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Day 67 - Friday 7th May
Arrived early doors as always into Huaraz and a lad of a taxi driver (Armando) took me a little ways out of town but secured me a double bed private room with en suite for under £4 a night. I hadn't had the best nights sleep and I was feeling a little ill so I slept all morning and finished Katsui By The Sea...such a weird book.
I tried to find the kiwis but had no idea where they were staying so I booked a biking tour for the next day. Chilled around town and saw an AMAZING street artist drawing a woman and child on the pavement. Watched Shutter Island before bed just to give me bad dreams...
Day 68 - Saturday 8th May
Grabbed a cheap breakfast and headed out to meet my guide Jaime, who was exeedingly proud that he had a Russian girlfriend. Turned out the other guys had bailed so it was just the two of us so we had a wicked ride through the backstreets and markets of town. We stopped by the worst bus I'd ever seen and loaded the bikes onto the top. We had to wait for a fair while to get going but fortunately some local women decided to have a full out brawl in the street. Something about one scratching another's son in the face...
Huaraz is set at around 3000m (at a guess) but the part of the mountains that surrounds it is the highest range outside of the himalyas, with many peaks above 6000m. The result is dramatic snowcapped peaks along the range, perfect for iceclimbing (if you have the money)...
We were headed up the other side of the valley so we could get a nice full day of views. For the start there was no path whatsover, just a scree slope. My bike was pretty bad and really unbalanced. The result was me hitting a rock and flying straight over the handlebars with the bike swiftly following me over the top. Gashed up my shin pretty bad but at least didn't break my collarbone and have to complain like Mike all the time...
Rode the rest of the ride pretty gently but the views were still awesome. Huaraz is a pretty lonely place and so I no longer fancied the constant northward push so I made the decision to head back to Cusco and chill out with friends for a while. And so took the overnight bus back to Lima...
Day 69 - Sunday 9th May
I had a few hours to kill in Lima before my bus to Cusco and luckily met an Israeli guy doing the same thing. It was mother's day in Peru so most places were closed but we managed to find a bakery for breakfast. We wondered through downtown miraflores for a while and on a rumour we made a break for Atlantic City casino. Because they can only use the cards for a short period they cut them at the sides and give them away for free afterwards. Emerging with 4 packs of casino cards each we grabbed some Bembos burgers, sadly watched Chelsea win the league and headed for our 22 hour bus...
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