Peru, Sicunani - Colca Canyon and Condors

We started the day with an amazing breakfast which consisted of an tomatoe, onion omelete, yogurt, banana, pear, coffee, real oranage juice, and bread.  The best breakfast we have had too date.  We rode out of town and hit newly paved ashvault which felt amazing since we have been riding rough dirt roads the last past two days.  We rode around a nice section of road and around the bend we could see huge condors flying high above us.  We also noticed the large amounts on tourists crammed on the edge of the road taking in the sites.  Once again these birds are HUGE.  Apparently, the wing span can reach up to 16 feet.  The road coming through the colca was absolutly stunning.  We had wonderered what eduardo had meant by the road along is better than the actual sight, but we completly understood once completed.  Winding along the cliffs of the canyon in the peruvian landscape was incredible.

We stopped off in a nice town called Chivay.  We had a nice lunch and a coffee to help keep us awake while we digest.  Once we left Chivay the road turned into... well... more dirt.  The dirt is washed out and slow to ride.  We rode about 330 kms that day which took basically 8 hours to do.  The dirt road winds up and down the mountain changing elevation constantly.  We rode high enough that we were riding in the snow line and our new high of 4800m.  We definitely didnt have it as bad as others we have encountered though.  The coca candy definitely has been helping with the altitude sickness!

As we were riding through the valley we came across two bridges, one of which was replaced by a plank and another that was almost washed out completely as it had a giant hole in the middle of it.  Colin and I decided it would be better to ride on the plank and the 2 feet of existing bridge than to backtrack.

We were running out of daylight quickly and realized that we would not make it to Cusco so we settled for a town called Sicunani.  Not the greatest town as we had to look for hostels for awhile before we came across a hostel that provided parking, toilet, shower, and clean beds for a reasonable Peru price.