Media

Russo at his shop... "Russo's" in Cusco.  Great guy, even with recently broken shoulder, he put a new spoke on my front wheel, and checked/trued all my wheels. Gracias amigo!

 

View from camp one evening

Snow covered mountains with alpacas and llamas below

More high altitude passes

It just doesn't look like 4,000 meters

But it sure feels like it at night.  First time on the ENTIRE trip I've ever seen temps below 0*C at night.  Waking up daily to frost on everything, and waking up in my tent feeling the cold on my face

The very stretch where a cyclist had been killed by a dumb animal driver.  Heard about back in Trujillo.  In memory of him.

Looking for camp

Sunrise over Lake Titicaca

Puno, Peru

The islands of Uros, Lake Titicaca

The hand-made floating islands of Uros, and a hand-made rifle

Unfortunately back into the dirt for ~85km

So many cold mornings

Time to ride and hadn't warmed up much, plus there was wind

Such rough terrible stretches, real slow going

Another great camp spot, and no one around for kms

From dirt to pavement again, what a sight that always is

Strange animals, like a cross between chinchilla, rabbit, and a squirrel

After another big pass, cruising at ~4,500 meters

The pink dots you see on the edge of the water are, yes, flamingos.  Even saw a few fly over head

If ONLY you could feel the wind here.  So incredibly ferocious, blasting, relentless, and constant.

As you could see in the previous photo, not a lot of protection from the wind with good camp spots.  I saw some berms next to the road, and actually found a great spot protected from the wind near these houses.  The nice fellow on the left in the yellow jacket saw me, came over and offered me a room for the night free in one of these hand-made adobe homes.  Here at ~4,600 meters and extremely powerful wind, I of course said yes and enjoyed a wind free warm night.  Muchas gracias!

Partially frozen ponds.  Instead of sweat dripping on my bars, at this altitude it's snot.

Fortunately it always warmed up later in the day with the sun out.  Would have been down right dangerous if it was raining.

Or snowing...

After having climbed up to an already high altitude, I saw this long hill.

Struggled a bit to get up there.  Didn't stay long because it was starting to snow here.

After so many ups and downs, and false summits, FINALLY reaching the edge and the long downhill I was looking forward to for so long.  Was ~54kms of complete downhill without pedaling a stroke

Camping out in a wash, leaving in the morning

Back into the barren desert with sand and rocks.

and so much wind! Uhhhhh!

Trying to avoid the wind, up really early one day, sunrise from the road

Last night in Peru

Friends I met at the border and did the article on me and my trip.  Out in front of the office of "La estrella de Arica", local newspaper in town.

I don't remember ever being so excited crossing a border.

Gracias por las fotos!  Just leaving the border and entering Chile

 

Arriving in Arica

Andres, what a helpful guy.  I mentioned how I need a new chain, but checking in Peru, everyone only had Shimano and I really wanted SRAM with the quick link (can take it on/off so with my hands to clean it).  He came by the hostel I was at on his bike to deliver a new SRAM chain.  Just really helpful

More hills of course

More dirt and rocks

Like quite a few times in Peru, waiting for them to finish bombing some rocks

Not being prepared can prove fatal on this trip.  Leaving Cuya, I mistakenly didn't fill all my bottles with water, after a 17km hill and ~60km, I came across this construction crew who filled all my bottles with tasty purified water, at no cost.  I honestly don't know what I would have done if they weren't there, there was NO ONE, nothing, no tiendas, for what ended up being ~130km.  Should have been better prepared, asking people and checking the map.

The winds have been so terrible since Peru, so frustrating to deal with.

Trying to get cover behind these rocks, setting up my tent in the evening the wind was still blasting.

Arriving in Iquique and the wonderful ride down the hill to town

Back to seeing malls and massive grocery stores

Taylor, from warmshowers, making some delicous guac.  She's from Chicago and has been living in Iquique for little over a year now and loves it.  She's done quite a few bike trips and is heading out soon for Europe.  Her and her boyfriend Hans have a comfy place in Iquique they've kindly let me stay at.

Hanging at the house with some of their friends.

Iquique, Chile

"La Estrella de Arica" newspaper article about my trip.  Page 1, much better article than the one in Mexico

P. 2

Seeing the town.  Here driving to see the memorial for the battle of the Pacific between Chile, Peru and Bolivia and where the "Esmeralada" sank.

Iquique, Chile

Taylor and Hans

Scrubbing away

I forgot to include this back in Cuenca, Ecuador and since then.  New sticker, and although "un auto menos" is great, Latin American drivers need to learn a much more important message.

I had to put some more hill profiles, especially considering the last massive pass that I had to get over... just to leave the mountains of Peru!


Here's the section after Cusco, besides the pass it wasn't too bad.  After the pass, camping nightly I had temperatures below 0*c, a first on my trip.  Cruising along at 4,000 meters, with any hills I could really feel the altitude, not just lack of air and breathing, but could feel the altitude with lack of energy:



This is the route I was going to do from Puno. Arriving in Ilave, the road turned to dirt and I was forced to make a detour to avoid descending 5,000 meters to sea level, on dirt and rocks:




Here was my actual route from Puno that I ended up taking:




This is the stretch after Arica.  I knew I had the hills, they really weren't too bad.  The WIND is what was terrible, blasting me in the late afternoon several days, slowing my pace on flat smooth pavement to not even 10km/hr.  That and nearly running out of water and being saved by a construction crew working on one of the bridges I passed over, supplying me with as much water as I could carry in my bottles: