Juliaca to Cusco - Cycling the Altiplano together with a South Korean couple

Once we were all ready to leave Juliaca, Geovanni and his brother accompanied us to the outskirts of Juliaca, to make sure that we didn't get lost.

Stefan, Geovanni, me, Jihuyn, and Sungjong
in front of Geovannis house just before leaving Juliaca

From there the four of us continued on our own and it was really great to ride together with Sungjong and Jihyun. We took lots of breaks, enjoyed the landscape together and talked and talked and talked.

Beautiful landscape on the way to Ayaviri

Stefan just never looks tired...

After a lunch break in front of a small store in the middle of nowhere we tackled the second half of the days stage and short before dark we made it to Ayaviri, a pretty big, but very non-touristic city where we stayed at the first hotel we found. 

I slowly start to appreciate the arid altiplano landscape as well -
but just as long as there is some water around... ;-)

Clear sky, lots of sun, and luckily the wind can't be captured in a picture...

The light up in the altiplano turns unique before each sunset!

The next morning we went to look for something eatable in the city center. It was really funny, was our Korean friends use to eat something completely different for breakfast than we do. While we always looked for some kind of bread, they prefer a good soup with rice and meat in it... And find soup for breakfast seems to be a lot easier around here than finding bread. However, after a while we found a woman on the street where we could get some cheese and egg sandwiches and some jugo de maca, a hot juice made of maca, a strange Peruvian fruit. After leaving Ayaviri we had a long stretch of flat road in front of us, until we reached Santa Rosa where we had lunch and enjoyed the festivities due to the local schools anniversary.

The festivities for the local schools anniversary in Santa Rosa

Leaving Santa Rosa behind us, the road continued to be pretty flat, and for once I longed for it to start climbing, as we knew that eventually we'd have to climb to the Abra la Raya, a mountain pass between Santa Rosa and Aguas Calientes, our destination for the day. But it turned out that the climbed never got very steep and soon we found ourselves at the highest point, and as for once there was even a sign indicating the altitude, we had to take some pictures before continuing on the downhill...

One more pass climbed...

Soon the sun vanished and it got freezing cold, but it wasn't far anymore to Aguas Calientes, a place that basically consists of some hot springs and some little stores. We stayed at the hot springs, had dinner there and then, in the dark, took a bath in the nice and hot water :-) Unfortunately the showers weren't hot at all, so after warming up in the hot water of the springs, we took an ice-cold shower and then soon headed back to our room to warm up in our sleeping bags...
The only thing they offered us the next morning in the restaurant was trout with rice and french fries or some meat, but we didn't really feel like eating any of it. So we just drank a tea and bought some boiled corn and fried cheese from one of the ladies outside the springs and it turned out to be an exotic but very tasty breakfast! Then we continued the downhill towards Sicuani, the next bigger city. On our way we could observe how the vegetation slowly changed: There was more and more green, trees everywhere, rivers coming down from the hills, lots of agriculture; all in all, I liked the landscape more and more! Once in Sicuani we found an ATM to get some money (a scarce thing in non-touristic places...) and had a very good lunch at a local restaurant.

Oh yeah - Riding a bike in this weather can be a lot of fun!!

From Sicuani it wasn't far to Combapata anymore, where we decided to stay for the night. It was nice to once arrive at plain day, so we could enjoy the sun for a while before heading for dinner and spending the rest of the evening talking. The other morning we went to the same restaurant where we had dinner the night before, and they were really kind, preparing just what we asked for: Sungjong and Jihyun got chicken soup and Stefan and I got some egg sandwiches :-) From Combapata to Urcos the road follow a river, just that it didn't follow it directly, but we had to climb lots of hills in between. But still it was a nice road and after a night in Urcos we started our last day before reaching Cusco! We passed a nice lagoon just after Urcos and then continued towards Cusco. 

The lagoon we passed just after leaving Urcos

Soon we reached Tipon, where we were told that they had good "cuy" (guinea pig). We really wanted to try it; and even though it was pretty expensive, we decided to share one among the four of us. While waiting for the cuy to be cooked, we had the luck to witness the festivities for the Virgen del Carmen: While some older men played traditional music, the girls in their traditional cloths performed their dances in the patio of the restaurant...

Festivities for the Virgen del Carmen in Tipon

Traditional dance in honor of the Virgen del Carmen

And then we got it, our cuy... It doesn't taste bad, but it's also not the best thing we've eaten; the skin is very leathery and there's really not a lot of meat on it...

We just had to try "Cuy" (guinea pig) once!

It's not just for the picture, I really tried the head and it was tasty!

After leaving Tipon, we soon reached the outskirts of Cusco, but it was still quite a bit until we got to the city center, especially as it was all uphill... There we stayed at a hostel known among cyclists, enjoyed the hot shower and explored the city center for a while before booking a 3-days-tour to Machu Picchu... The next day we spent mostly in the hostel, just relaxing, enjoying to do nothing for once and in the evening we went out for pizza (and afterwards to a cheap restaurant as we weren't full yet after the pizza... :p)

In Cusco we once had to eat something else but meat, rice,
and potatoes again, so pizza seemed a good option...