I slept in the warehouse of the lady who runs the restaurant. The cat of the house loved my sleeping bag, and in the middle of the night I woke up feeling it purring next to me. I left early as usual, being prepared for a long ride. The visibility was fine, but as menacing clouds were coming from behind I prayed that the weather be good and there would be no rain on the difficult climb. As I had to pass 4,100 meters I did everything in order to diminish the altitude sickness: I took an aspirin early in the morning, was hydrating myself plenty and was chewing coca leaves continuously. Around 3,700 meters I started feeling the altitude, becoming short of breath and a bit dizzy, but the coca leaves helped a lot and the symptoms were rather light. At midday the weather was looking very bad – black clouds were approaching fast from behind. In the same moment I arrived at a place where a couple of houses were, where I met a couple on bicycles on the way to Argentina. They were just loading their bicycles on a truck heading to Puquio. I told them “there is not so much left to reach the peak, I go on”. I regretted it the very second the truck left, as I looked one more time behind. I pushed the pedal to the floor, and happily in less than fifteen minutes I reached the entrance of the Pampa Galeras reserve, where there was a restaurant. I stayed there until 12:30 to eat and check how the weather develops. The clouds seemed not to move so I started the last ten kilometres to the top. It was pure misery: this short leg took me two hours being on and off the bike and struggling for every stroke of pedals. The descent was long, cold and with poor visibility. Everything ended after ten hours and a half with a five-kilometre climb to Lucanas.

This is how I prepare the day
Day5_1_Prep
And this is what was looming behind the whole time
Day5_2_what lies behind
A llama in the Pampa Galeras reserve
Day5_3_Llama
The high pampa
Day5_4_Pampa
At 4,164 meters, highest point until now
Day5_5_4164m
An exhausted selfie
Day5_6_On the top