Day 2 La Oroya to Ayacucho

Early start and good sealed roads leads to some good k's under our belt. We make Huancayo by 11am we have been following big valleys and rivers with agriculture starting to flourish although it is dry and arid. The temperatures are high and the days are sunny. We have had to shed our thermals and liners - its like an NZ summer. No rain in sight. Little roadside villages pop up along the way - kind 70's like country shops - Naike or Te Akau spring to mind.

Things look good for our destination until we climb over a large arable range (second time over 4000m) and get stopped by the police again. This time its a checkpoint and they want our documents. Sam T shows them his ownership papers and all is fine and we are on our way. We are over the other side of the range and the road cuts down the side of a huge range that we have been on top of. The road loops about 20 times down sheers drop offs, we drop 1000 meters in 5 minutes.

This is where we hit the gravel and dirt roads snaking through some of the most amazing mountain landscape on the planet. We got used to the traffic and how to watch for vehicles and dust as you could see the road snakeing along the river or looping up a mountain for miles. Villages are out here 100's of ks from main roads or other luxuries, houses are made out of a sort of mud/rock brick and streets are often dirt. Sam T has a moment with "truck vs bike" on a gravel  corner with a steep drop off full of cactus, Sam opted for the gravel surface breaking a clutch lever in the middle of nowhere....!!! We managed to get the bike to push start by frigging the wiring and made it to Ayacucho just after dark. Another stroke of lick came along when we spotted a bike shop open who could get us a clutch lever. We also had to get new tyres and he had them in stock so we got this done overnight ready for the morning.