Day 28 Bushcamp to Huanuco

The rain the evening before and the spitting rain at breakfast did nothing to increase my enthusiasm for the day ahead, even though we had learned last night that the planned 110K of un-paved route was in fact now paved!  The Peruvian road workers had in the last 2 years since Bike Dreams were last here tarmaced the whole twisty route between Quivilla and Huanuco, maybe not very thickly but it was at least smooth.  Whether it will be in as good a condition in two years time remains to be seen, but for us it meant an easier ride than we had expected.
Anyway, packing away our wet tents we got ready to start another day of climbing.  We have in fact changed sides of The Andes since yesterday, in other words rivers on this side will eventually empty into the Atlantic not the Pacific.
It wasn't long before we started to climb, up and down at first, slowly gaining altitude.  On the way up at Chavinillo we came across an impromptu dance in the road, on a Thursday morning?  We joined in before the traffic holdup put an end to it, bizarre!  The lunch truck was to be at the top of the day's climb at about 50K.  It took 4 hours to reach 50K which considering how I felt was not too bad, and also the fact that the summit was at 3990 metres.  Shortly after the summit, which was clouded in mist, I saw Didier driving towards me through the mist, on a mission to see if anyone needed help as the conditions were worsening, luckily all were okay.  The lunch stop had got hot drinks today!  Didier and Filip had asked some locals where they could park the truck and if anyone could supply some hot water, this was something they jumped at with relish!  What the hell were these stupid gringos doing on their bikes in weather like this in their village?  We all asked ourselves the same question!  Anyway during some hard rain we sheltered in the "local shop" and ate our food with hot drinks while the perplexed locals looked on!!
Eventually we started the remaining 53K drop down towards Huanuco, what a ride that turned out to be, almost completely downhill, just about 200 metres which actually went back up a little, no armco barriers and drops that could have been 1 to 1000 metres from the side of the road!!  It was wet  and misty to start with but as we continued dropping it got warmer and drier.  The total altitude lost was as near as makes no difference 2000 metres taking us down to about 1800 metres in Huanuco.  The downhill took about 1Hr 45Mins to do because there were so many twists, turns and hairpins that speeds of just over 50kph were as good as you could expect, but it was great fun and made the end to my day really enjoyable.
Drying our tents out in the hotel car park whilst having our soup was only marred by one thing - sabre toothed sand flies eating away at my legs, which now have about 20 bites each below the knees, ouch!

Impromptu dance at Chavinillo!