Distance: 91.73 km
Ride time: 7:04:26
Average: 12.98 km/h
Altitude: 4018 m
Total: 28831 km
After yet another cold night at the altiplano I was happy when I passed a village after only half an hour of cycling. The village had a restaurant, so I went in to order breakfast.
They like meat for breakfast around here! I was able to eat about half of it before having to give up. But, the soup was great for warming up.
After having climbed to 4500 meters yesterday I was looking forward to some downhills today. The first part of the day was however rather flat. As the wind hadn’t picked up yet, I was able to make good progress.
Then the downhill I had looked so much forward to started, although I was rather disappointed. The road went downhill for 200 m, but then I needed to climb 100 m before the next downhill section started. The wind had picked up by now, and it was hard cycling going downhill!
Next I was enjoying the beautiful views over the Misti volcano, rising to a height of 5822 meters over the altiplano. The volcano is the landmark of Arequipa, the town I was looking forward to reach. Furthermore I have plans to climb the volcano. It looked like hard work!
On the main road there was still 100 km to Arequipa, but on my map I had spotted a short cut that would take me right past the volcano. I have enough experience now to know that when cars make a 50 km detour there is usually a very good reason they do so. I was however in mood for a bit of adventure, so I choose the shortcut, expecting some difficult cycling on horrible roads. That expectation turned out to be quite true.
Am I on the right way? Well, according to the GPS on my phone this should be the road…
I was once again climbing to over 4000 meters of altitude, which was hard in the strong head wind. In fact the last days have been some of the hardest cycling I can remember for quite a while.
Just before sunrise I turned around a corner and could finally see the lights from Arequipa in a valley far below as I put up my tent. Tomorrow should pretty much be downhill all the way.
