around 7-8. Personally I couldn’t care less if it rains when dark. Spent the rest of the afternoon doing repairs, mainly rebuilding hubs as bearings take one hell of a beating down here. Ran into Jade and Adam in town and met them for drinks later that night. Changed it up and hit the pub “Porfis.” More on the edge of town, often empty except certain nights when people from the NGO’s go. Porfi, the owner, is the man. Super nice Peruvian dude with big dreads, speaks a little English. Has satellite tv so I can now catch games and he also lets me bring my ipod and control the music which is awesome. Had a bunch of beers, Adam and Jade called it a night, we headed over to our more frequented spot Gansos for another couple hours. Can’t remember if I described it or not but its pretty much the type of bar I would own. Small downstairs (like a room) with a little bar. Pretty small upstairs, natural wood firemans pole type thing to slide down between the floors. Awesome chill atmosphere, cool plants and tree things growing all over the place, tons of cool decorations and tapestries. Cool colored lights, candles, incense, swings hanging to sit on, usually good music. Bar tenders know us pretty well, especially Anhil. Trouble pronouncing my name they say ooooooliver but also say something else which means bad ass tourist which I am fine with.
Thursday we did a sick sick sick sick so sick ride. Loaded up for a tour over to the salt mines. Supposed to be taking out some Spanish kids coming in a cab from Cusco but there is a mix up and it is taking them forever to show up. Did one small ride down to the next town and had the cab drive us back to the meeting spot. They are still not here yet, KB cuts us loose. Sam and I hiked for an hour or so well up above Moray. These are some great ruins, hard to explain, they are like really big terraced holes in the ground (huge). Apparently this was for agricultural experiments and growing different crops - the temp varies between the levels. This area was the primary food producing location for the Incan empire. I found a sick rock garden and we did some photo shooting. In fact we did a ton throughout the day as we were in no rush – I will post these up soon. Our descent from up above Moray down took a couple hours with stopping and taking photos, fixing a flat tire etc. This ride was so damn good, I know I have probably already said that before but we just keep finding new stuff. Some fast golf course type riding up top, tons of grassy knolls to gap, manual and pump. Then all dirt singletrack, super fast and flowy, tons of off camber, tons of turns with natural type berms and ruts to fall into. I have basically an almost balled 2.7 high roller for a tire on the rear which can be a little scary when you get hauling ass – I literally rely on falling into the ruts and berms to corner. Need to score a new tire pretty much nowish. The ride back was brutal. I had to ride like 8 miles, mostly flat with a maybe some slight uphill along the railroad tracks. Not so bad but we were riding into about a 15mph wind which made everything soo difficult. Very hungry and thirsty, early afternoon, stopped off at the only store along the way for bread and water. Unfortunately I only had a 100 soles bill ($35). These are very hard to break, they wont sell me god damn anything because they won’t take it (no change.) Aggravated, walking out I found a 10 centimos coin on the ground, went back in and bought a bun. Thank you biking gods for smiling upon me. I cut Sam loose because I am way slower on the flats. Had to sneak around more bulls taking up the path, met my angry german shepards again. Recently read the chapter “what the dog saw” in the book what the dog saw by malcom gladwell, this has given me a better handle on dealing with dogs. Plus I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them so stopped and got off my bike and confronted them. Had my helmet in my hand just in case I needed to give one a good whack with my carbon fiber troy lee full face. They totally backed off , saweeeet. Been out about 6 hours, 80 and sunny all day, I am insanely sun burned. Straight up Aruba/Bahama style. Tried to take a nap, crushed water, went out for food, crushed more water and then went to Gansos to crush Pilsen. Met a really cool Argentinean couple that we chilled with for the night. I have decided that when I decide to decide (ha) to get my act together and settle down I am about 90% sure I will try to score and Argentinean wife.
Friday morning I am exhausted want to sleep in as we didn’t have any tours booked. However we are woken up by someone that works at the hostal letting us know that there is a couple wanting to do the salt mines tour starting at Moray. Dammmnnnnnnnn. Thankfully they want to go get breakfast and walk around ruins first. I realize that sleeping is for bitches and I should man up because it is a sick ride which I am very lucky to have at my disposal. Also in the same place that I read that hair cleans itself I found out that sun stroke is cured by more sun burn so really it’s a win win. Head to hearts café for juevos rancheros my latest addiction. A toasted tortia with a layer of re fried beans, then scrambled eggs with peppers and colorful stuff. Covered in tobasco I could live on this for days. Load up on snacks, score a cab, pack up the bikes and we are off. The young couple, Simon and Becky are from the south of England near Cornwall and are traveling South America for 2 months. Really nice people. Spent a chill day with them, at the beginning I was pretty nervious as Becky walked down one of the first descents that was pretty damn easy. I exchanged oh shit looks with Sam thinking of how we are gona handle this. The next 20 mins of the ride is a nice warm up with nothing too steep and relatively smooth flowy golf course type riding. I gave her some coaching and tips and she started to get pretty comfortable. By the end of the ride she was all smiles and going down some pretty hard stuff and making it around some tight switchbacks. It is really cool to see the progression of people riding and learning, even in such a short time of 4-5 hours. I also like the feeling of showing people what mountain biking has to offer and what you can actually do, so far everyone has come away really stoked saying they will do it again soon and it has been one of the highlights of their trip. Spent some time checking out the Moray ruins, spent some time at the Salt Mines, almost buzzed a pack of donkeys being lead up the trail and sessioned the road gap jump a bit. This has left me pretty sore today. First hit I was going a little fast, took off and actually styled out one of the better feeling tables I have done. Its pretty windy at 12,000 feet with no trees and it kinda tipped me off balance. I came down a little too far down the landing and landed slightly leaning off balance to the left. What I thought for a split second would be a pretty knarley wreck actually wasn’t so bad. Mainly skidded out and spun into a cloud of just. Of course I wasn’t wearing body armor so I skinned my lower back pretty good. In the skid I think I roled over my bike at some point and got a handle bar in the back of the knee which is a little sore today and also jammed my thumb a bit and stubbed my toe which is weird. I got up and everyone said they didn’t get a photo, plus I’m not leaving on that note so I hiked back up and hit it again. Took it a little slower and tried not to style it so much. Solid landing. Got a great photo from a sick angle out of it but unfortunately forgot to get it from Becky and Simon before they checked out. They spent the entire drive back raving about how much fun they had. Went to Puka Rumi for their burritos yet again and headed to Porfis pub as Jade and Adam are headed back to Toronto. Had a great time, they are super down to earth and really fun to hang out with. Great taste and knowledge of music, I wish they were sticking around longer. I decided to not drink beer as I think it makes me feel more hung over and I found out that rum is really cheap here. Had a pisco sour and 7 rum cokes which Porfi fills the glass half full with rum, also awesome. 1:30 am, estoy muy baracho, whats the damage? Oh boy, a whopping 63 soles for 8 half full glasses of liquer (that’s like $24). Porfi you are the man I will see you again soon. My theory is correct, the beer here does make you feel pretty hung over as I was up at 8 this morning and feel pretty good. Considering what I drank I feel way better than drinking like 7 cusquenas. Chillin out today and heading to Cusco tonight to rage with Adam and Jade as they are flying out Sunday. Heard Cusco is a good time, pretty excited.
Peace out
