Mountain Biking
We were picked up from our hostel at 8:30 AM by our guides Luis and Henry for the start of our Pie-Peru trip. We drove for several hours on insane roads up to a pass over 15,000 feet above sea level. On the far side of the pass we broke out the bikes and started our 25 mile decent. We would plunge almost 8,000 feet down twisting turning roads, first paved and then dirt. Splashing across streams and dodging buses and trucks it was a jaw dropping excursion.
We stopped for lunch on the side of the road and got to know our guides and the fellow couple sharing our trip. Our guides were young and enthusiastic graduates of Peru's Hospitality and Tourism program at the university in Cusco. Luis had even spent a semester abroad at a ski area in Virgina practicing his English. Our fellow adventurers were a Dutch couple on a 6 month trip through South America. Eveline had just finished med school and Jilles was working as a freelance web designer.
After lunch we continued on riding experiencing some minor technical difficulty when Adrial broke his seat. This required a 30 minute stop while Henry and Luis worked on fixing it. Not long after that we stopped for a break and Jammie noticed that Adrial's left peddle had fallen off his bike. This problem was not fixable and Luis had to ride in the van for the last hour of the day's ride.
That night we stayed in a brand new hostel and feasted on a four course meal at a local restaurant. That is part of the beauty of these trips; every night you can sleep in a bed, take a hot shower and eat a delicious meal. Talking to other groups we found out that we had payed more that some others, but we also had all of our accommodation and meals included. Not only were our meals included, but paying attention to groups from other companies it became clear that our food and accommodations were consistently better.