Intro
Day 252 started on a concrete floor in Morsilla Baja with a throat that felt like it had been scraped by the very gravel I’ve been riding for weeks. The heavy, overcast sky didn’t offer any sympathy, leaking a cold drizzle just as I began the push toward the 3,740-meter summit. This was a day of massive elevation loss, but as the meters dropped, my physical state seemed to sink right along with them.
Classrooms and Canned Milk
- The alarm was set for 6:30 am, but my body gave up on sleep at 6:15. Packing up in a school classroom is a specific kind of hollow experience; the metallic clatter of my pannier clips echoed against the chalkboard as I cleared my gear before the students arrived. By 7:00 am, I was sitting with the local teacher, nursing a mug of hot chocolate. I provided the bananas and peanut butter, and we watched two men haul the month’s food supply from a truck. It was a rhythmic, heavy process—crates of canned milk, bags of lentils, and tins of fish being lugged across the yard.
- I was on the road by 8:15 am, but the early start felt like a mistake when the rain began just a few kilometers out. Usually, the sky waits until the afternoon to dump on you in this region, but today the clouds were impatient. I pulled on my crinkling rain poncho, the plastic texture sticking to my damp arms as I began the climb toward Huayanmarca. The road was a steady grind of wet gravel, but the reward at the 3,740-meter pass was a rare window of clarity. Looking south, the mountains layered into the distance without the usual shroud of fog, though the cold air bit hard into my lungs every time I tried to take a deep breath.
The Secret Kitchen of Cachachi
- The ride down to Cachachi was a 500-meter roller coaster of sloping dirt that felt relatively kind given the state of my sinuses. By noon, I was hunting for fuel. Cachachi doesn’t believe in signage; I found lunch by following the smell of fried fish drifting from a half-open door. Inside, there were no menus, just a shared table and a plate of pollo salteado. I sat with two locals and picked up a new word—’repollo’—while asking about the greens on my plate. It was the kind of meal that felt like medicine, though I knew it wouldn’t actually fix the fever blooming behind my eyes.
- I debated staying in town to fix my Claro SIM card, which had finally run out of data, but the shop at the Plaza de Armas was up a steep, punishing hill and rumors about it opening at 3:00 pm were shaky at best. I decided to push on. I had one final 150-meter climb to clear, and surprisingly, the salteado gave me a second wind. Or perhaps it was just the looming threat of the dark clouds gathering over the valley ahead that forced my legs to keep turning.
The Bone-Shaking Descent
- What followed was a 25-kilometer descent that dropped nearly 1300 meters in elevation. On paper, it sounds like a gift; in reality, it was a test of endurance for my wrists and brake pads. The road turned into a series of sharp gravel switchbacks that seemed to vibrate through my very teeth. The bone-shaking rattle of the gravel was constant, a percussive drumming that didn’t stop for over an hour. I had to pull over once to hide under a porch as a downpour moved through, watching the rain bounce off the dry earth. I didn’t have ten minutes to spare, so I threw the crinkling rain poncho back on and kept moving, my tires skidding slightly on the fresh mud.
- By the time the road leveled out toward Bella Vista, the sun was hitting the horizon. I rolled into the village feeling like a ghost, shivering despite the warmer air at the lower altitude. I found Hotel Waikys just as the light failed at the outskirts of Bella Vista. It’s a bizarre, beautiful anomaly—a European-style estate with finished walls and a manicured lawn, a stark contrast to the raw brick and rebar I usually see. The owner’s sister explained that her brother lives in Slovakia and sent money back to build this place. They even have a sit-on lawnmower, a piece of machinery that felt completely alien in this landscape.
Overnight
I stayed at Hotel Waikys in Bella Vista for 50 Soles. It was an incredibly clean, well-maintained property managed by the owner’s sister. I was the only guest, and the quiet was exactly what I needed as my cold symptoms intensified, though the lack of WiFi and my dead SIM card meant I was completely cut off from the world.
Reflection
Descending 2,000 meters is significantly less enjoyable when your sinuses are under more pressure than your hydraulic brakes.
Route summary
- Date: 2026-04-14
- Distance: 59.05 km
- Elevation gain: 580 m
- Elevation loss: 2151 m
- Duration: 9 h 52 min
- Time in Motion: 5 h 29 min
- Average Speed: 10.8 km/h