Santa Maria, Peru, South America

I had an awesome day of biking today! It all started with a really early rise at the hostel in Cusco and a check out at 5:30am. I left my big bag there for when I return from Machu Picchu on Monday night. I walked down to McDonalds on the main square to get picked up by Lorenzo Expeditions. I met a couple of other people on the tour and we got picked up promptly at 6am, as promised.

We made a stop at another hostel to pick up some other people and then headed up the mountain in town to have breakfast at Lorenzo’s lodge. It was excellent! I met some other people who were coming along today and we had a great breakfast of eggs, ham, bread, cereal, and fresh fruits. We also each got our free t-shirt, and we got to pick from about 10 different kinds. I figured they were just going to give us all the same one, but they didn’t. It was a nice touch.

We got a briefing about our cycling trip we were going on, and that’s when I found out that we weren’t all signed up for the same tour. There were five of us on the four day tour, six people on the three day tour, and two people just going for the biking day. Of course I am on the four day tour with two couples, but they seem like a nice group to be a fifth wheel on.

We took two vans for the three hour drive up to Abra Malaga which is at 4,300m (15,000 ft) where we started our bike trip. Our company seems to be much more professional than some of the other tours. We got brand name equipment (Specialized bikes, Fox protective gear, and proper full face helmets) and a ten minute briefing about safety and exactly where we were going to go. The other companies just showed up and said “follow me.” I felt much more comfortable with Lorenzo’s.

Right when we started to cycle (all downhill), it started to rain. And it was freezing! Our first leg of the journey was about 30 minutes and by the time we made the first stop, I couldn’t feel my fingers. I was also soaked through completely, so that was uncomfortable. I had the GoPro camera on my helmet, but there wasn’t much to see for the first half hour. We were riding through the clouds so it was all just white.

After the first stop I was right behind the lead guide and I was on his tail for the rest of the day. We built up some good speed at various points of the journey and I managed to keep up with him the whole time. It was a pretty good rush. We only had to stop one more time due to some rocks falling into the road so we had to be careful crossing this area so no one was killed. We all made it through unscathed.

By the time we got to the bottom of the road we had gone from 4,300m to 1,600m. That’s a pretty good decline in a little over two hours, and covering 56km (33 miles). We got all our gear off, packed up the vans and headed to the town of Santa Maria. We went to a restaurant called Estacion, and we all had a great meal of potato soup, aji de gallina, and cake. We said goodbye to the rest of the groups, and the five of us staying for four nights came to our hostel.

Our group is Scotty (Canadian) and Nicole (Australian), Drew (English) and Linda (Canadian), and me. We checked into our hostel and I was pleasantly surprised on two counts. One: I got my own room when I was told we were going to be sharing. And two: we have hot showers when I was told this place only had cold ones. I was so happy to have a hot shower after that bike ride. The rest of the group went rafting, but I decided against it. It was only category 2 and 3 rapids, which are pretty tame, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse with lighting in the area, and I didn’t really want to mess with that.

So while the others went rafting for two hours, I relaxed at the hostel on my own. It was really nice. This is the first time in ages that I have been without wifi and without my computer, so I had nothing else to do but relax. After today’s activities, that was a good option though.

We all got together again for dinner at 7pm back at Estacion. We were joined by our guide Wilbur, who is really nice and very helpful. We had spring rolls with guacamole, soup made with semolina and vegetables, chicken with risotto, and for dessert: chocolate and banana pizza. It was incredible!

This was a great first day of the trek, and I can’t wait to get going tomorrow. We have a big day of trekking tomorrow and the. We’ll be visiting some hot springs in the afternoon. It’s another early start though, so that means another early night for me here.