Day 19 (4/10)

I don’t know where to start with my entry for yesterday. Perhaps best to start with the facts… 119 miles, 6:47 minutes of riding and a total of 16,503 feet of elevation change. But those numbers don’t really begin to convey the experience. It was a day that demanded our presence and it was a day in which both Claudio and I found ourselves truly humbled by the magnificence of the landscape and the fact that we find ourselves here together.

As with the day before, we started out under clear blue skies as we departed Pausa around 9:30 or so. Recall from the day before, our entry to the garage where we parked our bikes was through a construction site and so today our exit was through the same. As we came out to load the bikes, we found that there was a 5 foot trench immediately outside the entrance. Fortunately within 15 minutes a backhoe showed up, quickly filled the trench and we were on on our way. From there we proceeded for the next hour or so due north on a single land paved road through the Rio Huanco Huanca valley and a succession of small villages surrounded by farm fields… Mirmaca, San Juan, San Sebastián de Sacraca, Lampa, Colcabamba, Marcabamba and ultimately Vilcar. At Vilcar we crossed the river and started climbing from 8,000 feet upto 11,000 feet, where we stayed more or less over the course of the next 35km (90 minutes). 

The riding during this period of the day was both exhilarating and a bit unnerving. While the single lane paved road varied from switchbacks to long traverses, what didn’t vary were the constant curves, the precipitous angle and the potential of vehicles coming the other direction. When I suggested earlier that the day ‘demanded’ our presence this is part of what I meant. You simply could not afford a lapse in concentration, period. 

At the the town of Oyulo, things changed dramatically. The road turned to dirt and we started climbing steeply… initially up to around 12,500 feet and then to our high point for the day at 15,899 feet. The final ascent was as steep and challenging as anything we’ve done so far. At the top we emerged onto a plateau where we spent the next 90 minutes hovering around 15,000 feet riding across a desolate, but at the same time breathtaking landscape.

As we crested at the high point, we stopped for a break. Since starting the climb from Oyulo, some 90 minutes earlier, we hadn’t spoken to one another. Interestingly, we discovered that the nature of the riding and the remoteness of the landscape had created in both of us a sense of solitude together with a certain wariness. Like any risky endeavor, with motorcycling you’re always cognizant of the risks, but typically when you are in the act of riding, you put them aside. Now, we found ourselves pre-occupied with the consequences of making a mistake. Maybe it’s our age… I’m 61 and Claudio is about to turn 60 (in a week!!), but this seemed somehow more than that and what was strange was that without talking about it we had both found ourselves in a similar space. When in doubt though, the best thing to do is to just get on with it and so we did. 

The next and final chapter to our day was arriving another 90 minutes later at the precipice of the Cotahuasi Canyon. From where we stood overlooking the canyon it was close to 6,000 feet down to the Rio Pampa Marca river, which is the equivalent of the deepest part of the Grand Canyon. (Based on what I read there is a point further upstream where the Cotahuasi Canyon is over 11,000 feet deep, but that will have to wait for my next lifetime). Remember that sense of wariness I commented on from a few hours earlier, it was back with a vengeance as we made our way down the series of switchbacks on loose dirt. Fortunately about half way down, as the switchbacks got tighter and more frequent, we passed a water truck, which had ‘watered’ down the road and so from that point onward the traction improved significantly. By the time we reached Cotahuasi at around 5:00, we were fully spent. We were lucky enough to out find a beautiful spot to stay, aptly named “Hotel Vallehermosa” and were both asleep after a filling meal by 8:30.

Postscript: We decided to take a rest day today in the town of Cotahuasi. You will find a ’bonus’ set of images from my walk around town this morning at the bottom of the page

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From Claudio

Puffs

Fending off a persistent rain, huddled under a tarp on the side of the road overlooking a deep, long canyon, two women -mother and daughter?- keep each other embraced. It is midday, we are nowhere on the map. We are here. I slow down to put the pieces together. My hands and feet are very cold. I am puzzled by their furtive appearance, the unexpected place they’ve chosen to bring the flock to pasture. Scattered far and wide, sheep pepper the slopes, white puffs of wool, white puffs of snow.

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The Rio Huanca Huanca valley (Pausa to Vilcar)

The Roads from Vilcar to Oyulo

The ”Climb” to 15,899

My poor attempt at a river crossing

Cotahuasi Canyon

Bonus Photos of Cotahuasi