a self-supported bicycle tour through South America

29^th - 31^st August : Lazy Dog Inn

After two nights of being Lazy Dogs, we find ourselves enjoying the food and a mint tea (yes, the tummy bug has reared its ugly head again) back at Cafe Andino in Huaraz for the 9 hour wait until our coach leaves for Lima. Our time at the Inn was lovely and relaxing. We did very little apart from update the website, eat, and enjoy the scenery at 3,900 meters. The Inn was an eco lodge, which meant home grown organic veggies, pit style loos and communal dining. The Mountain Goat isn’t too keen on doing things in groups. He is a solitary beast who likes his own space. Nevertheless, he had an audience in our fellow Lazy Dogs over dinner and breakfast, and to my surprise I wasn’t even able to get a word in!

It was nice meeting other travellers and hearing their stories, but to be honest we had so much to do with the website and photos that these conversations were a bit of an unwelcome distraction. As the Inn was fully booked for our first night there, we pitched the tent in the grounds and so enjoyed the lounge and open fire with everyone else…including the three lazy dogs; Otis, Max, and Freddie (this wasn’t his name but he looked like the Freddie that Simon had as a child) so we renamed him.

The food was prepared for each meal by ladies from the local village. Not only were they dressed in our favourite traditional costume of bowler hat, brightly coloured woollen skirts and leg warmers, but there was also a baby or two slung by a hand woven shawl to their backs as they worked. The food they produced was sensational and the banana cake…omigoodness…to die for!

As we headed off to bed on the first night, our host Diana (a Canadian lady who has lived in Peru for the last 18 years) mentioned that her horses were let out to roam during the night on the property and if we were to hear their hoofs to not worry. The Mountain Goat envisaged one of them getting caught up in the guy ropes and galloping off down the paddock with the tent and us in it dragging behind! Needless to say we had a poor nights’ sleep what with the itchy mosquito bites.

So, the next stop is Lima. We have quite a bit of admin to do in Lima including sourcing boxes for the bikes for the flight to Cusco, buying an Idiots Guide to Learning Spanish, finding a bike shop that can fix Simon’s swivelling seat post, visiting the British Embassy to sort out our visa issue, and most importantly get a long overdue leg wax!

Visa issue I hear you say? Have we not mentioned this before? Probably not as we have been trying not to think about it ourselves, but the crux of it is this: when we cycled over the border in Huaquillas we weren’t stopped and there was no gate or guard post as one would imagine a border crossing to have, so we thought the crossing must have been further ahead. We did notice bus loads of people lining up for something but didn’t think that this would be to have their passports stamped. We also had a tail wind and another 70km to do that day, so we kept cycling. We now find ourselves in a bit of a predicament. We don’t have anything in our passport to say how long we have been in Peru and are now worried that when we get to the Bolivian border that they either won’t let us out, or will send us home! We are therefore hoping that the British Embassy in Lima will be able to assist us. We shall keep you posted on that one.

We are both feeling very lethargic after a poor nights’ sleep and with food in our tummies. This will hopefully mean that we will sleep on the coach tonight. As I sign off, the Mountain Goat studies his Spanish and contemplates volunteer work in a Chilean kite surfing school. Until Lima, it is adios! [Jen]