very big days

I could not muster up the energy to post anything yesterday. Up at 5am and back to the hotel at 8pm, shower, dinner, KO'd. What a day. After leaving Lima we drove up and up into the arid Andes for hours on a crazy road to around 12, 700 feet. This is as high as i've been. Fortunately we were heading downhill from there for 56 km. The trail was absolutely ridiculous - with several sections that were best evers in terms of pure riding pleasure, and each section distinctly different and the final pedal strokes to the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. I will ride that trail again one day for sure.
Today we were up again at 5am and again we drove up and up on another head shaking road through some of the biggest mountains that I've ever seen to a town at 10,000 feet perched up on a dramatic mountain knoll. It was hot and sunny. From there we boarded small mountain horses while local boys pushed our bikes up (i know, i know...but they were making some money for their efforts) to a pre-Inca ruin and Moab-esque rocky plateau at 13,500 feet. My horse was fiesty and wanted to pin it up the mountain path which i did not like at all. But the rest of the group was in stiches as i went barreling past them. The descent today was much different than yesterday; the landscape was lush and the aspect that we descended was steep and extra large. The trail was also much more technical than yesterday, I was so happy to be on my 6-inch Trek Remedy 9 and Rock Shox Lyric fork - they saved my butt a few times. Today's ride and the whole day was truly epic. EPIC.
Tomorrow...up at 5am again and were off to the airport for the 1 hour flight to Cuzco which i'm really looking forward to. We're heading further into the big mountains...talk to you tomorrow if we have internet.


4000 feet in the can, 8000 feet to go...


curious kids...