Back down to sea level!!!
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2009
1
8
10
Trip End
Jul 21, 2009
Puerta Inka, Arequipa, Peru
Thursday, July 23, 2009
We left Arequipa on a bright, sunny Sunday morning and rode out of town in barely any traffic, which is always pleasant in a big city. As we left town we started to climb again on steep switchbacks up through the hills in an almost lunar landscape then we were on plains again amongst the irrigated dairying country, which stood in stark contrast to the hills. The roads since we left were great bitumen, it was hard to keep the speed down. Once off the plains we started to descend for well over 50 kms, on and on we rode on winding, switchbacks, past streams of trucks going slow to preserve their brakes. Unfortunately as we approached the coast our sunny day was overtaken by a low hanging sea mist, we did however pop out at the coast and onto what was to be 230 more km of some of the most incredible winding coastal road I have ever seen. There are sheer drop off cliffs in some sections and a lot of sand heading towards the sea being propped up by huge cement barriers
Peru Coastal Road
. The landscape along this coast is almost complete sand except for the river valleys that you occasionally drop into, these areas are always green with trees and produce.Some of the road looms about 200 metres or more above the pounding Pacific Ocean and at other sections you drop down almost completely to sea level. On our lunch stop today we met one of the characters of the road, a man was walking past in the middle of nowhere, after saying hello we found out he was from Russia and had been wandering South America for 2 years on foot, we gave him a bite to eat and he want gratefully on his way to wherever he may be going.
Finally after this amazing ride day we pulled into the resort of Puerto Inca, this narrow port is no more than about 800 metres wide and has a great little hotel on the sides of the hill. It is also the site that the Incas used to bring in their fish, and start a running relay from here all the way to Cusco to bring fresh seafood to the capital, amazing. There are still ruins and artifacts in the surrounding hills of this incredible race.
I tell you after a good ride, and finally being down from altitude it is nice to breathe easily and then go to bed and be lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves.
