Day 3 Ayacucho to Andehuaylas

At Ayacucho we pick up the bikes at 8:30am to get on the road for Abancay about 300ks of gravel. Wrong! we get onto the outskirts of the city on a rundown dirt/rock track that is the main road out only to find they are upgrading the route to a sealed road and we can't get throght the first bit until 12 Noon. We finally get underway and find that road works are happeng for about the first 20 km. We hammer it during the lunch break and make most of them - some were like your everyday farm track or trail ride.

We go up over 4000m ranges 2 or 3 times some with hail and thunderstorms and wet pampas highlands. winding our way through 250Km of gravel and dirt with a few shortcuts throught the highlands to miss some of the s bends. We just make the town of Andehuaylas about 30 minutes after dark down a steep mountain that is full of roadworks - the road was good though so fairly safe. Thats our 2nd night ride experience, its getting easier although we plan to start as early as possible from now on without bike maintainence and such.

We met a local girl in Andehuaylas who's family owned the local version of KFC - we had beer, fried chicken and chips. The Sams went for a walk with Angela afterwards to look for hoses apparentley.

Next stop Cusco.