Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Risking Life and Limb - Chachani

I don't ride bikes very often. The last time I seriously rode a bike was about 5 years ago, in Around The Bay In A Day. The time before that, I was probably 14. So when the chance to mountain bike down a 5000m mountain arose... I jumped at it. :)

And this week we had a special visitor - Lynette (Lizelle's sister). Lynette is currently volunteering in Cuzco, the tourist capital of Peru and the stepping stone to Machu Picchu. Having survived the Inca Trail last week, Lynette wanted to visit us and check out Arequipa this weekend. Here is her travel blog:

We boarded a small bus for Chachani at 8am, along with a bunch of other volunteers. The trip was long and windy, but it was no match for my altitude pills! Eventually we reached our starting point, and the bikes were unloaded. Unlike our earlier horseriding effort, safety was heavily emphasized here, and after putting on our elbow and knee pads we probably looked like Michael Jackson in his "Bad" days (insert high pitch sound here).

That is Misty in the background:
Lizelle and I started slow, getting a feel for the rough terrain and making sure not to explore any of the sheer drops beside us. Despite my insistence that Lizelle and I ride together, eventually I was convinced to catch up with some of the others.

This is when I discovered the true danger of mountain bike riding. You seriously have to ignore the fact that there are big rocks in your path, and accept that no matter how much your bike bounces in weird angles and directions, chances are that your body's reflex reactions will keep you upright. I must confess to feeling completely out of control more than a few times, and had to pull back in the interests of extending my lifespan. :)


Despite the dangers, it was heaps of fun. After lunch in particular, we rode down a steep dirt path. Thankfully the terrain was quite soft, because our acceleration was swift and mounds of soft dirt rendered our bikes impossible to steer. I say "our bikes", but I do remember seeing all the other bikes waiting at the bottom while I repeatedly stacked my way to the bottom of the hill. Look at how dirty I got:


The next stretch was all bitumen roads. We rode at high speeds, and quickly reached our meeting point. But the final stretch was the most thrilling, and also the most scary. There were vicious dogs all around the area, and only strong riders were permitted to ride. The plan was for us to ride next to the bus, using it as a shield as the dogs attacked. And so we rode. The hill was steep, and we quickly found ourselves riding at very high speeds. We took formation next to the bus, and as we approached the dogs sprinted towards us. All went well, and we safely passed.

But that wasn't the scary part! That occurred afterwards. With the threat gone, I eased my breaks to retreat to a more modest speed. No response! My rear brakes had failed, and I was hooning down a hill next to cars at ~40-50kms/h. I couldn't pull hard on my front brakes, or I would have flown over the handlebars. So I eased the front brakes, all the time thinking what would happen if they failed too (they had already failed earlier in the day, but had been repaired). In the case of that happening, I decided that my plan was to ride past a street sign and hug it on the way past! Not sure if that was a good plan, but that was my plan. :)

Ultimately, I didn't need my plan. I took a few speed bumps faster than I wanted to, but no harm done. We pulled into our final meeting point, and I breathed a sigh of relief.


That night, we went out to dinner with all the volunteers. There have been heaps of new arrivals recently, so we had quite the group. Afterwards, we went to a pub. I was tired, but the prospect of doing karaoke kept me going. Around 10:30pm, we headed for Dadeo's, a local karaoke bar. Debra and I share a passion for karaoke, and she sang an impressive rendition of Footloose (with questionable backing video).


Then it was my turn. But first, I must explain that in Peru and most of South America, karaoke is done from your seat. So when I stepped onto the stage, murmurs were already starting. And when I started using the entire room as my stage, the novelty had drawn in lots of vocal supporters, and the result was a really fun rendition of "It's My Life".


I was rewarded with 4 drinks from the establishment, none of which I drank myself. It brought me back to the good old days of Charletons, where Matty J would buy me a bottle of water then I'd perform Lose Yourself and more often than not get a drink card that MJ would use for his drinks.
All in all, a fun day!

Chris

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