Rest day
With two out of three people suffering from the altitude, we were happy we could stay here for a day and rest. Even walking up a flight of stairs had us out of breath.
So today was mainly a day we used to do some laundry, groceries, and route planning to see which way would lead us to our next big destination with as little unnecessary elevation changes as possible while also avoiding more highways and their relentless traffic.
Unfortunately, the best route altitude-wise passed full-on through the red high risk VRAEM area (valley of the rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro). An area which is known for its illegal coca plantations for the production of cocaine which leads to high activity of drug cartels and terrorist groups in that area. While less altitude differences, and especially less steep ones at that, would have been nice safety ALWAYS comes first.
So we decided on a route south of Huancayo (without passing through the city itself) which had more elevation, but was the safest option. We would just have to take it slow and be patient. Tomorrow we plan to continue cycling and hope that the illness symptoms will have past by then so that it is safe to ascend further into the mountains. We will have to take it bit by bit and only do up to 10 km a day to avoid climbing much further than 500 m a day to give our bodies the time to acclimatize.
The picture of the church I found also on Google Earth if I looked for Matucana. An amazing trip, I must say. How is Cyling-Alpaca doing?
Hi there, we hope you have already accomodated a bit to the thin air.
And we desperately hope that the streets are getting better soon.
It’s exciting to read your Stories and it feels Like participating 🤩.
Looking forward to reading your next steps. Enjoy
Franziska and Jan
Wat een tocht zeg zó omhoog ! En ja dan ligt hoogteziekte op de loer. Luister goed naar het lichaam en anders even afzakken acclimatiseren en weer rustig omhoog. Zet hem op.
Misschien helpt coca blaadjes kauwen ! Mij destijds wel.
Wir verfolgen eure doch abenteuerliche und intensive Erlebnisreise mit großer Begeisterung.
Wir verfolgen eure doch abenteuerliche und intensive Erlebnisreise mit großer Begeisterung.