Here is an overview of our journey from Ayacucho to Abancay, Peru. It is detailed for our own records, so feel free to skip ahead to the photos!
Friday 30th October: Ayacucho to wild camp
We left Ayacucho quite late, as I (Jo) was communicating with one of my best friends (Aleecia), about her upcoming visit to see us in Cusco. In the end, we didn’t roll out of Ayacucho until around 10am (after buying a bag full of fresh bread at the bakery next to our Hostal – yum!)
Ayacucho is a pretty big city (although, they still don’t have a proper supermarket!), but we managed to maneuver our way out of the city reasonably well and started cycling on Highway 3S towards the Abra Tocctoccsa Pass … or so we thought. But, after we passed through the town of Tambillo, we realized we had taken a secondary road (listed as the “103” on our map). The 103 linked up with Highway 3S at the top of the pass, just before the descent into Ocros, so instead of turning back, we decided to push on. The 103 was fully paved and there was hardly any traffic. Who knows – it may have been a better option for us than Highway 3S as planned!
The road started with an unexpected downhill, but then started to climb in earnest. We ate lunch (bread, cheese and honey) outside of a church. The local ladies tried to tempt us with some deep fried miscellaneous meats … but we decided to play it safe and stick with our bread and honey. 
The locals were very friendly along the 103. At one village, we were hailed, in English, by one of the locals and offered a drink of some homemade “plum beverage” that he was enjoying with his friends. The locals swore that it wasn’t alcoholic, but it definitely tasted like it! David and I shared one cup, as we still had a mountain to conquer! We chatted with the friendly locals for a good half hour and they showed us a local plum tree (the same plum tree that was used to make the plum drink), which has insect repelling properties. I tried it (you break off some leaves, squish them in your hands and then rub the leaves over your exposed skin) and I didn’t get any insect bites that day. It was pretty cool (if, a bit messy) and much better than using chemicals! As we were preparing to leave, our new friends gave us a small chunk of cheese, which we ate that night in our veggie pasta. We just love serendipitous moments like this on our tour!
The scenery was largely agricultural on this day – lots of farms, quinoa fields (and farm dogs!). By late afternoon, we got caught in a little storm – thankfully, it was short lived. There were no hotel/hostal options on this stretch. We had hoped to make it to Ocros on this day, but given our late start, the storm and the fact that I was feeling a bit sick, we didn’t make it to the top of the pass that day.
Thankfully, by the time we wanted to camp, we reached a section of land that hadn’t been converted to agricultural use. We inspected a couple of potential campsites, before finding what appeared to be an overgrown former quarry. We pitched our tent behind a little mound and were completely hidden from the road. Perfect. The nearest village and houses were a fair distance away, so we didn’t expect any night time visitors. We cooked a lovely vegetable pasta, hung our rubbish in a tree and got into our sleeping bags. Almost immediately, we heard rustling in the nearby tree where we had put the rubbish. David went out to investigate (what a hero!) and discovered that our rubbish bag had been ripped from the tree, with the contents spread around our campsite, but there was no sign of the culprit (perhaps a stray donkey?). Thankfully, we had no other disturbances, or late night visitors that night.
Huge bronze statue seen while exiting Ayacucho Jo trying out some natural “Incan” insect repellant! On the way to Ocros On the way to Ocros Agricultural scenes on the way to Ocros On the way to Ocros Agricultural scenes on the way to Ocros The road was quiet and good quality On the road to Ocros On the road to Ocros Agricultural scenes on the way to Ocros Agricultural scenes on the way to Ocros Shepherdess on the road to Ocros View from our wild campsite on the way to Ocros View from our wild campsite on the way to Ocros We were camped behind these little mounds – completely out of sight! Our wild campsite on the way to Ocros View from our wild campsite on the way to Ocros
Saturday 31st October: Wild camp to Ahuayro
We were up early, itching to make it to the top of the pass. So, after a cold brekkie of porridge, we hit the road.
Being a Saturday, there was very little traffic on the road. During the 3 hours that it took us to reach the pass, we saw only 3 cars! One of those cars contained a friendly German couple in an overland campervan, who stopped for a chat. We swapped stories from the road and they recommended a couple of hikes for us in Chile – hopefully we have time!
After saying good-bye to the German couple, we continued on our way to the pass. We stopped numerous times on the way to the top, and were able to buy water in a little village that we passed. Cycling above 4000m is always tough, but I managed better this time and wasn’t frantically gasping for breath. The scenery continued to be quite agricultural and although it was a Saturday, there were lots of locals working in the fields. They all waved as we went past.
When we reached the pass, the road flattened out somewhat and there were a number of abandoned buildings, with a flock of sheep wandering nearby. We didn’t have time to explore though, as a massive storm was gathering. Unfortunately for us, as we started to descend we got caught in a painful hail storm. I wanted to pull over and wait out the hail storm, but David wanted to push on. We continued to descend, but the hail increased in size, and I decided to wait it out, while David pushed on. I found some partial cover under a rock and hunkered down to wait it out. My legs didn’t quite fit under the rock and took quite a beating – the next morning they were covered with tiny purple bruises!
Eventually the storm passed and we coasted down into the little town of Ocros, enjoying some wonderful views on the descent. The town was smaller than I imagined (although there were a couple of hostals). We bought a coke to share. This year all the coke bottles seem to have a name as a nice marketing ploy and we were pleased to see the name of our friend Omar on one bottle as it was his birthday! We were quite hungry by this time and looked around for a restaurant. But, the only restaurant in town (as far as we could see) – a Polleria (Grilled chicken) – was closed at this time. So we pushed onto the bigger town of Chumbes, where we found a 24 hour trucker restaurant with grilled trucha (trout) on the outskirts of town.
After our late lunch we continued downhill to the river. Our waitress in Chumbes assured us that there were hotels in Ahuayro, so we continued on looking forward to a hot shower. On the outskirts of Ahuayro, we came across of honey liqueur manufacturer. We couldn’t pass up on this experience, so we stopped in and ended up buying a bottle. Yum!
Ahuayro is a little village on the river bank. At an elevation of approximately 2000m, it was hot and steamy, with lots of mosquitos. We passed a number of hostals, but decided on Hostal Los Waris, which had the best marketing! We also asked about a room at another hostal on the main street, but were told that the rooms were small, with no room for our bikes. The room that we got at Hostal Los Waris was probably the smallest room that we had on our entire tour, but the staff were nice and still let us put our bikes in the room. It was a very tight squeeze, but manageable. We ate dinner at one of the local restaurants in town (a pretty forgettable meal) and enjoyed a beer outside our hotel watching the locals play soccer. It was fun and totally non-touristy – just the way we like it!
KMs travelled: 82kms
Climbing up to the pass on our way to Ocros Climbing up to the pass on our way to Ocros Jo taking a break on the way to the pass Agricultural scenes on the way to Ocros Abandoned buildings on top of the pass – kind of weird We got caught in a massive hail storm on top of the pass … Views on our descent into Chumbes On the way to Ahuayro Our hotel in Ahuayro Our hotel in Ahuayro The main street of Ahuayro
Sunday 1st November: Ahuayro to Aripa
This was an unexpectedly short day, as my hip started protesting against all of the climbing!
We had planned to cycle all the way to Andahuaylas on this day, which would have involved a lot of climbing, so we were up early and on the road by 7.30am. As we were leaving the hotel, we were greeted by a couple of locals sitting outside our hotel and were asked to share a beer with them. They were either starting their drinking very early, or still hadn’t been to bed! We thanked them for their kind offer, but declined the breakfast beer!
After some flatish cycling along the river, with some wonderful views, the road switch backed steadily up the mountain. The road was in excellent condition and was completely paved – it was occasionally quite steep, but always manageable on the pavement. This must have been a very tough climb when it was still a dirt road. It was extremely hot on the climb and we were glad that we got an early start, although in hindsight we probably should have started even earlier.
We had a coke stop on the way to Chincheros and I had an ice-cream in Chincheros. By this time, our stomachs were rumbling and we started looking for a restaurant. There weren’t any in Upper Chincheros, but between Upper Chincheros and Uripa we found a great little restaurant – La Cabana, where we had some lovely fried trucha (trout) and some much needed cold drinks.
By this time, I was starting to feel a bit of tightness in my hip, so I used the break for stretching. I hoped that this would fix the problem, but on the way to Uripa I continued to feel tightness and my hip started to become quite painful as we continued towards Uripa.
Local boys cycled with us on the outskirts of Uripa. I suppose we were a bit of a novelty for them! We stopped in Uripa to buy some water and I continued to stretch out my hip. It was 1pm now – much too early for us to stop cycling. But, we decided to call it a day and finish the climb the following day, rather than risk an overuse injury. We still had many mountains to climb between Uripa and Abancay (and ultimately Ushuaia)!
Uripa was a nice little town, although I probably preferred Chincheros (which had many hostals with wifi). We got a private room for 50 soles at the huge, modern and quite fancy Hotel Chaska (located right on the Plaza de Armas). The Plaza de Armas was a little hard to find – just ask the locals for directions. The price was a bit more than we wanted to pay, but after visiting 5 different other hostals, we decided that it was worth the extra money. It had a wonderful shower, with super-hot water, but unfortunately, no wifi. We washed our clothes at the hotel and the kind owner let us hang them up on her own washing line. We weren’t able to put our bikes in our room, which is generally a must for us, but we were able to put them out of sight on the ground floor in a locked room.
It was market day in Uripa and we wandered around amongst the stalls in the afternoon. Then we found an internet cafe for some internet, but we soon gave up as it was painfully slow.
KMs travelled: 32kms
River views on our way to Uripa River views on our way to Uripa On our way to Uripa On our way to Uripa We had been climbing for at least 14kms when we saw this sign! Cycling into the lovely town of Chincheros Chincheros has recycling! We stopped at Restaurant La Cabana for lunch We stopped at Restaurant La Cabana for lunch Street art in Uripa Lovely church in Uripa Lovely church in Uripa The view from our hotel window – this is the Hotel Owner’s garden! Sunset in Uripa
Monday 2nd November: Aripa to Andahuaylas
This day essentially involved one big uphill and one big downhill into Andahuaylas. After the heat of the previous day, we got an early start. Thankfully, as we were above 3000m now, the temperatures were much kinder.
Monday morning must be “National Anthem” morning in Peru. Leaving our hotel, we watched as the locals sang the National Anthem and raised the Peruvian Flag in Aripa’s Plaza de Armas. Then, as we cycled past a local school on the way to the pass, we stopped to watch the school children singing the Anthem and raising the flag. It was great and very patriotic!
We enjoyed some lovely views of Uripa on the climb to the pass. Above 4000m the landscape became quite barren and we started to see herds of alpacas. The pass was at around 4250m and we made it easily, with no pain in my hip. Yeah!
After all the climbing, we really enjoyed the downhill into Andahuaylas. We coasted downhill past numerous little towns and soon realized that it must be the “Day of the Dead”, as the local cemeteries were full of people paying their respects to their deceased relatives and decorating the grave sites. It was wonderful to see, but as it seemed to be a public holiday, we struggled to find any open restaurants on the way to Andahuaylas. In the end we found an excellent seafood restaurant on the outskirts of Andahuaylas, where we had some great ceviche and a filling rice dish.
In Andahuaylas, we got a cheapish room at Hostel Cruz del Sur. It seemed to be the best of the cheap offerings in town, with a very attentive and knowledgeable owner. The shared bathrooms were clean, although the wifi was pretty bad and only really worked in the reception area.
Andahuaylas is a biggish town (not the prettiest), but we were able to find some small supermarkets and an ATM. We had a wonderful dinner at El Bocadillo on the Plaza de Armas.
KMs travelled: 75km
We watched as the local residents of Uripa sang the National Anthem and raised the Peruvian Flag We passed through Challhuani shortly after leaving Uripa Views of Uripa Views of Uripa School children singing the National Anthem Piglets! Above 4000m we came across herds of alpacas! We finally made it to the top of the pass – yeah! Above 4000m we came across herds of alpacas! Above 4000m we came across herds of alpacas! Coasting down the other side of the pass! Coasting down the other side of the pass! Jo picking up rubbish near Andahualyas Seafood and rice in Andahualyas Ceviche, Andahualyas
Tuesday 3rd November: Andahuaylas to Huancarama
This was a big day – 87kms in total. Like the day before, it essentially involved one big climb up to the pass at approximately 4150m and then one big downhill (with some minor uphills in between) into Huancarama. The scenery was gorgeous, especially between Kishuara and Huancarama; it was definitely my favourite day of riding on this section!
The landscape on the way to the pass was predominantly agricultural. We passed a number of cemeteries still decorated from the Day of the Dead celebrations. The locals were incredibly friendly on this day. One farmer invited us to share a kind of sweet pumpkin pudding with him and we were also invited to tour the neighbouring cheese factory. We felt somewhat obliged to buy some cheese, at slightly inflated prices, but it was a good experience.
The views from the pass were amazing, with snowcapped mountains in the distance. We met a friendly German motor biker at the top of the climb and we chatted with him for 20 min or so while we caught our breath, swapping stories and tips.
We thoroughly enjoyed the descent from the pass, especially as the locals in the little towns that we passed through were very excited to see us. We were undecided about whether to stay in Kishuara or Huancarama. We reached Kishuara around 4pm, but we didn’t get a great vibe from the town, so we bought a couple of drinks and then continued on.
The stretch from Kishuara to Huancarama was stunning – lots of mountains, with little Andean villages – and there were lots of opportunities for wild camping. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough water with us to camp … we should have stocked up in Kishuara.
It was all downhill into Huancarama (watch out for dogs on the descent, David nearly had an accident at one point when a dog jumped in front of his bike – thank goodness for disc brakes!). We passed a lovely statue of Jesus, which overlooks the town. The streets in Huancarama were unpaved and at first glance, the town looked a little dodgy. But, the townspeople were very friendly to us and we found a surprisingly nice hotel owned by some Peruvians who had previously lived in Italy, called Hotel Milton. The friendly owner even got out a little ramp so we could wheel our bikes inside the hotel! Unfortunately the shower in our room wasn’t working, but we were able to have a quick, slightly warm shower in a shared bathroom on the roof of the hotel. There was also no wifi at the hotel. 
We had a rather average dinner at a chicken shop a couple of doors down from the hotel – nothing special, chicken and chips for 15 soles each.
KMs travelled: 87km
Day of the dead celebrations Day of the dead celebrations On the road to Huancarama On the road to Huancarama We were invited to try pumpkin pudding here! On the road to Huancarama On the road to Huancarama Views on the road to Huancarama Yeah – we made it to the top of the pass! Yeah – we made it to the top of the pass! Yeah – we made it to the top of the pass! Views on the road to Huancarama On the road to Huancarama Views on the road to Huancarama Views on the road to Huancarama Gorgeous views on the road to Huancarama Shepherdesses herding their flock Andian villages on the road to Huancarama On the road to Huancarama Descending into Huancarama Statue of Jesus overlooking Huancarama
Wednesday 4th November: Huancarama to Abancay
This was a somewhat frustrating and very hot day of cycling to “elusive” Abancay. We cycled for 64kms on this day and we could see Abancay after only 14kms, but it took us another 50kms to actually reach the city.
We cycled for about 13kms out of Huancarama, before we reached the pass and started the long descent. David had his first stack of the tour on this uphill, while crossing a mossy, water covered stretch of road. He was a little cut and bruised, but was able to carry on.
From the top of the pass we could see Abancay in the distance. But instead of the road making a B-line for Abancay, it wound its way around the valley (away from Abancay), down to the river and then switch backed its way back up to Abancay. It seemed completely illogical to us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the downhill section, especially as we passed herds of livestock – the local shepherdesses herd all kinds of animals in this area – not only sheep, but cows and pigs!
It was around lunchtime when we reached the valley floor and it was incredibly hot. Just after crossing the bridge across the river, we pulled into a service station for lunch and some “cool” drinks (as per usual in Peru, the fridge wasn’t working …!).
The final 15kms or so was all uphill to Abancay. We stopped once at a little restaurant to fix a flat tyre on David’s bike and to buy some cold drinks.
We were very happy to reach Abancay in the early afternoon. Abancay is a reasonably big town, with lots of garages and workshops on the outskirts. There were a number of nasty dogs around the garages and I ended up pushing my bike for about 1km until we reached the downtown area.
Accommodation was a bit pricier in Abancay. We got a big room at Hotel Corte Real for 80 soles. The staff were very friendly and helped us with our bags, but the wifi was pretty sketchy. Unfortunately, the hotel was under construction and our bathroom had no running water(!) (although we were able to have a cold shower in the room next door).
Abancay has a number of small supermarkets, so we were able to stock up for our hike to Choquequirao. We had dinner at a nice little burger joint near our hotel (near Plaza Micaela Bastidas on Arenas Avenue).
On the road to Abancay David had his first stack of the tour here A little cut and bruised – but still smiling Jo dodging some obstacles on the way to Abancay Views on Abancay in the distance We passed lots of shepherdesses herding an assortment of livestock! The crazy road to Abancay Agricultural views on the way to Abancay
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