Biking in Peru

LeeL · Dec 11, 2017

Got our shoulder season trip by going on a biking trip to Peru. I've known about the possibilities there for a long time but never found the time to get to it. Our guide was Holy Trails MTB Peru.

First day was Morro Solar - Good way to stretch legs in Peru with a few climbs then some downhill in El Morro Solar in Lima. It's one of those rare beasts; sanctioned downhill in the middle of a large urban area. Pablo Lavinas who was out of commission due to a bike injury kindly drove us up On the downhill track there is a memorial to Eguz - a 22 year old fanatical biker who messed himself quite badly in another crash at another local spot. Eguz shouldn't even have been biking but couldn't keep off two wheels and was killed in a minor crash at Morro Solar.

Diego Pacifico Sarmiento, Pablo, and many others in the Holy Trails MTB Peru gang collaborate to build and maintain DH trails in the Lima area. Diego actually quarterbacked a UCI-sanctioned track in the area. Quite progressive of Lima to allow such a build

LeeL · Dec 11, 2017

Next was Pachacamac; a suburb of Lima. It's an amalgam of cement plant owned industrial land with archaeological artifacts. The slopes will eventually be ground into quaŕrries and hopefully the locals will be able to find a compromise so some trails can stay as it's unusual to find such a well-developed, maintained and dense collection of trails relatively close to urban areas anywhere in the world.

We did four laps on the slopes around Pachacamac to the S side of the main cement mix access plant. Shuttle access is via gravel industrial roads where the Cement Mix Plant has roads that can be driven by public. These particular trails were used by both shuttlers and people who rode them uphill. We then did a lap in the "Amancaes Bike Park" a collection of purpose built downhill trails circa early to mid 2000s worked on by Peruvian DHers with tables, berms, jumps and tech-gnar. Then finished off with a ride down "Terrorista" named as such because Sendero Luminoso guerillas hid in the area towards the end of their insurrection

'

LeeL · Dec 11, 2017

Are the pictures showing up for anyone? They show up for me when I click Edit Post (but only I can do that). I'm using the img /img tags instructions from the posting guidelines

LeeL · Dec 11, 2017

Going to try some tests

JimmyC · Dec 11, 2017

The test photos are displaying. I look forward to seeing the rest.

jcd46 · Dec 11, 2017

Nice trip! Pix look fine on Tapatalk.

radair · Dec 11, 2017

Awesome, Lee! Looking forward to seeing all the pics (only test photos showing for me).

LeeL · Dec 12, 2017

Then we headed off to Olleros - a neighbouring town on the Andean foothills

The Olleros full pull from the Sierra Andean foothills to Playa Negra at San Bartolo just S of Lima is a 3415m downhill. Be advised that the last 30 kms or so is a relatively gentle riverbed ride to ocean. It's entirely possible for motivated groups to do a couple of the downhill sections to the riverbed where the downhill effectively ends at approx 1000m above sea level then complete the full-pull. The downhills are fun, fast, rowdy-in-spots and can be loose. Watch for cactus!

rockman · Dec 13, 2017

Thanks for the stoke. The last few pics don't show up for me so I'm using my imagination.

LeeL · Dec 13, 2017

rockman said:
Thanks for the stoke. The last few pics don't show up for me so I'm using my imagination.

grrrr. It shows up on Tapatalk and only on edit but not on desktop. Looks like MTBRs Vbulletin interface is orphaned. How do others load their pics?

Here's the shots from Olleros. Loaded one by one . they kind of look like ass as they're so small now

LeeL · Dec 13, 2017

Next installment. I know the MTBR vbulletin bug means the pics won't show up for many. I'll find the time to insert them at some point

PataLares is the name given by Hans to the rides encompassing the high pamero / puna in the Patacancha highlands then valley descending the N side of Pumawank'a from the Chalhua Cocha pass. Via this route we got amazing views of Sahuaisiray and Sirijuani then took parts of the Wakawasi trail to Lares ducking out on partway on the road as a member of the party was feeling altitude sickness.

Arizzle · Dec 13, 2017

Awesome pics, could you please send me the information of your guide?

preskitt_jack · Dec 13, 2017

LeeL said:
Next installment. I know the MTBR vbulletin bug means the pics won't show up for many. I'll find the time to insert them at some point

PataLares is the name given by Hans to the rides encompassing the high pamero / puna in the Patacancha highlands then valley descending the N side of Pumawank'a from the Chalhua Cocha pass. Via this route we got amazing views of Sahuaisiray and Sirijuani then took parts of the Wakawasi trail to Lares ducking out on partway on the road as a member of the party was feeling altitude sickness.

Nice pics and trip!

I tried 4 browsers Edge, Ie, Opera, and Firefox in Win10. Only Opera displayed all pics, the rest had issues on pics not displaying in posts #8 and #12

KRob · Dec 13, 2017

LeeL said:
Here's the shots from Olleros. Loaded one by one . they kind of look like ass as they're so small now

I've been following your trip on FB with envy. Thanks for compiling into a trip report. When I click on the small images they will load full size. But, yeah, I hate the new more limited photo downloading protocol here. PITA

LeeL · Dec 14, 2017

Arizzle said:
Awesome pics, could you please send me the information of your guide?

Arizzle. It's Holy Trails Peru. Price ran approx $ 1800 for 10 days of biking and everything taken cared of (transport, breakfast, lunch, accoms). Call it $ 20 - $ 30 pp for nice huge dinners in Peru even in touristy places - Peru is pretty inexpensive/.

EDIT - forgot contact info - diego@holytrails.pe. Prices go up if you have smaller groups and more if you want 5* hotels (we were ok with 3*) or if you want to do stuff like surfing, or kiting or ziplines etc

socal_jack said:
Nice pics and trip!
I tried 4 browsers Edge, Ie, Opera, and Firefox in Win10. Only Opera displayed all pics, the rest had issues on pics not displaying in posts #8 and #12

Damn. I tried Chrome, IE and mobile with only mobile working. Thanks for letting me know re Opera.

KRob thanks for letting me know you can click on the pics. I didn't even know that. Just took a lot of time on the pics and kinda felt bad they were so tiny displaying on MTBR

LeeL · Dec 14, 2017

LeeL said:
Next installment. I know the MTBR vbulletin bug means the pics won't show up for many. I'll find the time to insert them at some point

PataLares is the name given by Hans to the rides encompassing the high pamero / puna in the Patacancha highlands then valley descending the N side of Pumawank'a from the Chalhua Cocha pass. Via this route we got amazing views of Sahuaisiray and Sirijuani then took parts of the Wakawasi trail to Lares ducking out on partway on the road as a member of the party was feeling altitude sickness.

Here are the pics before I run out of steam

We then transferred from Lares up the insane paved road past Pampascorral and Morras with its Sahuaisiray glacierview at 3850m marvelling at how the glacier had carved up the mountain. The final pass at Abra Lares was flanked by Chhullunkunayuq and an un-named peak and was cold. Then we descended via Lares to Tortora finishing at Machacancha

The first leg was 4100m to 3100m The second leg was 4460m at abra lares to 3300m

Back to cosy lodging at Villa Urubamba in plenty of time for dinner and sunset on the mountains

LeeL · Dec 15, 2017

Another run on Lares then two on Lamay. 1400m + 600m + 1100m - all via vehicle shuttle.

Call it moto-served alpine riding with liberal amounts of Inca ruins and steps and lots of sheer cliff dropoffs. Acceptably satisfying

Lares run

Lamay runs

upstateSC-rider · Dec 15, 2017

LeeL said:
Here are the pics before I run out of steam

View attachment 1172265

View attachment 1172267

View attachment 1172269

View attachment 1172270

View attachment 1172271

View attachment 1172272

We then transferred from Lares up the insane paved road past Pampascorral and Morras with its Sahuaisiray glacierview at 3850m marvelling at how the glacier had carved up the mountain. The final pass at Abra Lares was flanked by Chhullunkunayuq and an un-named peak and was cold. Then we descended via Lares to Tortora finishing at Machacancha

The first leg was 4100m to 3100m The second leg was 4460m at abra lares to 3300m

Back to cosy lodging at Villa Urubamba in plenty of time for dinner and sunset on the mountains

View attachment 1172274

View attachment 1172275

View attachment 1172278

So many great pics but these just stood out for me...Amazing.

LeeL · Dec 17, 2017

Gonna try to fix the pics but here's more before I run out of steam

Just a half-day for us so we could play tourist a bit and rest a tad before doing the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu hike.

Descent from Misminay at 3885m to Tarabamba at 3000m. Unfortunately part of the trail has been taken out by a new road but there's lot of natural berms and playfulness in what is left. Also saw an old Incan agricultural laboratory at Moray and the salt ponds at Maras (3175m). The salt rises from ocean and through tectonic pressure is extruded through geological strata to this elevation and is incredibly concentrated and pure

The revenue from the salt pans gives a lot of money to the community and draws lots of tourism.

Then we went to the Mercado Urubamba. When we were little kids in Malaysia we would always follow Mum around for food shopping. She knew all the shopkeepers. The sights and sounds were always so interesting.

LeeL · Dec 17, 2017

This time with pics uploaded painfully one by one

Another run on Lares then two on Lamay. 1400m + 600m + 1100m - all via vehicle shuttle.

Call it moto-served alpine riding with liberal amounts of Inca ruins and steps and lots of sheer cliff dropoffs. Acceptably satisfying

Lares run

Lamay runs

Biking in Peru

LeeL

LeeL

LeeL

LeeL

JimmyC

jcd46

radair

LeeL

rockman

LeeL

LeeL

Arizzle

preskitt_jack

KRob

LeeL

LeeL

LeeL

upstateSC-rider

LeeL

LeeL

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities