Mountain Biking around Cusco

Me at Sasaywaman, Cusco behind me, fyi I´m wearing my new Alpaca jumper and scarf, and yes they do look like Marks and Spencer clothing.

Yesterday I took a guided mountain bike tour around the Urubamba area, just outside Cusco. My guide (Fernando) and I set off on our bikes, fully cladded with helmets, shin pads and gloves and headed to the bus station. Yes that´s right, our bikes were loaded on to the top of the bus. The journey took about an hour through beautiful winding mountain roads.
The bus stopped just outside the town of Urubamba, so we could start cycling. We took small track roads that passed farms and small houses, everyone whether man, woman or child seemed to have a Llama or an Alpaca with them.
It felt good to be away from the confines of Cusco, to see people in traditional dress who don´t want money for a photo.
Fernando is an experienced mountain biker, he competes around the country. As it was just the two of us, he said not to worry about speed.
I was feeling great for all of about 20 minutes, and then it hit me, how difficult it was to breath. At first it was the normal feelings when exercising (well normal to me) breathing a little harder, but a new feeling occured, not been able to catch my breath. I had to stop quite a bit, I explained to Fernando I thought I was feeling the altitude. Between gulps for air I managed to ask him "How....high....are....we", (kind of like the asthmatic kid in Malcolm in the Middle), well the answer 3800 metres. Yes that´s higher than Cusco....


This is me, smiling between gulps for breath. Oh and that´s my top, from Toppy Top.

Fernando suggested I could cut the day short and take a different route. But being stupid and stubborn I wouldn´t agree. I really wanted to keep going. Most of the uphill would be before lunch, I felt if I could make it to lunch I´d be fine.
We kept stopping, well I kept stopping and Fernando would politely wait. My symptoms grew worse, I had a headache and the tips of my fingers had turned blue, yes the last one did concern me. And no Gaz and Kev it wasn´t like the time I got blue dye on my fingers from my new cords and thought I was having a coronary! They were really turning blue. I pointed this out to Fernando, he seemed impressed. "You have all the symptoms!"


One of the "climbs"

The surroundings at this point were incredible, nothing looks real here. The mountains actually look more like matte paintings. So between gasps for air I took a few photo´s. It was also a chance to pretend I was just fine and only needed to stop to take a photo.
Fernando told me we were close to Moray now, our lunch stop and famous archeological site. But the rugged path kept going up and up, at one point I startled a pig as I nearly rode into it. I was never exactly sure how close we were as Fernando only speaks Spanish and by this point I was thinking I was talking Spanish when I was actually talking English!
Finally we made it to Moray. I had no idea of what to expect of Moray, other than Inca ruins. But I had actually seen a really interesting documentary about the site. Moray is were the Inca´s made agricultural experiments. They dug deep into the earth in concentric circles and grew different plants and vegetables at different levels. It´s amazing to think one is looking at a huge Inca science lab and that it still exists.

Moray, our lunch stop, can you make out the people?

After lunch, we headed downhill, well mostly downhill. This is what I would call the technical part. I have no idea of the gradient, but at times it felt vertical. It took all my concentration to avoid the huge rocks and stay on the path, otherwise it was a 100ft fall or further down sheer rock face. Dave I really needed your padded cycle shorts! It was impossible to slow down, this actually only made it more difficult to stay on the bike. The vibrations through the bike into my arms, actually caused my watch to come loose.
Suddenly we came to a flat area and another Inca site. A series of salt terraces, still in use today. When it is sunny the terraces are a blinding white. Unfortunately the sun wasn´t out. But looking in every direction the views were incredible, huge mountains, glaicers, deep valleys and colourful patchwork fields.
After another huge descent, we made it to a river crossing, thankfully there was a bridge although I was covered in mud by this stage. After crossing the river we took a small path, past rural homes and it began to rain. It was actually quite nice as it cooled me. However the path was really tough to cycle on, again huge rocks, a series of streams and lots of farm yard animals. Thankfully the bulls were tied up.


Me before another huge descent.

After riding a few more miles on a highway we made it to the bus station, once again our bikes were loaded on top. I felt really tired and cold on the ride back to Cusco. We actually had to get off the bus, before we reached the centre of town, I´m still not sure why. We rode downhill thankfully, but then hit the cobbled streets. I´ve never tried cycling on a cobbled street before and I wouldn´t recommend it!