Laraos and its donkey mating lake was wonderful but I had to leave the bed and a roof behind in favor of a couple more high passes.
The climb was gloomy and sometimes rainy. I wondered about venturing in one of the abandoned mines and while wondering about the safety of it, an ankle deep surprise section of mud made the decision for me!
I wasn't too excited about sleeping near the pass so I settled for a 4500m roadside gem with decent views.
It was one of these days where you look at the topo map, at the mountain ahead and wonder... "how???"
Then you remember that its about the mines. Hearing the blasting from far away and feeling the tremors when nearby. A mining pickup pulled over and invited me for lunch and wifi! They even scooped another portion of decent miners food for dinner! Miners are friendly people and although i missed an odd looking mining excavator by bare minutes, i am sure they would have scooped me and the bike and carried me up the hill!
a little mining poodle, maybe he can sniff out rare minerals!!
lunch was actually up to Peruvian standards (although low on veggies), mining towns serve really bad food.
and if you are wondering... yes! there was internet!!!
A grumpy pampa dog watched me as I took a break before the rain began. Huffing and puffing under the rain gear, the rest of the day was a cold and gloomy experience, easily forgotten the next time a little sun shines.
Somehow I had thought the climbs would be less frequent and easier but not really. The air is thin, roads sometimes rough and it goes up and down like the bitcoin.
I had a disappointing lunch at a dirty mining town and went up again under the warm sun and under friendly lady burros.
under the sun and under the burros
There was just something about the rocks and textures in the afternoon sun but a gust of wind can just take all the warmth away.
i bet you there is some poor shepherd behind that mountain that will get hailed on!
I hadnt intended to make it over this pass but going down to camp at 3500m was a good idea. A rock wall gave wind protection and cover from the nearby road. It rained as usual at night.
The morning promised a sunny day but it just rained all the way up to 4700m and waaay down to 3000m. I closely resembled the random wet dog that wanted to fistbump me at the pass.
wet dog bros!
Rain kept going as I finally made it to Huancavelica and immidiately found a rather nice chicken grill restaurant that had... chicken pizza... sadly taking photos was not really on my mind at the time. It has been a long, long time on the miner´s diet....
By now the impending visa time limit was rather a problem and I wasnt sure what to do. Consulting Scott Pauker's journal who rode from here to cusco, I did not find riding on main roads with similarly if not bigger climbs all that interesting and took a bus to near cusco, where I left the bike and went to reset my visa time.
En route I found a surprisingly good gaming cafe which made for a quick editing stop and a welcome break for See The World 24. It was really a game changing experience as I was able to preview footage in the timeline, speeded up or timelapese too. (normally i need to render each timelapse seperately to preview it, same goes for the 4k timelapse videos). The smell and sometimes the yelling of 10-20+ peruvians playing league of legends can be overwhelming but well worth it!! Here is the result:
in the meanwhile, the blog posts will get shorter as anything over 30 images per post just slows down and makes browser crashes. It took less time to make the STW episode 24 than to write ALL the journal entries :)