Sitting in a leafy terrace in Ayacucho, green parrots squawking nearby, it was hard to imagine that this town was once home to the violent communist military organisation Sendero Luminoso, The Shining Path.

In the mid-1970s, Shining Path members began to win positions on university student councils and in 1980, militia training camps appeared in Ayacucho. In the two decades until 2000, almost 70,000 people were killed in the conflict and as recently as 2009, Shining Path was still attacking and killing people in Ayacucho province.

Shining Path territories

Shining Path territories

As we continued riding North through the mountains along senderos sinuosos, the inaccessibility of this region became very clear.  Narrow roads twist through mountains and valleys, adjacent peaks and troughs appear to be completely impassable by vehicle. Coming from the vast flatness of Australia, this rippled and rugged landscape filled me with wonder at what might lie over the next ridge line.

No doubt this terrain helped to stimulate the legends of lost cities like El Dorado and no doubt that it aided Sendero Luminoso in waging guerrilla war for decades.

Looking up the valley

Ben crawling up the side of a mountain

Sheep block the road

Traffic in the Andes

Rolled trucks

Slowing down seems to be unheard of in Peru

Getting close to Junin and 4000masl, the mountains around us fell away and we found ourselves on a high altitude pampa. To our West, a large Obelisk rose out of the plain, commemorating the 1824 battle of Junin, in which the cavalry of Simon Bolivar’s pro-independence forces attacked and chased Spanish loyalists. This was a precursor for the Battle of Ayacucho in December that year, which secured independence for Peru.

Battle of Junin

Simon Bolivar out for a trot

Plain near Junin

Modern cavalry

All throughout the mountains there are mining operations, varying in scale from large corporations to shovel and pail, each-man-for-himself style ventures. This wide valley was no different, and while drinking a warm glass of Maca, honey and milk, the store owner told me that there are 40 mines in this area alone. He pointed to the orange overall wearing workers currently upgrading the road and told me that this development was a benefit from the mines. He also told me that after decades of mining operations, the water is heavily polluted with chemicals and mine run off.

So the roads are good, but you can’t drink the water.

Mining waste

Toxic blue earth near Cerro de Pasco

Coal stockpile

Coal stockpile

Near Cerro de Pasco, we left the sealed road called Longitudinal de la Sierra and headed west to join the dirt roads of Peru’s Great Divide route. Here we passed the pockmarked and crumbling buildings of a counterterrorism facility created to combat the Shining Path.

Former counter terrorism base

Former counter terrorism base

A bleak looking evening encouraged us to head to the municipal building in the town of Rancas to ask if we could stay for the night. The president of the community took us for coffee and would not allow us to pay for dinner or breakfast the next day. He explained that this town (collective community) had a strong history with Peru’s land rights movement.

The mine of nearby Cerro de Pasco had been huge source of silver for the Spanish until the town was liberated in 1820. In 1902, the US based Cerro de Pasco Company (backed by J.P Morgan and the Vanderbilt family among others) bought and began to operate the mine.

The 1950s saw the early stages of the land rights movement in Peru and in late April 1960, the people of the Indigenous community of Rancas evicted the police and demanded the return of their land. On May 2 1960, the civil guard arrived (purportedly at the behest of Cerro de Pasco Company) and attacked the campesinos. Three men from the town were killed and others wounded.

Hugo the town President was proud to tell me that today, the rights to the land are owned by the community.

Mural of the 1960 attack

Mural of the 1960 attack

The civil guard in Rancas

The civil guard in Rancas

We slept on sheep skins on the top floor of the municipal building and in the evening, a kind woman came in and gave us a local cheese each.

camp in the municipal building

Municipal penthouse

In the morning, a tiny old lady (perhaps no taller than my waist) took my hand in hers and warned me about the road ahead. She told me that men die in these mountains, huge tempests blow in without warning and that we need to be careful.

Riding through rolling green plains, at lunch we enjoyed watching some farmers lose control of a cow, chase it around buildings and eventually give up as it took off down the road. In the afternoon, the sky closed in and we sat grimly on the side of the road as we were belted by a hail storm.

Hail storm

After the storm

We climbed all afternoon then asked if we could camp by someone’s house just above 4500masl. The mother invited us in for coffee and muffins and we were soon helping her daughter with some English homework.

Pushing bike up mountain

Too tired at end of the day

Shortly after, a truck full of local teachers arrived and demanded beers. They were extremely drunk and Peruvian mountain music blasted from the car stereo while they danced in one room of the two room building.

Our English lessons didn’t progress much further after this distraction and I returned to my tent to find that the dogs had gotten into my panniers and taken all my food, including the cheese that I was gifted in Rancas. The Senora of the house came out with thick wool blankets to keep us extra warm during the night.

As we lay down to sleep, snow fell on our tents like gently rustling crepe paper.

snow covered bikes

B-icicles

Approaching the Great Divide, the scenery took a turn for the spectacular (even with the mining operations dotted about the landscape).

 

Mountain road

En route to 4700masl and the Great Divide

Waves of mountains

Waves of mountains

This route through the Peruvian Andes is famed in equal parts for its amazing vistas and challenging riding. On our first day we cleared a pass at over 4800masl and were cycling well after dark down the side of a mountain towards Cajatambo. This reckless descending caused me to fall off my bike multiple times and various parts of Ben’s gear to shake itself apart.

Mountain and lake views

Fairytale

Switchbacks down the valley

Dirt hairpins

Cycling after dark

Reckless descents

Cajatambo had the feel of an old Western town, with donkeys in the street and small wooden balconies jutting out from buildings. It lies immediately south of the Huayhuash National Park, one of the most scenic mountain regions in the world.

The Shining Path were present in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the 80s and 90s and there were incidents of robbery and hostage taking of foreign hikers in this time. In 2002, two foreigners were murdered in Cajatambo and in 2004 another while hiking the Huayhuash. It is likely that these were opportunistic robberies gone wrong, but it’s also conceivable that the ghost of Sendero Luminoso lives on.

In 2014, mountain bikers had an incident with drunk men in this region and a revolver was drawn and fired (skip to 10:30).

We dropped below 1400masl before climbing back above 4000, winding up empty dirt roads. I whistled at a dog on the road which turned out to be a large puma. It spun around, stared at me and disappeared down the mountain.

Puma paw print

Mark of the puma

Canyon in Peruvian Andes

Deep in the canyons

Descending down a valley

More reckless descending

In Ticllos we found an Italian church, part of Operation Mato Grosso. This is a movement of young Italians who volunteer in impoverished areas of South America. The church is a beautiful building with intricate woodwork and paintings; many of the priests and volunteers are expert craftsmen and artists. They provide education and support to the local communities (in addition to passing cycle tourists). Apparently the in-house bakery produces 12,000 one kilogram Panettones for Christmas each year.

We were given our own dorm room with views of the Huayhuash, shared meals with the community and played Scopa and Briscola with our host. We had to pass on the breakfast Tocush, a Quechua soup of fermented potatoes.

Italian church

Very different from normal Peruvian buildings

The asphalt returned and we soon found ourselves in Peru’s adventure capital, Huaraz. We decided to walk the Santa Cruz trek and had a spritely dog join us for almost the entire length. A decent snow dump one night and heavy rain another encouraged this dog to sleep under the fly of our tent and we fed him scraps of our food.

Dog sleeping in snow

Mountain doggo

Snowy mountain

Morning after snow dump

First camp on Santa Cruz trek

Valley camp

We followed Rio Santa out of Huaraz and down through Canon del Pato, a wall hugging ride of 35 tunnels. We met up with Sebastian from Argentina and decided to follow him down to the Pacific coast.

Canon del Pato

Road cut into rock

Canon del Pato

Triple tunnels

It had been 7 months since I left the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil and was keen to return to the sea, but I had heard so many stories of the danger of Peru’s north coast. Incidents of gangs in motor taxis forcing cyclists at gunpoint into ditches and robbing them of everything have been common up until one year ago, when the reports seem to have dried up  (a recent 2015 incident here).

I never want to allow fear to dictate my life, but at what point and after how many reported robberies is it ok to throw in the towel and catch a bus? Knowing full well that it was simply my stubbornness and desire to cycle the Americas in their entirety that was driving me, how would feel if Ben was robbed (or worse) because of me?

After talking to the owner of the Casa de Ciclistas in Trujillo, reading the guestbook and combing the internet for recent information, we decided to just go for it.

Pan american highway

Sun and sand

Pan American highway

Pan American highway

Pan Am through the desert

Thin black ribbon

We got through without a hint of trouble, other than concerned locals telling us that it was pretty dangerous. We stayed with Bomberos in their dormitory in Virgen de Guadalupe and a kind (and very drunk) man bought us Pisco sours in Piura, then burst into tears when he showed us photos of his Daughter-in-law who had been burned by an exploding oven.

Staying with bomberos

Spicy boys

On our last day in Peru, green vegetation began to creep into view and coconut palms made a refreshing return.

Riding through palms

Welcome back coconuts

Just north of the town of Sullana, a large group of young men were standing in the road and blocking it with a rope. They were yelling at us and demanding we pay some sort of fee, but since the rope was down for another vehicle we just kept riding and got the hell out of there.

Later the road was blocked again by a large procession of people in what looked to be some kind of memorial march. We snuck around them and tried not to make a scene.

Procession blocking road

Sombre vibes

Not far from the border, a river crossed the road at the end of a steep descent. I slowed down slightly on account of the water but was still going quite fast when I hit the algae covered concrete and immediately lost control of the bike. I went down pretty hard and received bruises and scratches up the left side of my body. Ben came by shortly after and I was able to warn him to walk across, which was extremely fortunate because he would have crashed at 40 or 50km/h if he hadn’t stopped.

Bike spun around after crash

Bike spun around after crash

Because of the water damage my passport sustained on the Santa Cruz trek, I had to pay a fee at Peru migration in addition to the fine for overstaying my visa. Then in Ecuador, the border agent looked at my leaky, water damaged pages and said that I could not enter.

I really wanted to avoid returning all the way to Lima and waiting weeks there, so I turned on my charm and he eventually stamped me through.

Welcome to Ecuador

Country number 8

Ecuadorian sunset

Hot skies

The change in scenery and climate from the arid desert of Peru was rapid. Suddenly we were riding through rolling hills of greenery, with incredible humidity and beating sun. The road ran through endless plantations of banana, cacao and cane sugar.

Banana plantations

Banana plantations

Mist rolls in

It’s pretty humid

Green vegetation

Like a jungle

We had several big days of cycling to arrive in Ecuador’s largest city and port, Guayaquil, the Pearl of the Pacific. I had only come to this city to visit the Australian Consulate and arrange for a new passport, but soon came to learn of many notable people who have passed through this city.

Ten years after he skirted the North-West coast of Australia in 1699 (and seven years after he was court martialled for cruelty), William Dampier attempted to loot Guayaquil with other English captains on a ‘privateering expedition’.

In 1820, Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin met in Guayaquil to plan for the campaign for South American independence, two years before Bolivar won his victories further South in Junin and Ayacucho, Peru.

In September 1953, Ernesto Guevara passed through the city on his second exploration of the Americas (without a motorcycle this time). Within a year, he had moved North through Central America was fighting with militia in Guatemala against the CIA and United Fruit Company backed coup.

'Che' after an asthma attack from swimming in Rio Guaya

‘Che’ after an asthma attack from swimming in Rio Guayas

Sunset over Rio Guayas

Sunset over Rio Guayas

It is now a waiting game to see if the Bureaucracy Gods will smile on me. I’m in Ecuador without a passport and will not be able to leave until a new one is sent from Santiago, Chile.


 

Bike Reports

Felix del Toro: ruptured tyre (again!), broken spoke, new chain, multiple flats and exploded tubes, mudguards removed

Fancy Boy: new tyre, new rear hub, multiple flats, broken pannier clips, broken bar end


Comments

Echoes in the Mountains – The Peruvian Andes, North Coast and the Start of Ecuador — 4 Comments

  1. Hi Tom, Your pitfalls piece made it sound rough.Its certainly a long way from suburban Australia.You may need to hit a party place on the coast for some unwinding.
    All the best.
    PHIL and family

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