¡Hola Amigos!

When I opened the curtains this morning, the sky was blue, some clouds, but the weather looked great for a nice day cycling. Today we were going to start with a 40 kilometer climb to 4200 meter, and after that we were going to have a long and nice decent to Andahuayles. I left the hotel together with Gerard and Gerrit, after a few meters we lost Gerrit already, and Gerard and I started the climb. After the first 10 kilometers we streched our legs, and Peter and Martin already passed us. After some water and energy bars we continued the climb that was constantly up. The road was unpaved, some parts were ok, but there were also parts that were almost impossible to ride with the bike. Anyway we have to get over this pass, so just keep turning the wheels and try to stay on the road. After 35 kilometers the road wasn´t that steep anymore and there were some downhills also, which was nice for a change. After almost climbing for 4 hours we finally reached the top, where the truck was parked for lunch. Very welcome after a long and pretty exhausting climb. The bread was a bit dry, but that didn´t matter, food was food. After lunch Ruud and I started our way down, which was nice. The first kilometers were nicely paved, and we were hoping that this would be the case all the way down into the valley where Andahuaylas was. Mmmm .... to bad, after the nicely paved kilometers we ended up into the mud, stones and washboards again, and all the road workers were shouting some Spanish words to us, that I didn´t understand. After some Hola Amigos and Adios Gringos, they smiled and waved and wished us a good trip.Halfway the downhill I lost Ruud, and waited for him at the small city that was at the bottom of the downhill. Aftera few minutes still no Ruud, so I decided to continue my way to the hotel. The directions on the map were not very clear so I asked a local for the way to Andahuaylas. Just straight ahead, and at the Plaza to the right, then foloow that road... easy directions... After 5 minutes I saw Jasper, who was also looking for the hotel, and together we found the hotel after cycling some 5 kilometers extra. Shower was good, and I was sitting in the sunshine in front of the hotel, taking care of the timing of the cyclists. Didier was having a drink together with Dolf. Dolf´s upper arm is broken and he has to go back to Holland. At night we went to a Pizzaria, where we had some nice pizzas. Peter found a nice bar for a drink, where they were playing old 80´s music. After some Caiparinas, which were nice and good, Peter, Jurgen and I went outside where a drumband from Cusco just passed. Filip and Ewald were also there, so we joined them. They told us that there is also free beer, so we joined them. After a short walk through town, with a lot of noise and drunk musicians, we ended at a gas station, where the bus waited to take them back to Cusco. A truck with extra beer arrived, to make sure that they were all really drunk before they got into the bus. After some extra beers in the pocket, we said goodbye and headed back to the hotel. It was a nice evening, and a very nice day with an exhausting climb and difficult decent.

Tomorrow we will have another day with lots of climbing, unpaved roads and downhills ... the next week will be hard, but when we have reached Cusco, in four days from now, we should have had the most difficult part of the trip ... we will see.....

Adios !!