Alaska to Argentina – de arriba abajo

We’d originally planned on taking the highway out of Cusco and mainlining it to the south side of Lake Titicaca and on to La Paz but after 2 weeks off the bike and reports from friends up the road we decided to one last adventure in the Peruvian mountains.

Instead of the relatively flat altiplano around the lake we took a challenging route around Nevado Ausangate, this involved 2 days of hike a bike with very little riding. Doing this route loaded is hard, doing it on a more traditional touring set up is hard and stupid - would not recommend. Fortunately we got great weather and camping in the shadow of the summit somewhat made up for the physical struggle of pushing our bikes up 20% hiking trails.

Eventually we hit a road and were once again treated to premium grade Peruvian gravel which took us up and over our first 5000m+ pass. Despite the altitude we were feeling good and the gentle grade made it fairly easy.

The next 50km was all above 4800m, open grassland with big herds of Vicuñas and virtually no traffic made us forget about the thin air. The next notable climb would take us to 5100m, the highest we’ve been and the highest point of the whole trip. We approached the start of the climb (only 600m) in the early afternoon but the was heavy cloud ahead and we decided it was too late to summit and get over the other side. As we got to the river in the valley snow covered the ground and it foiled our plans to camp. The sun was out but the ground was too wet. We found a covered alpaca enclosure and easily persuaded the padlock on the gate to open, it looked like an ideal campspot but there was no one around to ask about it and we thought the risk of 100 alpacas being herded in at 8pm was too high. Back up the road a few km to the dry ground and we found a nice little spot, not a bad result.

The usual camp routine ensued and we were treated to amazing clear skies over towards the snowy peaks ahead of us. Fast forward to midnight when I woke up for a pee and I heard what I thought was light drizzle. Not ideal but also no big deal. As I got outside I realised it was actually snow and it was dumping down. I cleared the snow off the tent and spent the next hour struggling to sleep and looking for reroute options to get lower quickly (spoiler: there weren’t any). I eventually drifted off back to sleep until waking up at 3am with the tent collapsing on top of us. More panicked snow clearing and lying awake worrying but luckily the snow eased for the rest of the night.

We woke up to clear skies in the morning but a thick layer of snow around us. We decided to pack up the tent asap then roll back down to the alpaca enclosure to scope out the climb and decide on our next moves. We got down there and the weather was looking favourable and a passing motorcyclist said that this was the first big dump of the year and the road ahead was clear and the surface was good. We decided it was best to make a break and try and get over that morning. We made breakfast under the roof and dried out all our soggy gear before setting off up the hill.

The climb was pretty chill with only a few muddy sections, the sun was shining and. By the time we were halfway up all the snow behind us had melted. Up an over 5100m, maybe the highest I’ll ever go, followed by a huge descent down to 4000m.

A few days of paved roads took us to the nondescript town of Macusani, on the edge of a mining region it wasn’t the most interesting but was also our best chance of a rest day for a while. After a day of Netflix and disappointing rice and eggs we were back on the bikes for ups and downs at 4000m-4800m, long straight roads, huge open grasslands and cool rock formations were on the menu and although not mind blowing we’re just about stimulating enough. This stretch of fairly easy riding was abruptly brought to an end when I took a wrong turn and stopped to turn around, at the same time my partner was looking at her map and didn’t see I’d stopped. A smidsy rear end collision followed and resulted in some mangled mudguards and racks, our ride was over for the foreseeable. Luckily injuries were limited to minor bruises (the biggest being our pride, both feeling pretty stupid for what had happened. Being close to the main commuter route up to La Rincónada (a mining town and the highest permanently settled town in the world) made it pretty easy to get mini buses back to a major city and the a coach over the border to La Paz where we could get everything fixed.

A visit to a neighbourhood metal shop had all the bent parts fixed overnight and my initial worries that Suzie’s fork was bent never materialised. We got away with it. 5 days in the city and a bougie lunch at Gustu (Noma affiliated and 50 best in Latin America) has us reset and ready to ride again. Next stop the salt flats followed by the altiplano lakes.