SEPTEMBER 18 - COTARUSE TO ABANCAY

The highlight of the day occurred at 0600 in the morning.  Here's the background:  we stayed in the school soccer field, but the school didn't want any money for it.  So, the tour collected money from the riders, threw in some themselves and bought a bunch of sports equipment for the kids.

The school's principal showed up at 0600 with 30 or so kids.  There were speeches, songs and presentations.  The kids jumped up and down when Britten pulled the gifts out of the bag.  All in all, very fun, and touching.

A funny side note.  At 0430 there was a vehicle with a loudspeaker going through town announcing something.  When I asked Britten later what this was, he said they were announcing our presentation and inviting everybody to the soccer field to participate.  (Julie, did you ever arrange any 0600 presentations?)

Off and biking.  140 km, 1500 A, 2300 D, so a big downhill day after noon.


The firt two pictures are bridges from Greg the engineer. The first, a nice stone bridge just as we left town.  





The second is one of a number of (private?) suspension bridges to provide acess to isolated properites across the river.  I also saw a few West Coast Trail style hand cable cars.


One of the towns we passed through (Casinchihua).  The main streetand the highway are one and the same, so the big rigs going through town fill up thje street.  BTW, many of the transport trucks are North American and can crowd us cyclists on the corners.  Most of the time the drivers attempt to stay clear of us.


Scenery along the rivr with Laura enjoying the downhill portion

We stopped and bought refreshments from this store.  You can tell it's a store, eh?
(Very left side of the picture.  Also, you look inside as you ride by).









A shot of the gorge we cycled through



That's pretty much it for today.