Riding toYanque/ Chivay Region

Woke up this morning so excited to head east off towards the Colca Canyon. Slept awesome after watching a beautiful sunset over towards the volcano view from my room and had another fun evening with the tour guides Edu and Alain and Robert (the other rider). The food here has been so awesome and the restaurant view was over the Plaza de Armas (town center) such a spectacular sight at night with all the lights.

I love riding so this morning I was ready to go! Breakfast with the guys included having Hermann making fresh biscuits and hand squeezed orange juice. He was so quiet this morning with a twinkle in his eye serving me fresh orange juice. Boy, am I getting spoiled!  Unfortunately it was Roberts turn to come down with an intestinal plaque... poor guy! After packing up bikes and waiting for Robert to gain his composure, we are off for a wild ride thru town traffic in this early morn. Edu warned us to stay close to him so we would not separate bikes. OMG ! I was sorry my Go Pro was not recording!! Three lane crazy traffic with at least 6 cars in the lanes driving like mad men. No traffic rules here! I loved every minute... I was glued to Edu so cars would not drive in between us... thank goodness for my California bike riding experience! I laughed the entire time.... we pulled off for gas just outside of town and to let Alain catch up to us...

Waiting for guides to figure things out at least gave Robert an opportunity to recoup. Never found Alain, he has the support truck, so we headed off down the road to Colca Canyon region.
We rode for hours, climbing higher in elevation. Beautiful scenery looking very similar to areas I have ridden thru. Sweeping curvy roads, mountains and desert looking terrain. As we climbed up in elevation we started seeing llamas, alpacas, and sheep herds.

Stopping along the way to rest, we never came across Alain and the support vehicle... scrounching thru our bags for water and snacks and wishing I had stashed a few of those biscuits in my pockets!  Robert was feeling really bad at this time, a combination of no breakfast and high elevation. He just about passed out off his bike, yikes! Just wanting to ride on, Robert took off on his bike. Eduardo sent me off after him while he turned around to look for his lost gloves. I rode on what seemed like for hours (I am sure it wasn't) but enjoying every minute because I felt like a lone rider out on her adventure... lol...  I never caught up to Robert and started getting worried so I pulled over to the side to allow Edu hopeful to catch up. After waiting for awhile I started thinking perhaps I took a wrong turn ???  Haha! So I turned around and started heading back the other direction...

 Soon Edu passes me by waving away with no concern that I was heading the wrong direction...sheesh.. after braving another u turn, I headed off behind him!
We stopped at another pass measuring at an elevation of somewhere around 15,000 feet above sea level. Beautiful lake views and clear skis ahead we moved on towards Chivay.

 

Somewhere along this route, I haven't a clue where I am, we came across a road crew that told us the road ahead was close to traffic. Rats! We now have to turn around and ride back the opposite direction. Its now late and the weather is changing rapidly and we are low on gas... lol.   Gassing up at one of the towns, we bundled up to ride into a rain/snow storm. Thought I was back in Alaska riding...