I went to bed last night with an altitude sickness headache and concerns about cycling the ruta de lagunas. I woke with a plan – one that involves a lot of cheating.

Frozen river at Machuca
My struggle with climbing to 4000m with a fully loaded bike, coupled with a reread of the cycling blogs of people who have cycled the ruta de lagunas made me realise that the whole route I was planning was going to take longer than the 7 days I had read. After chatting with my friend Ty Domin, I think that taking a jeep to the half way point will do the trick.

Llamas at Machuca
Back in civilisation, it was time to feed up. From tomorrow it’s going to be tough.

Family sized pizza
Nice pizza!
I think Spinningsouth took this route. I thought about it, but have decided against including this one.
It’s a nice little trip from San Pedro.
Sounds sensible. How many families was that pizza meant to feed?????
It was meant to feed me!