Abra Malaga bike ride downhill all the way to the Sacred Valley.

Today was one of the highlights of my trip. It was a great combination of fun mountain bike riding on continuous down hill runs,  and seeing some of the famous ruins in the Ollantaytambo and Sacred Valley areas.
Abra Malaga is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 3,256m (10,682 ft) above the sea level, located in southern Peru on the Continental Divide of South America.

The road to the pass is extreme. This road is very exciting and sometimes very exposed and unsecured driveway in innumerable twists and turns. It’s asphalted and is called 28B. After the Inca town of Ollantaytambo the asphalted road climbs in numerous hairpin bends, each offering a still more spectacular view of the Sacred Valley. On the eastern side of the summit, the road descends into an area de neblina — a rugged area characterized by mist, puna grasses, and fens.

At 8:30am Phil, a fellow traveller from the USA and I are crammed into a taxi with two guides, four bicycles and gear that is suited to a motor cross competitor.  Phil and I cannot believe they can run this trip for US $60 each, but they are.

We were heading to Abra Malaga, a high pass near Ollantaytambo of 4316 metres above sea level. (Map Courtesy Google) It takes almost 3 hours to get there.
At 4316 metres it is a struggle to walk let alone cycle. I am sort of acclimatized, but a week in Manu national park and significantly lower elevations of Cusco doesn’t  make it easy. We stand briefly for our photo shoot and it’s time to descend.


It is just as well we are rolling down hill. We will descend to around 3000 metres for our first leg of the journey.  What a great ride, mostly single track. Some scary bits, but most of it quite enjoyable.

Phil was uncomfortable as he hadn't ridden for some years and is not used to single track, but for me it was fantastic. Would have liked my Trek dual suspension here, but the bikes provided were very good and I simply stood most of the way to absorb the bumps. There is a road and trail option, so Phil took the road on the more intimidating sections. (Map courtesy Gaia gps)
We ride over pre-Inca ruins. Anywhere else these would be fenced off and a gate charge applied – and mountain biking over them ? Mind you there is probably less damage than walking with the inflated rubber tyres versus heavy tread.

After a couple of hours riding we are hammered and had a much earned lunch at the end and snacks on the way. And, what ? More riding !

We stopped in Ollantaytambo to witness some celebrations in the city square. I am not sure of the reason for celebration, but I think it's something to do with the Spanish invasion, people were wearing grotesque caricatured masks 
 and there was plenty of dancing.


Ollantaytambo, what a nice town. I have passed through now three times and never really stayed. I reckon it would a more pleasant experience to perhaps stay here the first night when landing at Cusco if my intent was not to go the other direction to Cachora. It is smaller, less frenetic and has a a great backdrop of Inca and pre-Inca ruins.

Our next ride was a more open and less technical ride to Maras & Moray, a salt mine. This was pleasant sub one hour ride through a valley surrounded with farms and the Andes on the horizon.

Using the earth. Construction of Mudbricks, makes for a cheap building if you are not paying a lot for labour.

Into the Sacred Valley to see the ancient public amphitheatre at Maras & Moray:

The salt mines are quite interesting:

I was glad to have ridden with these guys, it was effectively a bespoke trip. We spoke to Wilfredo, one of the guides to arrange to fill our last day and was happy to stay at a Quechuan village he was brought up with, looking forward to that.


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