After an amazing sleep in our beautiful little B&B, we both woke up with no idea what today would bring. The only idea was to 'explore'.
When I took off my sleep mask, Shannon was already on the internet ... she looks at me and says "What do you think about going Mountain Biking?"
Turns out, this was going to be the most epic and exciting day to date. The pictures won't do any of it justice, but this day was superb and will rank as one of my most favorite days. So after a really nice breakfast by our hosts, we walked down the beautiful stairwell from our room and walked to the square where the tiny little room in the back of an obscure building apparently held the office of hte guide we wanted to talk to.
Turned out, (thank you rainy season), he was free today and would be ready in an hour to take us up the mountain. So while we waited, we enjoyed a coffee and the view.
I took a picture from our 'washroom' as our guides (and support car) set everything up to go.
Turns out Shannon took a picture of me in the washroom too ... just an old ruin ...
Within the first few minutes, Shannon got a flat. It was promptly taken care of by our guide ....
It took about an hour to get to the top of the mountain ... and as we cruised down the mountain, we came upon these women who were working. Apparently they are prepping this building to be a store.
We then stopped at a little village where 2 women were weaving and when we stopped, the 2 little guys jumped to action, laying out all their grandmas wares for us to check out ... man, they were cute.
I bought this wallet from her ....
Then they gave us a potato to eat ....
I wish we had stood up straight to show the discrepancy we enjoyed through this whole trip!
Our guide made us take this picture ....
The guides 9 year old son was a crazy biker! He was ripping up those trails - he was a great leader ... while his dad kept me company in the back ..... Please note the background...Inca gardens are amazing ... can't build on a mountain side, so they build retaining walls for the flat land ...and that middle line are the stairs all the way up to the top of the mountain! And if you look to the right, they still work the land today.
We actually did quite a bit of single track riding, which I found quite difficult because I don't ride too often ... so I walked much of the beginning part of the day in parts that felt too scary .... but by the end of the day, I felt much more confident starting doing more challenging parts of the trail because I got to know my bike a bit better .... we did parts of the Inca trail today ....
Shannon did amazing ...
Even though I did walk quite a bit at the beginning, I was still in awe that I was doing this today!
Once we finished, we biked back to the main square, said our goodbyes and headed for a late lunch! Soup and Guacamole and chips!
Best Day!!! We mountain biked in the Andes Mountains!!!!!
