Transportation

On Tuesday afternoon we went on a 20 mile mountain biking trip with Tino. Considering the difficulty we have had breathing at this altitude, we weren´t sure what to expect. A taxi picked us up at the house and we threw the 3 bikes on top of the car and headed off for a 30 minute ride into the mountains.

During the drive we distanced oursleves from the bustle of Huancayo and it felt like we were going back in time as we saw fewer and fewer houses. There were very few other cars in site and we got the feeling that the people in this part of the landscape are living a more traditional peruvian lifestyle. At one turn we drove past a stream and noticed about 25 women washing their clothes on the warm river rocks. Baby pigs, sheep and dogs wandered the shoulders of the road and people carried baskets of freshly cut crops from their farm plots.

The taxi stopped and we pulled the bikes off the rack, paid our 10 soles to the driver and then we were alone in the silence of the countryside. We walked our bikes to a nearby house and Tino knocked on the door. A chubby lady with an enormous smile greeted us. She was a local artesan and the Peruvian champion of gourd carving. She uses a small carving tool to create incredibly detailed works of art. We were amazed to see entire villages of people perfectly carved into the sides of the dried gourds. Her most famous gourd is about the size of a basketball and it took her nearly 6 months to carve. We bought as many gourds as we could fit in our bags, gave a her a hug and then we were off.

The bike ride was breathtaking. Much of it was downhill, which made it easier on our legs. However, the roads we were travelling on were all dirt and full of huge rocks. We wanted to go fast but we also wanted to avoid crashing. Our arms shook from the constant vibration. We rode past mud and brick houses, children playing and old men and women tending their sheep. Whenever we rode by children they would smile wide and give us a nervous laugh and a wave. Rich is a bit of a circus attraction here. He is one of very few tall blonde hair guys that the people see here. It is possible that he is the first blonde hair person some people have ever seen ... Since we are not in a partcularly touristy area.

We saw a lot of farm plots checkering the hillsides. Farmers either own or rent small squares of farmland and the plots are all connected to form a large checkerboard effect. Almost all farmwork is done by hand her and we saw many workers squatting in the fields tediously trimming their crops. One amazing thing about Peruvian farmers is their ability to irrigate the land. Their are aquaducts along the roads and along side fields. They are all man made and carry a steady flow of water from the mountains, even during the dry season that we are in now.

We rode through 6 towns on our bike ride. When we reached a town we were sometimes treated to a small patch of pavement. We usually road through narrow streets with stone buildings on each side. As we rode down the street we could look to the left or right and quickly peak into small, dark shops. It was a bit like watching a strip of film go by, with many unique frames of life.

About halfway into the ride, the bar that holds Rich´s seat up started to bend under his weight. The bike was becoming unridable. Aside from the embarassment, the situation was difficult to remedy. We were in a very small town that had no taxis to take us back home. We went all over town asking for help and finally Tino remembered a small bike repair shop nearby. What are the odds? We made our way to a house with an open garage. Inside was a display case of bike parts. They had a spare bar that was bigger and better than the original one! We were in luck. We fixed the bike and headed off again.

By this point, our bottoms were sore from the hard seats and pounding of the trail. We decided to stop for lunch. This part of Peru is known for their Trout (Trucha). We had plates of fried trout, head and all. It was delicious.

The last part of the bike ride took us down a long hill and into the town of Conception. We arrived just at sunset as a huge rainstorm was rolling through the distant mountains. The sky was huge and we saw every color of the spectrum pass over us. We snapped some photos and Tino hired a taxi for the ride back home. The driver ripped up a dirty towel so we could tie the bikes to the roof. We drove home as night fell and arrived at the house dirty and wind burned.

Today was a wonderful day.