BiCyCle SA

they don’t test for anything, they just treat with a
very strong dose of antibiotics, and they wonder
why they have a problem with resistance! She
was kept in hospital all day until 10pm when the
doctor finally returned (three hours late!) after a
long lunch and who knows what else. Finally I
was able to get her back to our nice and cheap
(12 soles = US$4.50) family run hospedaje ‘La
Casita’ run by Rosita and with a few days rest
and her own medical treatment, she was in much
better shape to continue.
rio Marinon ‘a grand canyon to cross’
The next stretch from Leymebamba to
Cajamarca included our biggest climb, descent
and climb yet in the Andes, up to 3600 m, then
down to 980 m and then back up to 3100 m.
The 60 km continuous descent from ‘Black
Mud Pass’ at 3600 m took us nearly four hours
of riding time to drop 2600 m of elevation, but at
good gradients and sweeping corners we enjoyed
the longest sustained dirt downhill of our trip...!
We just couldn’t help but think we were about to
pay big time for this on the way back up!
The heat down at Balsas at the Rio Marañon
wasn’t as bad as we had expected, in fact the
rain had actually followed us all the way down
but as soon as we started climbing out the other
side through a desert landscape of cactus, wild
donkeys and spiny plants the sun came out and
we cooked as we climbed in the late morning sun.
Lacking the energy needed to go on and with
a mere 1000 m climb ahead of us, we ended up
camping at the midway point above a farmer’s
creek bed with the next stretch of climbing zigzagging
its way up the mountain above our camp.
The next morning we were both a bit more full
of energy and tackled the final 1000 m to the top
at 3100 m including those long but not so steep
switch-back climbs.
It was here that we met Peter and Miriam (a
Dutch couple driving the Americas in their French
Camper) for the third time on our trip, the first
time in Baja California, then in Quilotoa, Ecuador
and now in northern Peru. Unfortunately for them
they had a run in with a cliff the day before when
they lost traction on the clay roads and kissed the
wall... Better than the other option, off the edge!
Life’s better on a bike >>>
Celendin
After the pass at 3100 m we rolled down
into Celendin and into the first cheap looking
hospedaje ‘Hospedaje Ebe Nezer’ and got a huge
room with three beds, enough space to hang up
our wet tent, sleeping mats and gear for only 10
soles (US$3.80) and best of all a restaurant in
the courtyard with a trained chef who specialised
in ‘tamales’, ‘humitas’ and ‘juanes’. As a result we
learned how to make some good local specialties
and ate plenty of them as well of course, a nice
break from the mundane Latin American culinary
world of ‘comida vegetariana = rice, beans and a
fried egg’ we have experienced so far.
‘Juanes’ (traditionally from the jungle areas
of Amazonas) quickly became our favourite with
ground up Yuca, flavoured with some sort of stock
and oil, stuffed with cheese, kalamata olives,
boiled egg and chicken (if you like some dead
bird in your ‘Juane!’), very rich but delicious. I think
we ate four each in our first afternoon sitting!
Celendin itself was a hustling, bustling, rural
indigenous market town that didn’t blink an eyelid
and carried on ‘business as usual’ as we spent
another day of recovery from our stomach bugs.
The fashion in Celendin was very interesting:
big straw sombreros are in in these parts of
the highlands. Scrawny cowboys in dirty denim
wandered the streets in groups with a drunken
swagger wearing comically oversized sombreros
looking like cartoon characters. The women too
also wore the tall oversized sombreros (great sun
protection for working out in the fields we figure)
along with a woven skirt over the top of 1980s
style school tracksuit pants with white sneakers
and sports socks... Interesting and very flattering
indeed!
Then just a lazy double pass of 3200 m and
then 3700 m to cross between Celendin and
Cajamarca on more rocky but good dirt roads.
Not a lonely road for us with kids joining us on
their bikes and others running out to greet us from
the local schools.
Very much dairy farming country too, donkeys
and horses loaded up with metal milk jugs on
their way to the ‘centro de enfriamento de leche’,
(milk processing plants) at various places along
the route.
Cajamarca... Atahaulpa y los Banos del
inca
By the time we reached Cajamarca we felt we
had deserved a little break with the hard stretch
of climbing as well as our stomach problems
(hopefully) behind us, and the tough six days or
so ahead of us to Trujillo via the backroads and
Haumachuco.
We soaked our bones at the thermal baths
of ‘Los Banos del Inca’, 6 km east of town just
as Atahualpa the Incan King had been bathing
his war wounds fresh from the civil war with his
brother Huascar, and was camped at the natural
thermal springs when Pizarro and his Spanish
troops arrived in Cajamarca on 15 November
1532.
Atahualpa was tricked into a meeting in the
main plaza with the Spanish and ordered most
of his troops to remain outside, only entering the
plaza with 6000 men armed with slings and hand
axes. When Atahualpa refused to take the bible
offered to him by a Spanish friar, throwing it to
the ground (maybe he just didn’t understand it in
Spanish?), the Spanish attacked and massacred
over 6000 indigenous people and captured
Atahualpa.
Even after the ransom of 6 000 kg of gold and
12 000 kg of silver had been paid the Spanish
were still paranoid about the possibility of an
attack. On 26 July 1533 Atahualpa was led out
to the plaza to be burned at the stake, and at
the last minute accepted baptism (he was given
the name ‘Francisco Atahualpa’) in return for a
quicker death of strangulation and he was hung.
Nice work Pizarro!
Just a little bit of history for you on the
conquest of the Incan Empire by the Spanish. I’m
sure there’ll be more to come further into Peru...!
Enjoy!
(PS to other cyclists: if anyone wants more
info on this route into Peru feel free to email us
and we’ll send more details, or check out the
route descriptions of the Hobobikers at . It’s well worth the pain ‘vale la
pena’, trust us!)
For full story and photos, go to .
May – July 2010 >>>> 17