Back to the dessert
https://www.strava.com/activities/10829947206
This should be a relatively easy day. Starting with 65 km flat/decending to La Oroya and from there 1000 m up to the Ticlio pass in ca 4800 m.
Life in the mountains is not luxury, so no heating, and when the temperature in the morning is ca 5C, keeping warm becomes a priority (needless to say that none of the clothes had dried).
It was raining lightly at the start 6:40, but that could not take away the amazement of the surroundings. The clouds were, literally, just above ones head. But it was cold and wet. I have had to make hard choices regarding wet/warm clothing and 2-3 hrs at 5-7C in rain was not really on my radar when packing.
I had a couple a simple breads from the day before for breakfast.
The terrain started to go up from La Oroya, but very gradually. However at +4000 m it can be felt and it’s by no means easy.
Halfway up the rain stopped.
Had a break, and ate the last breads.
Kept going.
Body and legs felt good. Better than the week before, so maybe the two days at altitude the week before had helped.
The Carretera Central is the main transport corridor over land from Lima to the interior and back. So traffic is intense. But today was the only time I felt uncomfortable with the passing trucks. And the passed, and there were many, many, many of them.
At that altitude keeping a straight line can be an issue. Both because of relatively low speed and because the balance-machinery in the head/ears is affected. That is not the perfect combination with trucks passing relentlessly.
The last hour or so, I focus on following the white line at the side, and just follow that and on keeping the breath controlled and keeping everything else out of focus. As soon as one needs to push a bit harder or take and unplanned breath, one gets out of breath and the muschles ache due to lack of oxygen. It can also blacken on the eyes.
Anyway, I eventually made it to the top in a time as planned (for once). The last 20-30 min I had become quite warm, so (this was a bit of a mistake) I decided to stop at the top and take off the rain jacket and dawn jacket and just use a gilet on the way down.
While changing a guy passed and said “wait, wait, camera, camera” he came with his phone and started taking photos and chatting. When he heard i came from Pucallpe he lightened up (he was from Pucallpa and on his way there) and then I became part of selfies and videos, I had to send greetings to someone etc etc – so somewhere I might be part of an Instagram story, on TikTok or who knows.
Despite a bit of sun and 7-8 C on the top the wind was cold on the descend, very much so, so changing in the top was not a good idea.
The road surface was ok, so the descend went well. But as there are many trucks on the way down as well one has to get used to pass those. And then the length of the descend is tiring. I made the 95 km to Chosica in 2:50, 3rd on the Strava segment 😊.
In Chosica I bought water, took off the last cold weather clothing, it was now 27C and bought a face mask and prepared to get into the Lima traffic. About 30 km to go.
I have been that way several times, so know it quite well. The first 10 km is ok, but then the traffic grows an the face mask really helps not to feel one gets sick of pollution although I have no idea if it actually works, but it feels better.
The traffic was as the traffic is, and I eventually made it through the bottlenecks and found the starting point.
My mother in law mother had a beer ready 😊.
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