13th May 2009
After having spent two weeks with Lucho and his family in the Casa de Ciclistas, waiting for our parcel of spares to arrive, we had found ourselves in a comfortable routine in Trujillo.
Our days would start out with a visit to the nearby market, enjoying a jug of fresh papaya juice and followed by a slice of sponge cake. From there, we would buy ingredients for our second breakfast-fresh bread, avocado and tomato and more tropical fruit which we would take back to eat on the Casa de Ciclistas terrace, chatting over coffee with the other cyclists.
After breakfast, Dave would help Lucho with laying the roof on one of the bedrooms, whilst I would go over to meet with his wife, Selly who would spend the morning teaching me how to cook cakes and Peruvian food.
Once Selly's empanadas were ready, I would volunteer to look after her two year old son, Lance, so that she could take the empanadas to the market.
Later in the afternoon, I would head back to the house and help Dave paint the room and then spend the evening on the terrace chatting and making dinner.
After two weeks and being made "godparents" of the newly decorated room, it was finally time to say our goodbyes and finally pick up our spares. We were a little worried that we would have to pay huge tax fees on our parcel, but Dave managed to switch on his charm and sweet talked the customs people into turning a blind eye to our tax fees!
From Chiclayo, we headed back towards Jaen and met up with quite a few of the Peruvian cyclists who had participated in the Chiclayo road races.
Miguel the owner of the bike shop, El Ciclista kindly changed our chain and cassette for us and then sent us onwards to Perico. We stayed the night with another cyclist; Milton Flores (he also hosts passing cyclists, just ask in Perico for directions to his house) who has been the Peruvian National Mountain Biker champion for a number of years. We spent a nice evening chatting to Milton and his wife and although we were invited to stay a few more days we were keen to head onwards towards Ecuador.
Although we knew the area we were cycling through sat on the edges of the jungle, we hadn't quite prepared ourselves for the intensity of the humidly and a couple of times when we were climbing up gentle hills we had to stop before we were sick from the heat!
We thought that as we cycled towards the small town of San Ignacio, which is nestled further up in the mountains, that the temperature would drop. This was not the case, the humidity and heat lingered making our 20km climb up to San Ignacio very slow. The problem was that there was no respite, every time we stopped to catch our breath we would be eaten alive by tiny black flies who feasted up any exposed part of our bodies, leaving us with a huge number of itchy bites. We couldn't decide which was worse, the humidity or the flies.
We were very pleased to be finally back on the road again. It still amazes me how quickly we can pass through different landscapes and climates. From Jaen we cycled past paddy fields and banana plantations. On the climb towards San Ignacio, the landscape gave way to coffee plantations, tropical trees and the beginnings of cloud forest. Many of the villages had coffee beans which were spread out by the roadside to dry.
After spending the night in San Ignacio, we looked forward to crossing over into our fifth country, Ecuador. Signs were good, we had a cooler day with cloud cover and were in good spirits, but things suddenly began to take a turn for the worse.
First of all, Dave spent the morning cycling somewhat drunk, as a group of guys had offered him some fruit juice to cool down, after taking a few big glugs, Dave began to turn red and spluttered, much to the amusement of the men. The juice turned out to be pure alcohol with a dash of juice for colour. Then, about 20km from the border I could no longer propel myself forward on my bike, as there was no tension on the pedals. After further investigation, we found that my rear cassette holder wasn't engaging properly. Dave informed me that it was something to do with the hub.
So we sat forlorn in a tiny village not knowing whether to turn back to Jaen or carry on to Ecuador, to laugh at the situation or cry. I certainly couldn't pedal and Dave was unable to fix the bike. We had chosen this route to cross into Ecuador, as it is a very quiet crossing, as such there was absolutely no traffic on the roads except the occasional motorbike or collectivo car. The villagers informed us that a few of them had been waiting for seven hours trying to get lifts.
We waited a couple of hours in the village without any joy and eventually found out that one man in the village owned a car. Dave went to investigate and found that it was an estate. For 20 dollars the owner agreed to take us to the border and we just about managed to fit both our bikes and bags into the car. Dave and I sat squashed in the front with the driver, looking out of his smashed windscreen whilst holding onto each other for dear life, as he took the hairpin bends at speed. We felt bad that there was no room to take the man who had been waiting seven hours for a lift.
The border crossing at La Balsa was probably one of the most relaxed that we have ever been through. The police looked like they were preparing for a fiesta and demanded that we buy them a large bottle of cola from the Ecuadorian side of the border (it was cheaper to buy it in Ecuador!) and once we had returned with the cola, they would then let us out of Peru "officially."
After delivering them their drink, we found the customs man chasing chickens in the garden and he quickly stamped our passports. We pushed our bikes across the border, very disappointed that we were not able to cycle this part of the journey and wondered what new adventures Ecuador would bring.
Once on the Ecuadorian side, we were immediately given medicals in case we were carrying the swine flu virus. After being poked and prodded, we were given the all clear to pass through immigration and informed that a bus/truck would be arriving at 5.30pm which would be able to take us to Zumba and then from there they recommended that we get to Loja, a town which would more than likely have bike repair shops.
The bus-come-truck surprisingly turned up on time, it was a rickety old wooden bus without any windows or side panels but we managed to fit the bikes and bags into the back. The hour and a half journey was through spectacular cloud forest, which just about managed to divert our attention from the steep and terribly bumpy road. We held on for dear life, to each other and our bikes as the bus took the gravel roads and bends like a racing car driver.
After spending two days in Loja, my bike is finally fixed (fingers crossed it will hold). One bike shop dismantled my wheel and hub and then proclaimed they couldn't fix it. They took the wheel, in pieces, to another nearby mechanic, but lost a ring in the process.
The new mechanic proclaimed the wheel was fixed, however when we went to put it back on the bike the chain sagged every time I came to a standstill. So today we returned to the mechanic who once again took my wheel and hub apart. Mystified as to why it wasn't working, he then asked Dave if he could see inside the cassette and hub of his back wheel. Reluctantly Dave agreed and within two minutes, we ended up having two bike wheels that didn't work. Our worst nightmare.
At this point I nearly cried, but the mechanic perserved, and all credit to him, he made new springs for my hub and figured out how to put the hub and cassette back together again so that the chains didn't sag. Relief! Both the mechanic and Dave agreed that they had learnt something new about putting bikes together!
We are hoping that the bikes will now get us to Guayaquil (via the coastal route) where Debs and Jack will be bringing over spares for us and we hope that the bikes hold up for the foreseeable future.
It is only now, that we have had time to reflect upon our journey through Peru. We found visiting Peru for the second time round was very rewarding. We loved getting off the beaten track, up into the mountains and chatting with a huge variety of people that we met along the way.
For me, I loved the hustle and bustle of Peru, especially the colourful markets where we would try and sample foods we had never seen before. I love the fact that there always seemed to be people selling food along the streets and we often found ourselves grazing along the way, indulging in mazzamora, stuffed potatoes or chocho. We still don't feel that we have seen half the country and would like to come back a third time at some point to visit the jungle and areas such as Chachapoyas, trek in the Cordillera Blanca, as well as revisiting friends we have made along the way.
Cycling through Peru was certainly tough due to the altitude and monster climbs, and at times the weather and roads were incredibly difficult, as probably were my moods during our mammoth climbs! It was definitely a challenge and I never thought that I would be able to cycle up to 4700m.
