Juliaca – Santa Rosa – Sicuani

On Thursday, 28 March, I left Juliaca early in the morning. At first, there was a lot of traffic, and soon it also began to drizzle. Luckily, once I was out of Juliaca, the traffic got less, and after a while it also stopped to drizzle.

The road went through the Peruvian altiplano, more or less along a river. After about 3½ hours and 65km I arrived to the village of Pukara, where I had a break and ate some bread and cheese at the main square. Luckily the sun had appeared, and so the temperature was quite comfortable.
After a while I continued cycling for the last 35km up to Ayaviri. The road was similar to before, and at 2pm I arrived to Ayaviri. I found a quite nice hostel – Hostal Imperio near the main square – and I took a shower and then rested almost all afternoon. Later another German cyclist arrived, and we talked a little and later went to look for a place to have dinner. In the end we ended up at different places, as for me as Vegetarian the only option was pizza.

Yesterday I left a bit later – a little before nine in the morning. The other cyclist from Germany had left earlier, but he also had a longer trip for the day. It had rained earlier, but not by the time I left. The road was again similar to the day before, but I only had to do 42km.

I arrived at Santa Rosa at about 11:20am, and at first I went to the main square, to rest a little. Later I looked for accommodation nearby, and found something quite cheap, but without private bathroom. In the afternoon I was writing this text for my blog, but didn't know if I could in fact update the blog on the same day.

Later in the afternoon two cyclists from Colombia arrived, who are involved with the “Casa del Ciclista” in San Antonio de Prado, near Medellín. They were cycling from the south of Argentina up to Colombia.

Today I left quite early, but not as early as the two cyclists from Colombia. I continued going up for two and a half hours, until I arrived to the Abra La Raya, at an altitude of 4335m.

I had a break, and a llama was very interested in my bicycle. But there wasn't anything to eat, and so it went away again.

I continued on my way after a short while, now going downhill. There was a strong and cold wind from the front, and so I wasn't that fast, even though I was going down. Getting further down, it was getting a bit warmer. After about two hours I arrived in Sincuani, my destination for the day. I looked for the main square, and then looked for accommodation nearby. Unfortunately, there was no hot water to take a shower at midday, and so I first went to get something to eat. I found some good vegetarian food – Papa de Huacania and fried cheese. I also had a beer, and after lunch I went back to the hotel and had to have a siesta.