Whats goin on my US peoples – had a pretty interesting week down here and have another adventure rapidly approaching. Hope everyone enjoyed superbowl Sunday, I certainly did – but in a far different way than the past 3 or 4 years. I do miss holding a superbowl party at 13 Earl in good old Southie with some of the coolest people I know, where we over eat on crap junk food, drink ourselves into oblivion, play foosball and probably watch more commercials than the actual game. This Sunday however, was far different – I hung out with nobody I knew and had no football. None the less, it was a rather comical night for me – one that I enjoyed and will look back upon with fond memories. Almost fully recovered from my Arequipa volcano climbing trip I felt pretty good, KB is down to ride so we score a cab up to Maliga for the Mega Avalanche course. Pissing with rain but relatively warm – we tore it apart. I am riding chainless as my idler pulley is fucked, but I was being conscious of this and holding my speed making it one of the more gratifying drops yet. We get to the bottom, although cold and wet, decide to drop again. Another 1.5 hour ride to the top, 30 mins to the bottom. I took one of my knarliest crashes yet - right at the beginning; again thankfully unscathed. The first drop in is super steep, its very hard ot keep what you are riding in perspective as it is all open, no trees or landmarks to judge your speed or the angle that you are riding. In fact the surrounding scenery is vast open mountainsides so I feel mentally it definitely downplays the technicality of what you are riding. Once you get going you really get going, and as I mentioned earlier if you lock up your wheels and breaj through the mossy top layer you are into a layer of slick icy mud ready to level you in a millisecond. I admit I came in a little hot as I was feeling pretty good after our first drop. You gota respect the first drop and take it easy because it will certainly manhandle you. I had a little too much speed, unable to slow down and got into a two wheel drift down the first long decline. This turns into a 15 foot drop which you can actually hit as a roller if you are very careful and get your line right. As you guys know the second you have even the slightest inkling in your mind that you might fail and not stick the section things usually get bad – especially in slick muddy conditions. I choked, lost control and bailed pretty much right on top of the 15 foot drop. I must say I dismounted gracefully but was unable to get the bike out from under me; my bail turned into a mid air ass drop where I landed flat on my back on my frame at the bottom of the drop sliding into a mud hole. For the first time in about 5 drops I actually wore my body armor. I am thankful because I am assuming I would be pretty wrecked if it wasn’t for my back plate. Bike was ok, I am surprisingly ok, KB is again astounded at my style and judgment. Rest of the run was sick except I nailed my deralier on a rock (should have taken it off as I am running chainless), rips it right out of my derailer hanger and mangles both. Rest of the run is smooth and fast, I am pumped to race this course at the end April – if my 3 b’s last that long (bike, body, bank role).
We get back late afternoon and I have not eaten yet so fuck it, I head to Puka Rumi for some buritttooooossss. God damn I love this place. I sit down at a table at the back of the room, which is empty besides another gringo couple. They speak no Spanish and are having trouble ordering, I know they see me as another white person and guaranteed they are going to want to chat. Within a minute “where are you from young man”. So I start my usual story, past and present, here I am living in this tiny Peruvian mountain town etc. Before I know it another couple enters that must have been meeting them as they all sit together. Next thing half of them are all talking about me in third person while the other two are grilling me with questions, amazed that I randomly found my way down here to live for 5 months. I knew it was going to happen, it was inevitable; they invite me to join them for dinner. As I have the inability to be rude, I can’t say no and pull up a chair. Next thing I know they are feeding me steak kabob apetizers, passing me drinks – keep in mind they all have about 50 years on me and are pretty much my grandparents age. After finally dropping the subject of me and my life the topic turns to their individual recollections of the worst vacations they have experienced in their 70 years of living. I don’t want to say I am surprised at the good time I am having because I get a kick out of this kinda thing; I'm eating burritos, crushing cusquenas and actually laughing pretty hard at what these seniors from Toledo, Ohio are recollecting. They are serious about watching the superbowl so I figured what the hell, I’ll take them to Porfis Pub; the only place in town with satellite TV where we can catch the game. Once we get there its dark and there is nothing happening. Porfi is in Cuzco visiting his sister but his family members help us out with drinks etc. I spend 30 minutes playing around with the direct TV to learn that Direct TV is down, something to do with the mountains and the signal. Out of the dozens of times I have been to Porfis this is the only time satellite TV has not worked, it would have to be Superbowl Sunday. My senior friends and I chatted for a while and had some beers, they took a ton of pictures with me which who knows, they will probably end up showing their grandchildren. They leave pretty quick, I am the only person at the bar besides Porfis extended family who come for the TV. Ah screw it, I am not going to bounce the minute the other gringos do so I stick it out. I spent the next couple hours drinking cuzquenas and butchering out simple 3rd grade conversations with the local family – anything from mountain biking to the superbowl to why soccer was not popular in the US to my family to my deeply rooted hatred for U2 (yea you know it, I hooked up my ipod). That was it, my Superbowl Sunday; the pinnacle of American sports culture at its finest. No commercials, no endless junk food – just mountain biking, burritos, seniors, some spanglish and cusquena. 3 months ago I could not have pictured this Sunday being anymore different.
I have also had my room moved as my previous one is under some renovations/remodeling. I am now in a little outdoor type closet room attached to the main building on the side of the garden; also known as the shadey/shade shack or the cave. Actually I am kinda liking this, its ghetto and pretty rough, but it’s also just a room I sleep in and that’s about it. In fact it forces me not to spend a single moment in my room besides sleeping. Although it is full to the brim with spare mattresses, has a partly tarp roof and doesn’t have its own bathroom – there are perks; It is not on the street so significantly quieter, this is a big deal as Peruvians love their horns. Also I am right in the middle of the garden courtyard which I love. Every time I have to get to my room or go anywhere from my room it involves walking through a small but dense and bustling garden full or tropical plants, trees, bushes and cactuses – and at night it is colorfully lit. The other night I stepped on some kind of a furry squeaky type animal (gently, it survived and ran away) and I constantly have a hummingbird or two dart by my head every time I walk to my door as they seem to love the specific archway of flowers I have to walk under. I like this; it makes me appreciate the little things. Monday was a beautiful day, I spent most of the day on the terrace jamming to Vampire Weekend messing around with a chainguide to install on KB’s F5 and doing some other miscellaneous repairs. After that I did an evening hike up to the Puma Marka trail. This trail has become my go-to as I only need to hike up the road behind my hostle -- 25 mins before I get to it. Once at the trail it takes about 25 mins to get up and maybe 2 or 3 to get down. Great trail, top is dead easy, flowy turns and then steep knarley loose rock, a cool natural gap jump I built over a mini land slide and then real tech tight rocky stuff. I took some pics I will post soon. I usually hike it twice as I huff it all the way up the road to get there. I am getting pretty fast at this trail and in its 2 minute descent, enjoying the little bit of everything it has. I however find it really difficult, mentally, to push it/hang it out and go faster than where I am now. Way different than east coast trees and tacky dirt, the trail is dusty, rocky, loose and wraps around a sheer mountainside. No trees lining the trail, you blow out a corner or lay it down – its bad news bears. Although this prevents me from riding as fast as I would like too, I am hoping it will allow me to let loose and lay off the breaks more once I am back in the States.
Tuesday was a day that caught me by surprise. I awoke to pissing rain and grey skies. KB told me I might have to go up to Maliga for a road ride down, but chances are it could be cancelled due to weather. Nope, the ride is still on, I meet my tour; Maria and Natalia a mother and daughter from Colombia now living in Chicago. These two were simply a ton of fun. We got to roughly 15,000 feet – cold pissing with rain. They never once complained, in fact were having an awesome time. They were incredibly positive, adventurous, fun loving and a pleasure to guide. 4 hours later we are back at the hostle, and in their very short 3 day Peru trip they are trying to pack in as much as possible. They are headed to the Moray ruins and Salt Mines and were kind enough to invite me along. I accepted and jumped in on their trip. We spent the rest of the day hiking in and out of the Moray ruins and Salt mines which I had actually not yet done in person – only riding by on bikes. The weather was great and the day was certainly a high light of my trip thus far. The two were a riot to hang out with, I certainly enjoyed the company for the day and their kindness was much appreciated.
Wednesday, back to the reality of my god damn bike and the fact that I am barely keeping it above water. This country beats the crap out of everything. Between the weather and mud, the terrain and duration of rides I have broken more things on my bike and injured my body more in the past month than complete seasons of racing in the US. Great sunny day so I worked out on the terrace to some Grateful Dead jams. Although I replayed it over and over this summer, I gota say, estimated prophet is still one of my favorite songs. Installed my spare deralier hanger and deralier, new housing and deralier cable, new brake pads all around, new rear tire and a full clean. Noticed a lot of new play in the rear wheel so spent a good hour dismantling and rebuilding my rear hub and freewheel, twice. I now know a lot about this which is good, but I did not fix the problem. The metal cone that tightens against the bearing on the non drive side has become worn (most likely from coming loose and thus having friction in wet/muddy conditions). It basically won’t sit tight or snug no matter how tight everything is cranked. My DU bushings are shot again, need to take of my shock tomorrow and have a shot at making more beer can shims. My idler pulley is also toast. Completely mauled, can’t be good for the chain. I have been riding chainless but have re-installed since I will need it this weekend/next week. Been filing away at it to help it fit between the links – we’ll see how it goes. Would be great is Corsair had the nerve to have some god damn customer service and get back to me. So a quick tally on the past month (first crash off my skree drop helped out on a lot of this.) Snapped my chain, bent my chain ring, broke 2 of my bolts holding on my bash plate, blew out my boxxer, bent my bars and ripped off a lock on grip. I then blew my rear code, no idea what happened (overheated with water in the line?) This needs to be bled and worked on, have since been running a spare juicy 7 I brought down. Rear linkage has come loose and needed to be re built. I had a crank bros pedal straight up fall off the spindle during a ride – thankfully I brought extra pedals. My rear wheel seems to be toasted with play and my DU bushings are toasted with play, so is my seat. Crushed a derailier hanger and deralier and my idler pulley is non existent. Mechanically my world is pretty much upsidown. Same goes for technologically. I left my droid on the bus to Arequipa which had all the information of every single cool person I met down here traveling, and my ipod is shitting the bed going on ridiculous spazmic runs where it works, then won’t work. Now it has crazy lines across the screen and won’t play for more than an hour at a time. Computer says it’s corrupted and I can’t back up any of the 29 gigs of precious life saving music which is as much a part of me as well, anything.
Well I am in Peru where nothing works anyway, and certainly nothing goes as planned – so I am just going to role with the punches. So from here I say Adios, tomorrow I am headed to La Paz, Bolivia to go train and ride with the peoples at Gravity Bolivia for a week+. Pretty excited as the riding should be epic and it is supposed to be an insanely fun city to visit. I am going to go ahead and leave you with a quote from Jon Krakauer which I find to be quite inspiring and relative at this point in my life. (eh hem, thanks Lindsay);
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty."
