Day 10 (3/31)

Today didn’t turn out quite like we planned… and that was a good thing. Our original expectation was that we’d have a full day on pavement. Instead we had a full day on dirt roads. The plan changed early in the day, when not 20 minutes after we got underway, we found the route we were planning to take was blocked due to road construction and wouldn’t open again for another 2-3 hours. 

Not content to sit and wait, we looked at our map and decided to embark on an alternative route. With that decision our day was spent riding a series of very rough, very challenging dirt roads. The riding throughout the day was very technical…meaning that we were constantly challenged to pick our way through the various obstacles…rocks, berms, potholes, mud, etc, while maintaining our speed. It made for both a very intense and very enjoyable day. Call it ‘getting in the zone’, call it ‘deep play’, call it what you will, but Claudio and I take great satisfaction and enjoyment from riding under such conditions. 

I am sure every one of you can relate based on your own experience. Name the athletic or creative endeavor…riding bikes, riding horses, skiing, surfing, Mt. Biking, sailing or for that matter playing music, painting, writing…there is the sensation of losing yourself mentally and physically in the present. The thing that made yesterday special was the sustained nature of the experience. With riding motorcycles it can, and yesterday it did, go on for hours. From roughly 10:00-3:30 yesterday we found ourselves in that space, for periods of 45 minutes to an hour at a time, making countless small decisions, constantly adjusting our body position (note: we were standing on the foot pegs the majority of the time) and the position of the bike, braking, accelerating, leaning forward, back and side to side. Going back to my original statement it made for a very intense and very enjoyable day of riding. 

As you will see from the photo’s we also had numerous encounters with the locals throughout the day, which made the overall experience that much more enjoyable. There faces speak volumes. Another highlight from the day that shows in a few of the photographs is that for the first time, we sited the Cordillera Blanca… the snow capped peaks that are the signature feature of the landscape in this part of central/northern Peru. You will, no doubt, see more in the coming days. 

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From Claudio: Wheelbarrow 

I saw the first one on a long downhill road at 12,000 ft. I was going down, he was pushing it uphill with even steps, resolved, closed lips, moving a full load of firewood. We have passed the last pueblo several miles back. The second I saw was just beyond the hedge across a rapid river: a mother with child on her back pushing a wheelbarrow laden with corn. Her face didn’t show strain, nor did she look up. Simple mechanics: wheel and axle, a lever. Simple principles: to carry a certain weight a certain distance, lift and push. The uncertainties are difficult to name, harder to phantom. Since then I began noticing them everywhere. They are always blue, fundamental, laden with anything imaginable: children, furniture, a car engine, buckets of water, fruits, potatoes, dirt. Seldom I see them empty, and even then, when still, they have a dutiful, intent profile, like the one we found blocking the narrow mountain road we were on. Two boys, shovels at hand, flanking a wheelbarrow, facing us, defiant. Simple principles: if we wanted to pass we have to donate a sol each. Certainty: we pay, they move it. So we did, gladly. They opened the road. A new used for the faithful blue wheelbarrow. 

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NOTES: I managed to not start the Relive video until we were part way into the day and so it is a bit abbreviated. Also, for those so inclined there is a segment of video in the “Bonus Footage” section shot while we were riding intended to give a sense of the road conditions

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Faces

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Places

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Bonus Footage