We had spent pretty well the whole day cycling uphill, on a road, that when flicking thru a 2002 guidebook in Chavin 2 days previously, was said to be paved, but it most certainly wasn’t and never had been. We had decided to camp at the top of the pass at 4400m as after three nights in hostel rooms we were missing the simple life in the tent.
There had been only one car pass all afternoon and on reaching the pass we left the road to look for a campsite. The views were great, with the now distant Cordillera Blanca snowy summits just peaking over the rocky foreground.
A 4WD stopped and a man jumped out saying “Tore, tore, peligroso…(bull, bull, dangerous, don’t stay here, go down to the next town..)” We refocused and saw the solo bull eyeing us up from not far away, remembered the large bull fighting ring in the previous town and the very red coloured tent that we owned (that when we bought had deliberated for days on it’s colour..red..green…red…green…red) and decided to listen to local advice and distance ourselves from Mr Bull.
We camped at the next lake down instead and welcomed the dark when our tent would no longer appear red. Not sure Hilleberg tents, good as they are, would stand up to a bull fight…
It was a very frosty night, but we had early sun for our 1300m rough descent to a late omelette breakfast in San Luis and more roughness to our low, hot point of the day 2000m lower than where we woke up that day. Peru never fails to impress on it’s sheer verticality and in this region it’s fair share of bad roads. Of course every down is quickly followed by an up, and it was a few hours up to our quarry camp above the road.
Next day & many roadside pigs later, we reached Pomabamba, our goal for this stretch. We were filthy, we needed a rest day and it was Sunday after all.
Chavin – Huari – San Luis – Llumpa – Piscobamba – Pomabamba
