Day 9: Punto Olimpico
Again we got up early to enjoy a delicious buffet breakfast on the rooftop of our hostel. The view was stunning.
This day we decided just to visit a place called "Punto Olimpico" kind of near to Huaraz and come back in the evening to sleep again in the same hostel. That means, we could finally go without lots of luggage on the bikes.
The night before we asked in some travel agencies which places are worth a visit and how the street conditions are. We were told that the streets to Punto Olimpico are perfect.
Well at least they started beautiful. But suddenly there was just on small, not even gravel street. It was just dust, dirt and stones and after around 30 minutes I wanted to give up. I said, I'm not going all the remaining three hours on a street like this. My two friends said, they believe it's going to be better soon and thanks to our radio walkie-talkies we decided that they go a few kilometers to check out the streets and tell me about the conditions.
As you can see, this moment I was already full of dust. But fortunately after not even one kilometer the street went back to normal and we rode up those streets with full pleasure!
When we arrived at the glaciers, we knew it was totally worth it!
The streets continued to be good and there were so many hairpin bends, it was like improving our motorcycling skills on a race track.
When we arrived to this tunnel, we realized how many meters we already climbed and we couldn't resist to try to climb the missing 250 meters without the bikes to reach the 5000m limit.
And cause this tunnel was the highest point of the good street, we left this street and went up like 50 meters on the old street, until we couldn't ride there anymore because of the conditions. So we left the bikes there.
At 4930 meters over sea level I was completely out of breath, energy and also water. Also to reach the 5000 meters, we'd have to do real climbing and with my amount of experience and with the moto gear I decided to stay there. Mathias also gave up, or at least he stayed there with me to enjoy a good view.
Stephan couldn't resist to reach the top and started to climb this steep mountain. But even he, as an experienced climber, had a very, very hard time. Anyway, as you can see on the next photo, he made it!
After about one hour of relaxing and taking some photos we went back down to Huaraz.
In the evening we got our well-deserved dinner with a delicious local beer. Good night!
In case you want to see some videos, have a look here.
This day we decided just to visit a place called "Punto Olimpico" kind of near to Huaraz and come back in the evening to sleep again in the same hostel. That means, we could finally go without lots of luggage on the bikes.
The night before we asked in some travel agencies which places are worth a visit and how the street conditions are. We were told that the streets to Punto Olimpico are perfect.
Well at least they started beautiful. But suddenly there was just on small, not even gravel street. It was just dust, dirt and stones and after around 30 minutes I wanted to give up. I said, I'm not going all the remaining three hours on a street like this. My two friends said, they believe it's going to be better soon and thanks to our radio walkie-talkies we decided that they go a few kilometers to check out the streets and tell me about the conditions.
As you can see, this moment I was already full of dust. But fortunately after not even one kilometer the street went back to normal and we rode up those streets with full pleasure!
When we arrived at the glaciers, we knew it was totally worth it!
The streets continued to be good and there were so many hairpin bends, it was like improving our motorcycling skills on a race track.
When we arrived to this tunnel, we realized how many meters we already climbed and we couldn't resist to try to climb the missing 250 meters without the bikes to reach the 5000m limit.
And cause this tunnel was the highest point of the good street, we left this street and went up like 50 meters on the old street, until we couldn't ride there anymore because of the conditions. So we left the bikes there.
So now it sounds like nothing when I tell you, that just 200 height meters have been left to climb up. But there were three facts that didn't make it easier: 1. there was no streets nor ways to go up, which means we had to "climb" the rocks. 2. We were with our motorcycling trousers and shoes. 3. Have you ever done physical activity on almost 5000 meters over sea level? If you have, you know it's not easy and every 10 meters feel like a marathon. Well, especially if you aren't the sportiest guy like me. If you don't know how it is up there, give it a try.
At 4930 meters over sea level I was completely out of breath, energy and also water. Also to reach the 5000 meters, we'd have to do real climbing and with my amount of experience and with the moto gear I decided to stay there. Mathias also gave up, or at least he stayed there with me to enjoy a good view.
Stephan couldn't resist to reach the top and started to climb this steep mountain. But even he, as an experienced climber, had a very, very hard time. Anyway, as you can see on the next photo, he made it!
So we went back down to cross the tunnel and see some lakes on the other side of the mountain. The tunnel itself was a great experience. It was completely dark, no lights. And every few meters another fountain of water came down from the roof. Still, we arrived on the other side and decided to try these coco leaves, that we bought the night before. We hoped that they give us the energy we needed doing these exercise on this elevation. Unfortunately the leaves are not delicious, and for my taste even inedible.
Nevertheless, the energy we needed wasn't that much on this side of the mountain. What we needed was our senses. The view was just incredibly stunning. Just check these photos and enjoy the impressions!
In the evening we got our well-deserved dinner with a delicious local beer. Good night!
In case you want to see some videos, have a look here.
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