A Sh*** Road = A Sh*** Day
After yesterday’s great day, this day disappointed. The main roads to Ayacucho all had a lot of traffic and 800+ meters of elevation gain, whereas smaller side roads would only have around 550 m. Therefore, we decided to stick to the smaller roads to avoid unnecessary climbing. And that was a stupid decision.
The surroundings of the road were very nice and guided us through the countryside. The condition of the road was so shit though (excuse my language), that we couldn’t enjoy the scenery or anything else for that matter. It was the most abominable road we have had on our journey thus far to the extent, where you couldn’t even call it a road anymore. Along with those terrible surface conditions came a succession of short but very steep inclines that were barely manageable given the road condition. Our mood quickly plummeted as the road went on like this and continued getting worse. And because a bad road alone isn’t annoying enough, our slow pace made us fodder for the midges and mosquitoes as well. A look on the map showed that we would have to endure a total of 28 km of this and so it came that our mood hit rock bottom. We couldn’t help but think that we would have likely been faster if we had chosen the road with more elevation gain instead. The bad mood led to some friction in the group which we discussed and worked through.
When we finally reached the end of that sad excuse of a road, the tarmac improved but our surroundings weren’t pretty, a steep incline all the way to Ayacucho awaited us, the traffic was annoying and we regularly involuntarily inhaled black plumes of exhaust smoke. The closer to Ayacucho we got, the more houses, restaurants and other signs of life popped up along the road. And in Peru, with buildings come dogs. The last 10 km to Ayacucho downright sucked and a few times we really feared that we were going to get bitten by some of the dogs with how close they got to our calves.
The only thing we had to look forward to was Iván, the host of the casa ciclista we were going to stay at. A casa ciclista is usually a private person (or sometimes also the local firefighter unit) who are fellow bike enthusiasts and open their doors to other touring cyclists. And fair is fair the highlight of our day didn’t disappoint. Iván is an incredibly friendly and relaxed man with a lot of goodness and compassion in his heart. Although the facilities themselves are nothing special, the atmosphere he has created in his house and backyard simply make you feel at home. It is not the most luxurious, but the most special and comforting accommodation we have had so far and in great part due to Iván! 🙂
In addition to our three-bed bedroom, we have the luxury of having access to a small kitchen with stove, kettle (a blessing for us tea and coffee lovers), frying pan, and other equipment.
In the back of the house, where our room is situated, there is a large garden-type area with a concrete floor instead of grass, and a large theatre at the end. Lots of potted plants adorn the walls along with theatre posters from past performances or kids holiday workshops, which Iván offers. A collection of old bikes hang on the walls or from the ceiling and all in all you can just tell the man who made this has passion for good things that make other people and himself happy. What a good ending for an otherwise shitty day. Muchas gracias Iván!
distance cycled: 42,4 km
elevation gain: 666 m
actual altitude: 2.767 m
time cycled: 3 h, 56 min
