Andes Trail Stage 15 Aug 18, 2019

Andes Trail Stage 15 of 109 Lambayeque to Pacasmayo, Day 20 of 142

Photos at Strava: 117.4km, 347m climb, 4:40, 40.3 kph max

Description	Distance in km	Dirt km	Climb in m	EFI
South America	1,654	40	21,781
Andes Trail	1,372	31	18,171
Ecuador	913	30	16,265	✓
Peru	459	1	1,906

I was really not feeling like a full day of riding in the morning. Breakfast was ok and we met a local rider outside as we were preparing. We all left at 8:13, slow, in a big group. As we left town I got warmed up and even though the sky was as gray as the trash piles everywhere along the road, I started to feel better. This part of Peru is not pretty.

But 13km in, our first real disaster struck. Carol suddenly crashed, and hit her face on the road. She was knocked out but came to after a few minutes and got to the side of the road. It looked bad and we did all we could for her, wrapped a space blanket around her, blocked traffic and a local called an ambulance. Bill, our doctor, stayed with her and most of us pedalled away with heavy hearts. She was taken to the big hospital we had just passed in a pickup truck ambulance and will be kept at least until tonight for observation. [Update: Carol is back with us, broken little finger, sore and bruised but in good spirits. I’m so relieved!]

We were in a group of 8 I think and cruised to lunch that was at just over 60. The sun had come out and the scenery was amazing, amazingly boring that is. Perfect scenery for making a post-apocalyptic movie I guess. Km after unchanging km. “Zona Militar Ingreso Prohibido” signs, lots.

After lunch, 9 of us took off and cranked away. Around 105, Kees somehow talked Chris into stopping at a roadside place and we inhaled 4L of Inca Kola, the standard yellow type. Burps after were interesting.

The last 10km should’ve been easy but a vicious head/side wind came from nowhere and it was hard. But we came to Pacasmayo and soon I saw a weird color on my Garmin map: bright blue! We were at the sea coast and pulled into the hotel which looked like it could’ve been on the coast of Portugal!

Hot showers, first time in a few days! Wow was that great! No soup but tons of snacks. WiFi is crap but my phone works so well in Peru, it doesn’t matter. Google Fi FTW!

I took a short power nap in the afternoon then we had the luxury of eating a delicious dinner in the hotel restaurant! I went for Spaghetti Frutti de Mar and it was great. Lots of octopus and shrimps. Washed down perfectly by a large Cristal Cerveza. It was a truly great dinner, talking mainly about travel. This group of amazing individuals has been everywhere! And they’re great storytellers.