The ride from Huancayo to Ayacucho was a wonderful surprise – neither of us realized how beautiful this section would be. No doubt, Andes by Bike’s Peruvian Great Divide (PGD) is amazing, but if you are somewhat time pressed or it’s the rainy season, this is a great alternative. The ride follows the emerald green River Mantaro through a series of lovely valleys, passing some of the friendliest little villages that we have visited in Peru. The road is predominantly paved and in pretty good condition – some parts are a little rough and patched, while others are brand spanking new. Best of all, there was hardly any traffic.
Here is an overview of our journey from Huancayo to Ayacucho, Peru. It is detailed for our own records, so feel free to skip ahead to the photos!
Saturday 24th October: Huancayo to Izcuchaca
This was a fantastic day! Apart from David getting a flat tyre, it really couldn’t have been better!
Huancayo is a big city and cycling out of it was a little tricky with all of the traffic (thankfully we had our offline “maps.me” to help!), but as soon as we got beyond the city limits, the traffic dropped off dramatically.
We had one major climb to tackle on this day up to the Abra Imperial Pass at 3890m and I am pleased to report that I found it relatively easy, as it wasn’t over 4000m for a change! Before we knew it the pass was behind us and we were just starting to descend when David got a flat tyre! 
There had been quite a bit of glass on the road and we suspected that he must have ridden over some of it; but, the culprit was actually a piece of wire. David fixed the flat in no time and then it was almost all downhill to Izcuchaca, our goal for the day.
The scenery today was stunning and after the climb, we started following the River Mantaro through a lovely green valley.
We passed through a couple of small, friendly villages, where some of the locals, who were already a bit tipsy, wanted to have a drink with us, but we still had a fair way to go to reach Izcuchaca so we gave it a miss.
Close to the bottom of the steep part of the descent, we came across a little trout farm and restaurant (La Cabana), where we enjoyed an amazing trout lunch – between us we ate 3.5 trouts!
The most bizarre thing about today was the absence of aggressive dogs. We kept cycling into little towns, expecting to have dogs running out at us, but we hardly saw any at all and those that we did see were surprisingly docile. It was wonderful!
About 4kms before Izcuchaca, we came across a series of little shrines, surrounded by a huge amount of rubbish. Peru is such a wonderful country, with so much natural beauty and I am always saddened to see rubbish lining the roads and clogging up the beautiful rivers. So, instead of just complaining about the rubbish to David, I decided to do something about it and I got out a garbage bag and cleared the rubbish from around the shrines – predominantly plastic drink bottles. Passing motorists were quite supportive of my efforts and I received a few thumbs up! We had a bit of a job strapping the huge bag of rubbish to my bike, but we managed and 4kms later, I dumped the rubbish bag in a rubbish bin in Izcuchaca. Hopefully, it ends up recycled or at a dump and not back on the side of the road near the town.
Izcuchara has a beautiful colonial bridge and a lovely little town square. There are a number of hostals in town and after visiting 4 of them, we ended up staying at the Santa Eugenia Hostal, where we got a nice room with a private bathroom and a balcony overlooking the colonial bridge.
We bought a couple of warm beers in town (it is a real struggle to find refrigerated beers in the little towns above 2500m), which we drank on our balcony, while watching a couple of shepherds chase a herd of goats down the cliff across from our hotel!
Huancayo Cathedral
The taxis were decorated with purple and white balloons, Huancayo
The taxis were decorated with purple and white balloons, Huancayo
Little village outside of Huancayo
On the way to Izcuchaca
On the way to Izcuchaca
Traffic jam on the way to Izcuchaca
Traffic jam on the way to Izcuchaca
David got a piece of wire in his tyre …
David fixing his flat tyre … No. 3 for Peru
David fixing his flat tyre … No. 3 for Peru
David on the way to Izcuchaca
On the way to Izcuchaca
David descending on our way to Izcuchaca
On the way to Izcuchaca
Awesome downhill on the way to Izcuchaca
Awesome downhill on the way to Izcuchaca
The amazing trout farm and restaurant La Cabana!
Lunch at La Cabana – so good!
Trout farm at La Cabana
David outside La Cabana
Beautiful views on the way to La Cabana
Beautiful views on the way to Izcuchaca
Beautiful views on the way to Izcuchaca
Beautiful views on the way to Izcuchaca
Beautiful views on the way to Izcuchaca
The road had a nice, wide shoulder!
Little waterfalls on the way to Izcuchaca
Beautiful views on the way to Izcuchaca
Jo collecting rubbish near the shrines
Jo collecting rubbish near the shrines
The little town of Izcuchaca
The old colonial bridge in Izcuchaca
Cuy (guinea pigs) behind our hostal
The view from our hotel room in Izcuchaca
The view from our hotel room in Izcuchaca
Our Hostal at Izcuchaca
Sunday 25th October: Izcuchaca to La Esmeralda
From Izcuchaca, we followed the 3S towards Ayacucho through the towns of Mariscal Caceres (the tidiest town that we have seen in South America, with more rubbish bins than I have ever seen on one street and some great street art!) and Quichuas, along the River Mantaro.
I don’t think these little towns see many foreigners, as we received such an incredibly warm welcome and were followed by friendly calls of “Hello Gringo!”, “How are you Gringa?”, “Have a great trip Gringos”! It was simply gorgeous and put big smiles on our faces.
Our bike book indicated that this section would be on a bad dirt road, but the road was paved (although it was a little patchy at times). There was hardly any traffic and the views of the river (which turned pink at one stage) were wonderful.
The cycling today was predominantly downhill, but with some sharp, and one long, climbs. After the town of Quichuas, the road narrowed down to one lane, but the traffic was always very respectful and on two occasions trucks pulled over to let me pass!
Although we were cycling above 2000m, it was surprisingly hot. My garmin said that it was 37 degrees and it sure felt like it. In addition to the heat, we were joined by some delightful little flies called zancudos that BITE and draw blood! Don’t forget to bring insect repellent if you are going to cycle here!
My new challenge!
After cleaning up the shrines near Izcuchaca the day before, I have decided to challenge myself to “beautify” one place per riding day (by filling a bag of rubbish) for the remainder of our tour (assuming we reach a town on that riding day). I would, of course, like to clear more rubbish each day, but unfortunately, I have some space and weight restrictions on the bike!
As a cycle tourer, travelling slowly at bike speed, I see all of the faces of a country – the beautiful, the good, the bad and the ugly. Since leaving the USA, the amount of rubbish that we have passed has been astounding and so sad. I regularly see people throw rubbish out of their car windows and have watched as old ladies drop buckets full of rubbish into the beautiful rivers that run past their villages. The worst offenders are by far plastic drink bottles and disposable diapers.
David and I try to live the “Leave no trace” principles while camping and cycle touring, but I want to go further and make a positive, albeit small, impact on some of the places that we pass through, with the aim of leaving them in a better state than we found them and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.
Around midday, we came across a friendly Argentinian cyclist (Luis Isonio) who is cycling from Argentina to Mexico and then back to Argentina. We spent over an hour chatting with him – all in bad Spanish! We had been thinking of camping on this night, but Luis told us not to camp, as there are venomous tarantulas around this area (he proudly showed us the photo of one!). He also gave us some good tips for going south, including that we should cross the border into Bolivia near Copacabana, which we intend to do.
I filled another bag of rubbish around lunchtime and then had to lug it up the big hill … in future I will need to make sure that I collect rubbish closer to a town. 
Unfortunately, around 4pm, I had some terrible stomach pains (thankfully they were short lived), so instead of continuing onto the town of Mayocc as planned, we got a room at a hotel in La Esmeralda for 30 soles, where we cooked pasta for dinner on the back porch. We were a little confused at first as to whether we were actually in the town of Esmeralda, as it appears to have two names and also goes by the name of “Anco”. But, when we asked, the locals confirmed that we were definitely in “La Esmeralda”. The managers of the hotel in Esmeralda had a little girl about the age of 4, who loved the word “Gringo”. She gave us a baked potato each and followed us around the hotel, watching while we made dinner. In the evening when we were watching a movie we could hear her running up and down the hotel corridor calling out “Gringo”! “Gringa!” It was really cute!
On the way to La Esmeralda
Rubbish on the way to La Esmeralda
Rubbish on the way to La Esmeralda
The incredibly tidy town of Mariscal Caceres
The incredibly tidy town of Mariscal Caceres
Street art, Mariscal Caceres
Street art, Mariscal Caceres
Street art, Mariscal Caceres
Rock art, Mariscal Caceres
Cute blue church, Mariscal Caceres
Street art, Mariscal Caceres
Tunnel time! On the way to La Esmeralda
Tunnel time! On the way to La Esmeralda
On the way to La Esmeralda
Tunnel time! On the way to La Esmeralda
Beautiful views on the way to La Esmeralda
Beautiful views on the way to La Esmeralda
Dam, on the way to La Esmeralda
Jo crossing one of the dodgy bridges on the way to La Esmeralda
The road became quite narrow!
David on the way to La Esmeralda
David on the way to La Esmeralda
Luis’ bike – he has a grill and fishing rod in there!
Jo and Luis from Argentina
Beautiful views on the way to La Esmeralda
Beautiful views on the way to La Esmeralda
More rubbish on the way to La Esmeralda
Jo collecting more roadside rubbish
On the way to La Esmeralda
Pink mountains on the way to La Esmeralda
Pink mountains and pink river on the way to La Esmeralda
Pink mountains and pink river on the way to La Esmeralda
Pink river on the way to La Esmeralda
Jo on the way to La Esmeralda
The road became quite narrow on the way to La Esmeralda
Our hostal in La Esmeralda
The cute little girl who followed us around calling “Gringos” in La Esmeralda
Monday 26th October: La Esmeralda to Huanta
This was another beautiful day on the bike. The section from La Esmeralda to Mayocc was probably my favourite of the entire ride from Huancayo to Ayacucho, as we got quite close to the River Mantaro (which had reverted back to being a brilliant green colour), and the mountains were awash with colour.
The first 45kms were very up and down, with some steepish climbs at times, followed by a gradual easy climb up to Huanta. The scenery around Mayocc reminded us of Mexico – it was desert like and full of wonderful cacti.
We stopped in Mayocc, the only town of any size between La Esmeralda and Huanta (Note: we saw two hostals here). We stocked up on water and bought a kilo of perfectly ripe avocados for the exorbitant price of …. 1USD! Unbelievable. I don’t think we could buy 1 avocado for A$1 in Australia, let alone a whole kilo! We had lunch beside the road – avocados with some bread from Huancayo that we found in our pannier – a perfect, instant picnic!
The road was generally good today. The road is in the process of being upgraded from Mayocc to Huanta – there were some fantastic new sections of bitumen and two detours onto the old dirt road (of perhaps, 5kms in total). I am sure that if you ride this road in a year (maybe even a month), the whole way from Mayocc to Huanta will be paved.
It was quite hot again on the bike – averaging around 36 degrees. Not surprising, I suppose, given the desert like conditions. I had to stop and remove my shoes at one point on the climb up to Huanta, as I was starting to overheat. I have had to retire my cycling shoes, as they literally disintegrated after the recent river crossings, so I am cycling in my hiking boots without cleats now. In the distance we could see rain clouds in front and behind us and I really would not have minded getting a little wet!
In the end, we made it to Huanta just as the massive downpour, with lightning, started. We quickly ducked into a little shop and ordered a coke to share while we waited out the rain. We had been planning to cycle to Ayacucho today, which would have been a massive day, but we decided to call it a day in Huanta because of the rain. It was a tough afternoon for us both; David got his hair cut and I got a pedicure and then we went for a liqueur tasting!
On the way to Huanta
Three little pigs!
Dogs on the way to Huanta … these ones weren’t too bad!
David on the way to Huanta
The stunning green river on the way to Huanta
On the way to Huanta
On the way to La Esmeralda
We felt like we were back in Mexico with all the cacti!
Wonderful new road on the way to Huanta
Jo crossing an old bridge
Yeah … we made it back onto pavement!
Local houses on the way to Huanta
Jo on the way to Huanta
Starting to rain on the way to Huanta
Storm above Huanta
Tuesday 27th October: Rest day in Huanta
The wifi was so good at our little hotel in Huanta (Hotel Illary) that we decided to have our rest day in Huanta rather than Ayacucho. We did some washing and updated the blog … and relaxed.
Wednesday 28th October: Huanta to Ayacucho
Today we made it to the colonial city of Ayacucho, which is famous for its 33 churches – one for each year of Jesus’ life! Although we hadn’t planned to have a rest day here, we like the city so much that we’ve decided to stay for 2 nights; so we should have time to check out a few churches … although probably not all 33!
Although we had two major climbs, the riding was relatively easy and we made it to Ayacucho by 1pm. The scenery wasn’t as spectacular as over the past few days and the locals also weren’t as friendly (which is usually the case as we approach larger cities), so thankfully it was a short day – only 47kms.
The highlight for me was stopping outside a school in Huanta to take a photo of the lovely flower carpet that they were building for a local festival. The kids were super excited to talk to a “Gringa” and the teachers gave me a glass of apple flavoured soft drink and asked me lots of questions about our tour. While I took photos of the flower carpet, the teachers took photos of me and the whole school gave me a huge cheer when I got back on my bike and started cycling up the hill. It was really lovely!
We have found a great hostal (Hostal Marcos), which is located close to the Plaza de Armas. We made a bee line for the fabulous Via Via Café (we had both lunch and dinner there and will no doubt be there again tomorrow!), which has great coffee, healthy and innovative food using local ingredients (like quinoa and alpaca) and yummy ice cream! It is a breath of fresh air after days of chicken and chips and burgers!
The flower carpet outside the school in Huanta
Views on the way to Ayacucho
On the way to Ayacucho
On the way to Ayacucho
On the way to Ayacucho
Hostal Marcos
Enjoying a beer at Via Via Cafe
My amazing lunch at Via Via Cafe – Quinoa and trout
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