Spokes and Shoes

Intro I’m sitting on a Virgen del Carmen bus right now, the engine vibrating through the floorboards as we start the long crawl back to Cajamarca. After weeks of grinding up 1,000-meter climbs on the bike, today was a different kind of verticality—one where the engineering was either high-tensile steel Read more

Intro Today was a departure from the rhythmic grind of the pedals, swapped for the stop-and-start friction of mountain logistics. The sky over Luya was a non-committal overcast, casting a flat light over the stone-decorated concrete paths that led toward the cliffside dead. Without the bike, the world moves at Read more

Intro Day 246. After weeks of pushing pedals through the Andes, today was about a different kind of friction. The sky over Cocachimba was finally clear, a mostly sunny canopy that revealed the full 771-meter drop of Gocta in two distinct, silver ribbons. I traded the bike for hiking boots, Read more

Intro The overnight bus dropped me into Chachapoyas at 6:30 AM, leaving me standing on the pavement with a head full of static and a body that felt like it had been folded into a suitcase. The morning was mostly sunny, but the air at the terminal was thick with Read more

Intro I spent the morning in the hostel kitchen in Cajamarca, my mind already halfway to Chachapoyas but my body tethered to a laptop and a pile of damp clothes. The sky was a non-committal grey-blue, partly cloudy and indifferent to the fact that I was trading my pedals for Read more

Intro Cajamarca is holding me still today, and for once, I’m not fighting it. My legs are still humming from the relentless 1,000-meter climbs of the past week, and a stubborn headache meant the bike stayed leaned against the hotel wall while I navigated the city on foot and by Read more

Intro Good Friday has draped a strange, heavy quiet over Cajamarca, a sharp contrast to the brutal 1,000-meter climbs of the previous days. The sky remained mostly sunny and indifferent to my exhaustion, reflecting off the paved streets and polished cobblestones of the historic center as I swapped my cycling Read more

Intro I left Yanacancha this morning with a stomach full of nothing but four small, over-sweet bananas and a handful of dry biscuits. The sky was a heavy, unmoving grey, and the road immediately turned into a steep, loose gravel grind that forced me into my lowest gear before I’d Read more

Intro I’m writing this by the light of a single bulb in Yanacancha, my legs still humming from the 1,081-meter climb. The morning in Bambamarca was heavy and overcast, the kind of grey that makes the decision to take the unpaved 3NB route feel like a serious roll of the Read more

Intro I’m writing this from a hotel room in Bambamarca, my skin still humming from a 34-kilometer day that felt twice as long. The morning in Chota began with a heavy, overcast sky and the realization that the Andes don’t care about my planning, whether it’s for today’s 821-meter climb Read more