Quito, Ecuador via Peru to Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, a little cycle, simple. Except, we have no support vehicle, we have to carry all our equipment on the bikes, there is the small issue of the Andes in the way, the majority of the route is at an altitude of 3000m + with passes over 4500m, temperatures below -15, wild rabid dogs, living off only guinea pigs, 3 day stints without water or food, off-road, waist deep rivers, no nail polish for Amanda and only 3 weeks to plan due to Will's inability to decide on which adventure would be 'challenging enough'. If you would like to support us, please visit the fundraising page on this blog. We are supporting a fantastic charity called SOS childrens villages which helps children all over the world to be brought up in a family environment which we have been lucky enough to take for granted.







Sunday, June 27, 2010

Day 19 - Macara to Tombo Grande - The big one!

Distance Cycled: 89km
Total Cycled to date: 739km













Up early with intrepidation about crossing the border but there was no issue whatsoever with Wills weird looking temporary passport and no-one asked for a bribe or offered us drugs - very disappointing though I did enjoy free-wheeling across the bridge in No Mans Land.

Once in Peru it was immediately different, the sun shone, people were very smiley and the road was amazing; great tarmac over rolling hills that just stretched on and on and on. We have never gone so far or so fast and by lunch had already done what we would normally do in a day. Maybe it was down to the yummy cake we got when we tried to change money in a local store - was very funny seeing Will negotiate the rate with the lady behind the counter using xe.com on the iphone - she wasn't having any of it!
For lunch we got beckoned over to a great roadside cafe where we were waited on like royalty, they even washed our hands fr us in a bowl of water and questionned us non-stop. We had plenty of our own questions and got a local policeman to recommend a good hotel in the next town - he radioed his colleague for info - great public service ;)

Fuelled by avocado, chicken and rice (some things don't change) we pedalled on and ended up achieving our biggest km distance of 90km. As a reward we ignored the policeman as we came across this burgeoning little holiday resort with 4 cabins built to date in a big field - swimmimg pool to follow. So completely by chance we had a countryside abode complete with hammock and a mini farmyard on our doorstep. Great steak for dinner washed down with a bottle of peruvian red....No I had no idea they made wine here either and I can only recommend if you like sweet sherry!




Me gusta mucho Peru,





Ax
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