Climbing Once Again

In our usual fashion we got up at 6 AM and got ready for the day ahead. Said day started out rather shitty for me as I realized we would have to cycle up once more with steep inclines for several kilometers to reach yet another pass (4074m) before reaching our goal: the village of Tanta.

The climb was strenuous and my legs were tired from all the previous days of cycling or pushing my bicycle uphill (or should I say up-mountain?). After we finally reached the pass, we cycled downhill in the freezing wind, which managed to penetrate nearly all our layers of clothing. Because it was so cold, we decided to cycle on despite it being well past lunch time and our stomachs were grumbling. After another hour, we cycled around a bend and suddenly faced a huge flock of Alpacas and llamas. We were delighted to see them and as we stood there watching we realized that there was barely any wind. On top of that, the sun came out too so we decided to have a snack, right there amongst the namesakes of our blog, before facing the remaining 8 km to Tanta, where we intended to have a proper warm lunch.

I would say that that break was our highlight of the day. As we arrived in Tanta it was cold, the town wasn’t very special and the hospedaje we decided to stay in was very very basic (which is my nice way of saying primitive). On top of that, the only available dish they had in the restaurant we went to for lunch was trout. What a joy for a vegetarian to find the dead fried eyes of your food staring right up at you. But I needed proteins and nourishment after the previous days of being ill and hard cycling. So I ate the dead fish…and that night I was plagued by stomach cramps and diarrhoea. Great.

There is not much more to say about this day or Tanta. Not every day is great, but each day has its little highlights like our lunch snack amongst the Alpacas today.

distance cycled: 25 km
elevation gain: 541 m
Actual altitude: 4260 m
time cycled: 2 h, 55 min