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 Read more
Intro I’m writing this by classroom light on a concrete floor in Morsilla Baja, surrounded by empty desks and a chalkboard. The day began in the Cajamarca region under a heavy, overcast sky that didn’t promise much beyond a long, grey grind on gravel. It was a day of slow Read more
Intro The morning in Cajamarca broke with a deceptive sun, the kind that makes you think the miles will come easy. I finally turned the wheels south toward Huaraz on a road that transitioned from smooth pavement to a punishing, sandy incline as the day wore on. The Late Exit Read more
Intro The morning in Cajamarca broke with a rare, clear sun that promised a reprieve from the grey static of the previous week. I set out onto the mostly gravel route with a lighter bike, having stripped away the bulk of my gear to tackle the 1,244-meter climb toward the Read more
Intro I rolled back into Cajamarca this morning on a bus that felt like a refrigerator on wheels. The sky was a flat, partly cloudy grey, and the paved streets of the city felt loud and abrasive after almost a week in the silence of the Chachapoyas highlands. I’m back Read more
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