The Positive Impact of a Pool, Cold Beer, and Ice Cream on a Cyclist’s Performance

We got up at 6 AM, showered, and headed down to the stall of the local lady. What a delicious warm breakfast we had today! But it was also very filling so early in the morning, too filling for me so I asked if she could pack the rest of my breakfast for lunch (what a lunch to look forward to!). We brushed our teeth, packed our belongings, got our bikes ready and left La Esmeralda at around 8 AM.

From there on we cycled in the heat and surrounded by stupid midges for a long time. Although the road went up and down, we were cycling on for quite a while without any breaks. We cycled past green trees, bushes, and avocado plantations (and stupid stupid dogs but I’ll try not to mention them that much). The villages and fields we passed all showed that it is spring over here as we saw many different plants either with interesting little buds that had yet to bloom, or boasting different kinds of flowers in bright colours.

We cycled and cycled, until a bit before noon we decided to have a break in the shade with a cool drink and eat our pineapple. We sat at the fruit stall of a lovely lady whom we bought the cooled drinks from, and enjoyed the rest. Although I don’t remember the exact figure, we had already cycled around 37 km up to that point. After our break, we crossed a bridge to the other side of the river. A steep climb (luckily on good tarmac!) awaited us there and at the top it was as though we had suddenly entered a completely different country or area: gone were the green of the fields, trees, bushes, cactuses and plantations. Instead, a very arid desert-like landscape greeted us. Orange mountains piled through the landscape along with some very large cactuses distributed between them. This is what I always imagined Arizona to look like. An illusion that was fed even further by the fact that the road really was in very good condition for once. We cycled on, mesmerized and impressed by our surroundings. With the desert looks, also came desert heat though. Especially now that it was noon and the sun burned down on us, we were sweating a lot and every slope we had to cycle up made cooling down even harder.

It felt like our lucky day when a few kilometers later, in the middle of that desert, we suddenly passed a nice camp with palm trees and other greenery, nice Peruvian music, and best of all: a very inviting-looking swimming pool! We couldn’t believe our luck. We all felt it was too early to already camp there as it was just shortly past 12 AM, but we decided to just have an elongated lunch break there with a dip in the pool and lunch afterwards. The owner was very kind and welcoming and so it was that an hour later, after a refreshing swim and our lunches, we sat on the green grass in the warmth of the sun, with a cool beer and enjoying this little luxury. That moment really felt like vacation and all of us were content and in high spirits.

It would just be our luck though that every time we bathe somewhere, the weather turns bad. This time it took a bit longer than half an hour, but all too quickly clouds covered the sun and a strong cold wind started blowing. We took that as our cue to put our cycling clothes back on, pack our belongings, and continue cycling. By that time, we had already covered 45 km and we only had 20 km to go to get to Huanta, the last larger town before Ayacucho. The lovely break had reenergized us and given us great motivation for the last stretch, even though we knew that most of those kilometers would be a steady climb out of the valley and up to Huanta. We had expected that the journey from La Esmeralda to Ayacucho would take us three days but with today’s performance, it was only going to take two.

Although the last kilometers to Huanta were tiring and stretched on a bit (especially cycling steeply uphill in the city itself to reach the centre), we were very proud and happy to have reached it. We found a hostel in the centre right across from the park, that was alright and had a room for us to store our bikes in. That evening we cooked our dinner in the park, much to the curiosity and amusement of the locals. Especially the children. After dinner and a warm shower (yes, finally a warm shower once again!) we went to bed rather late that day. It had been a good day though!

distance cycled: 64,3 km
elevation gain: 1332 m
actual altitude: 2636 m
time cycled: 5 h 3 min