Downhill mountain biking

We won a raffle at a pub quiz whilst we were doing our volunteer work and the prize was to have one free day with the adventure agency, Galaxia Expeditions. We visited their office and decided we would do a free day of downhill mountain biking.

We arrived at 9am and slowly but surely were decked out with elbow and knee pads and a helmet each. Next our bikes were loaded into the back and onto the roof of a taxi and Andrew, myself and the guide heading off into the hills. As we left town we crossed the river and could see all the local women washing their clothes in it and lying them out on the rocks to dry. We drove for about one hour slowly ascending the Cordillera Negra mountain range. As we climbed higher and higher beautiful views of the snow capped Cordillera Blanca mountain range opened up in front of us, the scenery was stunning. The guide had asked us how much biking experience we had and I clearly told him I was experienced on roads, was ok on unsealed tracks but had never really done any single track stuff (whereas Andrew had done a little). I think maybe he mistook my explanation or was led to believe I had done more because I was wearing the tshirt I got for completing death road in Bolivia because instead of stopping at the normal starting point and getting used to the bikes on some downhill bitumen, he asked the taxi to continue up a dirt track. We got out, he assembled the bikes and then pointed to the field in front of us. We were going to make our own trail across the field back to the normal starting point. I thought it was a bit of a baptism of fire but I was up to the challenge so off we went.

It started well as I followed the track that the guide made across the field, but as we progressed it became more and more challenging. The field had big holes from where they had tried to plant trees, there were large rocks dotted around the place and big clumps of solid spikey grass. The guide had put my seat low so it was easier for me to put my feet down to balance myself but this meant my pedals kept hitting rocks and bushes even when they were in a horizontal position. Andrew had the opposite problem - his bike was so big that he could barely touch the ground on tiptoes and when he did the crossbar was in a very uncomfortable position! The inevitable happened, we were traversing across a slope, my bike basically came to a stop as the front wheel went down a hole, I tried to put my feet down but because of the downhill slope on my right side my foot couldn't reach it and I started to tip sideways. I couldn't stop the momentum as I fell off and slammed into a pile of rocks and rolled down the slope a little. I wasn't too hurt but I think the impact had shocked me and taken the wind out of me. Once I'd recovered the guide realised that maybe it was a bit advanced.

We made a shortcut across the field and back to the bitumen. This was when I really started to enjoy the ride - as we glided down the bitumen for 15mins it was so easy we could properly take in the view in front of us, a beautiful snow covered mountain range. We started offroading again but first on wider unsealed roads and then on more challenging narrow sections. We both managed most of these apart from one or two where I didn't have the confidence or Andrew couldn't touch the ground. He had a close call on one very narrow section with a steep drop on one side. As he pressed the brakes his back wheel skidded out to the side and was basically hanging off the edge. He just managed to keep his balance and pull the bike back into place, turning around and giving me a slightly nervous cheeky smile. Close one Lance.

As we descended the beautiful scenery vanished behind the foothills and we could see the whole of the city of Huaraz open in front of us. We stopped in a field to eat our packed lunch and then it was the homestretch down to the city. The path was very rocky and as we got closer to town we encountered more adults and schoolchildren using it to make their way back to their villages in the foothills. As we approached civilisation we also started to attract more dogs. Most of these would follow us for a bit on the bikes, bark a lot and then once we were out of their territory leave us alone. I was behind Andrew and the guide and I saw a dog run out to bark at them, as I entered its territory another dog came out and the two of them followed me and then to my shock one of them bit my ankle! I was so surprised - they're normally all bark and no bite but this one had definitely nipped me. Thankfully I was wearing thick walking socks and my walking trainers so it didn't break the skin (no rabies jab necessary yay!)

We had a small amount of uphill in the town centre to return to the Galaxia office. By the time we got there we were hot, sweaty, a bit sore, I had fallen off and been attacked by a mongrel but we'd done it and it was good.

We had a couple of errands to run for the remainder of the day, popping to the market to get some last minute sewing done (a couple of sols to change my dress into a long skirt - bargain) and later that night we had our final Spanish lesson with our teacher Jessica. We'd really enjoyed our lessons with her and the practise had definitely given us more confidence. We gave her a box of chocolates to say thank you - at this point she tried to find books to give us as a gift, it is the custom here that if you are given one you should give one back but we told her not to worry! We swapped email addresses, added each other on Facebook and said our goodbyes.