The Final Frontier

Well we have finally landed on Peruvian soil. Not without a little drama however.....

We left Vilcabamba planning on a 2 day ride to Zumba, the border town. We were told the road was paved but were not surprised to find the pavement end 5 km into our ride. The road had a lot of climbing (of course), rain and sections of mud that made it tougher. A truck passed and the driver told us we had a bastante (bigger than grande) climb ahead of us we decided to camp for the nigh as we were already a little tired. Took us some searching to find a campsight as the cloud forest is incredibly dense and impossible to walk into, we eventually found spot that was cleared for a powerline and set up camp.

After an early start and a lot of up we arrived at a nice downhill to the town Valladolid which marked the half way point. Well not quite so easy. As we saw the town in the valley below, pisssssssssss, Tina blew a flat. The first of the trip. Tina two day prior had been braging to another couple about how we haven´t had a flat tire yet this trip. Como se dice JINX! In fact the hole side wall of her rear tire was blown out. We patched the tire and continued, only to have it blow out again one minute later. At this point it starts pouring to add to the fun. We try to give a little pump to see if we can just make it to the town. No luck it is loosing air to quickly. The gapping whole in the side wall was too large. So we tried the good ole cardboard trick and put in a new tube this time. This managed to get us the remainder of the hill and blew out again right as we were entering town. This was a small town and had no bike repair shop. We needed a new tire not to mention someone to true the bent rim as riding on a flat does wonderful things to it. So we decided to catch a bus to Zumba, our only option.

The following morning we were able to buy a new tire but unforunately the guy who repairs bikes in town was out of town. So I had a crack at it and trued the wheel as straight as a first timer could; it actually came out pretty true. Installed the new tire and patched tube. We caught a bus back to Valladolid as we had to ride this last section leaving Ecuador, and we decided to leave most of our gear behind in Zumba to make the going a little easier.

Arrived in Valladolid and had a really enjoyable 18 km ride to the nearby town of Polanda, found a decent hostal and grabbed some dinner. We walked the town and found out there was a festival going on, why does it seem like every town we´re in is having a festival?
When we were getting ready for bed in order to get a really early start, around 8PM, the music in the square just started blaring. At first we thought it was from right downstairs but no it was these gigantic speakers set up across the street in the square. Let´s just say tough sleeping, and yup they went all night long. The next morning we couldn´t get out of there fast enough as the music was still blaring.
Nice morning mist filled the valley and the temperature was cool. We were enjoying the ride when about 8 km into the ride we came across a few huts and a church and asked the simple question,¨is this the road to Zumba?¨ Oh no the lady replies, that turn off is way back in Polanda. Crazy enough that is the town we started in. Maybe we left town a little too fast? So 8 km. back the other way. We arrived back in town and Tina needed some coffee so I decided to get a second breakfast of rice, pork, and beans (breakfast of champions). Wraped up breakfast and figured out the errors of our ways. Got on the right road out of town and right as we are leaving the town proper, pissssssssss. I blow a tire. My first!!! We patch it and replace the tire only to realize that I also have a small hole in the sidewall of my tire. OHHHH! Back to town to see if we can wake some store owner to sell me a tire. Luckily we found a friendly man who helped us track down the store owner to buy a new tire. The tire was fixed and we were finally ready to leave the original town again at 11 am. I completely blame Tina for jinxing the whole flat tire thing.
On the right road we began an enjoyable ride. Much nicer and a lot easier without 60 pounds of gear on the bikes. We had named the big climbs and downhills on the bus the day before so that made it kind of fun. It was a little course. Up Mr. Grande to the Grand Traverse, than came the Big Nasty downhill, followed by the final climb; Da Biggin´. (on prior days we had The Beast and The Dragon) We finished this section and made it back to Zumba, 6 hours and 60 km later. Took 5 days instead of the 2 we had planned. Despite the adversity the riding was amazing; huge beautiful mountains with cloud forrest, worth the effort. We collected our gear and made ready for the cross into Peru the following day.

We were planning on a couple hours of light riding in the morning and then would catch a bus from the border to get further into Peru. We learned to never believe anyone about mileage or times but this military officer added up distances to all the intermidiate towns and sounded convincing, 17km. It agreed with our map and the book only said 10 km. so we´re thinking it was not far off. We began with a nice morning downhill out of town. Than came a big up hill climb. We were approaching half way at the top so we began calling this climb El Ultimo, for what we thought was our last climb in Ecuador. Well we were greatly mistaken, this climb was followed by a huge downhill only to climb right back up a lot higher than our original height. We experienced some of our steepest climbing yet! Well we finally reached el ultimo 3rd and cruzed down the last steep downhill to the river (also the border). Easy crossing logistics as this crossing is not heavily used and we were in the middle of nowhere. Finally made it to Peru. WoooooHooo!
Two collectivos and a lot of bad bumpy roads and we arrived in Jaen the first town of any real size. Spent the night and are off to the jungle for a few days. Trade biking for boat riding. Ohh that sounds much easier.

-Steven

On the road again....

We left Puerto Lopez about three weeks ago, returning to our bikes and to the Andes. We biked for about 10 days with stops in the cool colonial city of Cuenca and now we are in Vilcabamba, a small pueblo surrounded by huge green mountains.


Some reflections on a day in the life on the bikes:

The Andes- They are big. I mean real big. And green. And not so flat. We have had screaming downhills, Steven´s trailer catches air on the bumbs. We climb a lot, usually going over more than one pass a day. The views are spectacular and always keep us going! Its just awesome to be out in it all.


The people- In the mountains they are mostly indegenous and maintain their culture of farming and hearding. Their farms dot the mountainsides, even on very steep slopes. We will think we are in the middle of nowwhere only to round a corner and run into a kid with his sheep or to encounter a guy with a machete coming out of the forrest. The women wear vibrant skirts and shawls, even while they are working the fields, and both sexes wear hats. The style of hat changes with the region. They are reserved but friendly folks, not the first to say hello but respond with a smile and sometimes a welcome.


Dogs- Dogs chase us every day. As some of you know I am somewhat afraid of dogs, especially the ones that want to bite me which is most all of them. Most of the ones down here like to make a lot of scary noise and run along the bikes, Steven says they aren´t trying to get me. Just to make sure I use Steven as a human shield between me and the doggies on the climbs. Sometimes dogs let us go by and then mount a sneak attack, one boxer actually bit Stevens trailer after he passed!

Trucks and busses- There isn´t much traffic where we are, but when their is they all honk at us. Some just to let us know they are coming, many offer a thumbs up or a ¨vamos!¨¨, and a few honk to say ¨get out of my way¨. They usually give us plenty of room, to the point of going in the other lane of oncoming traffic to give us space.

Camping- We haven´t camped to much as people are encountered in the most surprising places (see above). We have had some awesome campsights up near passes where we can tuck in and get out of sight. Hostals here are cheap and can be found even in the small mountain towns. The towns are often also in unlikely places, they are not on the valley floor but are sometims perched on a smaller mountain somewhere between the peaks and the bottom.

It feels good to be traveling again! Villcabamba has been a great place to get some R and R, its the ¨valley of longevity¨where locals are rumored to live over 100, the water is drinkable, and the scene is tranquillo. We are staying at this incredible nature reserve with trails and a river in a cool little cabin.

We should be heading out tomorrow or the next day on our bikes, we should make the border crossing near Zumba in a couple of days and move on into Peru!