Day 1,015
The Push to Puno
Well if you've read the previous two posts (No? And why not? Me ramble on you say? never!) you will understand that Tom and I were loving the riding, but having to stop sooner than we normally would due to the weather and trying to find safe shelter, no stove, mainly just biscuits to eat, no where to have a wash, and exhausted most of the time we really wanted a hotel, a hot shower, a flushing toilet, WiFi so we could check-in with family and hot food! A coffee or 10. Most days we had ridden 25 to 30 miles. 47 miles away was a bigger town, we were confident there would be restaurants and maybe, say it quietly, a hotel! Tom even suggested trying for the end of this particular ride, the city of Puno, but at 75 miles was it a city too far? So at 6am we started to pack up, eat yet more biscuits, imagine drinking a hot coffee, before venturing outside. The tent was covered in ice! We couldn't face another day of this.
The route was taking care of us though. Stunning sweeping roads, vistas to die for. At times we rode sections that reminded us of our local North York Moors, we could have been on the Rosedale Round, then the disused railway to the Lion Inn. Only of course there was no legendary Lion Inn, which serves loaded plates of awesome food and local beer just about 24 hours a day. No, we just had endless views, stunning but oh god what I wouldn't give for a Sunday roast! The Alpaca were out in force, lazing in the road, a mum with her newborn eyeing up this strange sight. A few miles further on a lovely family had parked up in the middle of the road for a picnic, well why not? Chances are it would be a day or so until another car came along. Unfortunately they had just about finished packing up but asked Tom and I for a photo. Have I mentioned that at 5’2” I feel tall next to many Peruvian Women? The photo of Tom and the lovely lady we met caused much laughter amongst us all.
Then our road disappeared and we were faced with a narrow track, the surface a mix of massive stones, potholes deep enough to have a swim in and mud glorious mud. Ah, maybe maps.me had a point. We weren't for turning though and ploughed on through. This track was seriously slowing us down. We reached the final big climb but crucially not the final climb of the day and the track got better, phew. Until it suddenly took an abrupt left turn straight up the side of a mountain and naturally returned to a surface of mud. What had we been thinking? A quick bit of map reading and we worked out another route, longer naturally, right around yet another stunning lake but at least it had a rideable surface. Finally we rejoined our planned route, out of water, no time to filter any, it was oranges to the rescue. 20 miles to go, of more up than we'd expected but we didn't care, we had a town to get to. 10 miles of stunning but torturous riding later we got to the downhill. Naturally the surface turned to rough loose stones, the track so narrow we were frightened of being thrown over the edge down the mountain side. Then the sky blackened and the thunder roared, dear god how much more could we take!
After what seemed like forever we reached the bottom and a few miles later we cycled into a rather grim town. We suddenly realised it was Easter Friday and everywhere that wasn't shut permanently was shut for the day, including the only hotel we could see. Peru is famous for its roast chicken restaurants and just after we had about given up hope I spotted one and it was open. Tom stared blindly at it, not actually believing it was real. I'm not just saying this since we'd mainly survived on biscuits for days but boy it was good. The town though was grim, we'd ridden 50 miles in just under 7 hours, we really should stop, plead for shelter. By the time we had finished eating it was 3.45pm. Just 24 hours to Tulsa, sorry I mean 26 miles to Puno. A real live city, with hotels, restaurants, electricity, hot showers,oh my! Should we? It would be dark by 6pm, with another 1,000 feet of climbing too. Could we? Well there was only one way to find out! Off we went.
The first 6 miles were on a delightful road, slightly downhill, I was blasting away at 24 miles per hour, hell at this rate we'd catch the 5pm news. The views were crazy too, this long straight road was surrounded by mountains, another Yorkshire favourite, Roseberry Topping's twin was away to our left, Table Mountain with the Grand Tetons loomed over us to our right. The sun came out, this was bliss. Then the climbing started, my energy levels hit the floor, despite Tom's encouraging words I slowed to a snail's pace. 5pm came and went. At 6pm with darkness falling we could just make out the lights of Puno away in the distance and at the top of what Tom promised me really was the last hill. Just after 7pm, in full-on darkness we arrived in the centre of Puno. Just in time to see some sturdy folk carrying a clearly very heavy statue of Jesus up to the church we were stood outside. Then a quick check of the wonderful iOverlander and by some miracle we were about 10 feet from a hotel they promised would deliver everything we required! Later that night, after a shower and our second hot meal of the day, we snuggled up in bed. Neither of us could sleep though. It was too warm, there wasn't a gale blowing the tent, or a sapling growing under my back. You just can't please some folk!
So, I guess you're wondering, was all that punishment worth it? Well maybe Tom and I are just a little bit mad, but that ride was so brilliant, I never needed to push, we were left speechless not just by the views but the sheer variety of them. The animals were a joy. We suffered, yes, but the road repaid us in spades. So that's why not only has it earned a spot in our Top Ten rides of the Tour, it’s gone straight in at number 1.
