Up, down, around and around…

Under the pressure of telling something a bit more exciting in this blog, we decided to make a bicycle excursion, up, down and around the Andes. Full of strength and optimism, we started our trip at the top of the mountain that would take us back to the Sacred Valley, and more specifically to Pisac. Neither the incredible descend nor the delicious empanadas prepared us for what was waiting for us. The way to Urubamba, following the river of the same name and mainly (although only mainly) flat, ended up being a proof of strength and patience: the ascends turn out to be more and harder than expected, the rain started to fall non-stop, turning what we thought to be a path into a mud pond, Matthew’s chain fell off, and my front brake broke…. Under these circumstances, the trip to Urubamba ended up being longer than what Matthew’s patience allowed for, and we arrived to Urubamba exhausted, in pain, not in the best of moods and quite hungry! We woke up on Sunday full of scepticism about our strength, and to our surprise, and despite the initial pain, Sunday’s excursion was very pleasant. Our strength allowed us to visit the required Sunday Inca ruins in Moray and even the salt mines of Maras, in operation since Inca times. We also enjoyed an amazing landscape crowned by the snow-capped Veronica. Nevertheless, we returned to Cuzco on Sunday night convinced that it will need to pass a long time before we attempt another bicycle trip in the Andes or, in fact, any other place….