Mountain Biking Through the Andes

“Hey, let’s wake up at 5:30 am on a Saturday, pack backpacks and then ride borrowed bicycles straight up hill for a good two hours!!”

This was just a third of the gang

At the time, it seemed like a good idea and I was beyond excited (just ask my poor roommates who should have started pinching me everytime I said, “AHHH I’m so excited for our bike ride!”)

So on Friday night we scanned our entire town for friends willing to let us borrow their bicycles. We would ask them, they would say yes AND THEN we’d all decide that it’d be more fun if they came along with us…so then they had to borrow other bicycles for themselves. Many of the bikes we borrowed were broken, so it was an adventure going to get them all fixed.

Saturday morning came, we were up by 5:30 and left at about 6:30. We thought that Miguel might have been exaggerating when he told us that it was a steep uphill climb  THE ENTIRE TIME….but he wasn’t! 

Check out that sign!

  I borrowed Herman’s bike and let me tell you, that bike was heaven sent. I don’t know what he did to make it so amazing, but I was super lucky to have such an awesome bike. I felt bad because he came with us too, but used somebody else’s bike that probably wasn’t as good…in fact it broke on the way down.

So up we climbed. And up and up and up. Legs burning, lungs heaving, smiles shining… the whole two hours. Oh it was beautiful and oh so fun! I’ve never been much of a biker, but I just might have to take it up now because let me tell you… I had a blast. Ricardo was up in the lead and I was a close second the entire time and pushed it out in the end to become the first person to make it to our destination, wahoo!

We met up with Herman and Hermano Ignacio at the lake and that’s when I caught my first fish! It was a teeny, tiny carp, but I was proud! We had an awesome lunch of sandwiches, Peruvian popcorn, and carrot sticks. The Peruvians thought that the way we eat carrots in nice, neat, pealed carrot sticks was so funny! 

Next was some Peruvian futbol.
I love watching our friends play futbol because they are awesome! There is nothing better than a little fancy Peruvian footwork….except for maybe when you hear them yell about how they are afraid to steal the ball from Brittany because she is so tall…. Or maybe hearing Liz shout to everyone in Spanish about how if they try to steal the ball from her, she’s going to kick them! Or “Kick them in the shins Abby!” It was awesome.

Finally it was time to venture home. The part that I was dreading the most. Not only because it meant we had to leave, but that we also had to go back down an extremely steep mountain full of sharp curves and a plethora of deadly possibilities. I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to that kind of thing. Figuring that I would be taking my sweet time down the mountain, Liz and I headed down ahead of the gang. Much to my disappointment I found that my back breaks didn’t work and that my back tire was flat. WHAT THE!?!?

Lucky for me, Ricardo was awesome enough to trade bikes with me and I got to ride his cousin’s super nice one down the hill, all the while taking my sweet time and enjoying my beautiful surroundings. Oh it was gorgeous! And just down hill for forever! They say that it takes about 2 hours to bike up to the lake but it’s only a twenty minute ride home. Which was pretty accurate.
 

Of the 11 people that went with us, we had absolutely 0 injuries (I’m pretty sure I was praying the entire trip down the mountain, I was so scared that one of us was going to die!!!) Although we did have 3 bike casualties. Mine, Abby’s and Herman’s all faced some difficulties, but we took care of that no problem!

We finally got home at around 4:30 PM and  although we were exhausted and our tooshies felt like they’d never be the same after biking on them for so long, I was sad when it was over. It was definitely in my top 3 favorite days spent in Peru. The sights were amazing, the people (all from our humble little ward) were so much fun and so kind, and the exercise and fresh air was good for my soul. Ahhh I’m sitting here smiling so big as I am remembering all of this, it was that good.

We came home, went shopping for some dinner food and then Liz treated us to an AMAZING Finnish dinner of Makaronilaatikke. I’m going to write the recipe down here so I don’t lose it…it was that good: l 2 cups cooked macaroni, ¾ cup grated cheese, 1 lb ground beef, 2 cups milk, 3 eggs, ¼ tsp nutmeg salt and pepper.

Mmmm mmmm good!