​Conquering The World
​​​by Tomas Cironis
Chachani 2015
This trip should be described much more like a "adventure one" than our usual "explorer ones". On Sunday 23rd of August, we - means My Awesomeness, mexican buddy Edmundo, his fellow native Isis and two brasilian girls Julia and Fernanda, decided to take mountain biking trip to one of the Arequipa's volcanoes, Chachani.
Chachani is the highest of the mountains around so could be big adventure. We had a meeting in front of agency near Plaza de Armas at 8am in the morning. It wouldn't be Peru if noone was late, this time it was Isis, nearly 15 mins. Then we picked up two more guys, man from Switzerland and girl from Germany (like we couldn't have a trip without any german girl for once....)
Swiss guy was one of the last ones who went to Cotopaxi, volcano in Ecuador. It errupted few days ago and according to the news it was massive explosion, canceling many airplane flights around Ecuador. Looks like we're not going to the north of Peru this time.
After our departure from AQP, we stopped to buy additional water and got
to the 2 and half hour long travel to Chachani. As our guide said, we aren't going to the top (it's covered by snow at the moment), we started at 4 800 meters above the sea "only". According to Wikipedia, Chachani is 6 000 meters high so we were more than 1 100 meters still from the top of volcanoe.
When we got to the top it was quite windy and cold eventhough it was something around 10:30 am. Everybody chose their bicycle and picked up protectors for knees and elbows. I don't have to mention that all the pieces were too small for me...
But still better than Isis who few minutes after initiating of biking trip realised that her back brake is broken. I tried to fix it but it didn't make anyone feel secure, especially Isis. And guide didn't care at all eventhough we told him many times. But that's part of the adventure, right ?
Swiss guy and german girl got quickly in a lead, they left us
and went on their own speed. We were slow, especially because of Isis who was scared. Edmundo and Julia enjoyed the biking and even Fer was so fast, which suprised me in a good way.
During the way down there was sand road so me and Edmundo we were beating each other with for a best drift in curves. And I believe Edmundo won because he has no "sense of selfsecure". He doesn't care how fast he goes even in the dangerous roads. But sometimes he felt down in so terrible way that we thought he had to hurt himself. But no, nothing. He just gets up, sit on the bike and continue way down.
When we got somewhere near the middle of our biking trip we lost Isis. She was getting slower and slower for last half an hour but then we couldn't find her. She told us that we don't have to wait for her, but you know... we don't leave our people behind.
She showed up after maybe more than 15 mins of waiting and from the first moment I was usre there is something wrong. She was slow and almost crying. Even nowadays I don't know what exactly happened but from what me and Edmundo were bale to understand she got bitten by one of the big inspects. And there were really big ones! Four or five centimeters long something like fly. Edmundo has a picture of one of those, I have to ask him for it to show you.
Back to Isis. She got bitten and I believe she had an allergic reaction or something like that because she couldn't breathe and was shaking and crying. No time for heroes, we took her down from her bike and put her inside the car. Edmundo went there with her and was able to calm her down otherwise I have no idea what we'd do. We were 2 hours from the nearest doctor and signs of civilisation.
Luckily she started to breathe normally after several mins. She spent rest of the trip in a car sleeping which was the best thing that could happened in this situation. So we got back on the way down only in four people. And we were much more faster.
Mainly this part of the biking I enjoyed most. The others were ahead so it was just me and Edmundo chasing them and we were so fast on the way down! We took almost every shortcut and were beating each other (but again he won, he was faster than me). It was best experience from that day. That was an adrenalin.
We cought others at the crossroad when the sand road was starting. And if you didn't feel secure in the rock road, sand part looked superdangerous!
Like I went really slowly from the begining
and was braking every five seconds. Guess who went down without any brakes in big speed ? One, two three... Edmundo of course. He was enjoying it on full throttle. But then, almost at the end of sand road, he felt down so badly that we thought he's dead. He just felt over his bike right into the sand and his bike over hime. We lost him because he created his own small sand storm (almost like in Huacachina :D).
"So yea he's dead... I have to find new mexican friend" just crossed my mind in that moment. And when all of us were thinking what to say at his funeral, he just got up from the sand storm with big smile at his face and screaming: "Don't worry, I am ok!!" And jumped back on his bike and came down to us.
He looked like a sandman. He was covered by sand all over him from head to shoes. Only his eyes were ok because of sunglasses. He was just smiling and saying that he's ok. Unbelievable that he survived that fall without any injury.
UPDATE: Leter on we found out that he broke his nail on right feet. It looked horrible but whe I remebered his fall, broken nail was like nothing.
When we all got down, julia found some interesting plant. She was crazy about the plants, flowers and all this staff all her stay in Arequipa. She tried to explain me what was that thing but I didn't get it. Never mind.
Then we continued on the asphalt road which was big and positive difference. This part of trip was only for relaxing. I even learnt how to ride a bike without hands! And I'm sure I had to look
awesome during it! First I did it only when going straight but later on I was riding without hands even to the curves, only using weight of my body to turn. So much fun! And of-course Julia had to do the same thing. And eventhought she says she did it better than me, we all know where the truth is...
We went down like this for almost half an hour through the poorest parts of Arequipa. I was thinking that if I fall down here nobody's gonna save me and I get robbed and killed... But hten I remembered how awesome do I look like while riding the bike without hands and continued down in a danger way. Like the Top Gun song "Highway to the Dangerzone".
Our group met at the borders of Arequipa where the cars and buses started to show up. It wasn't best idea to drove a bike in between all them.
We gave back all the equipment and I put the bikes on the car rooftop. And Julia had to do the same of-course.... and had to be better than me of-course... And she didn't make it of-course...
It was too difficult for her to lift the bike up to the rooftop so Edmundo had to help her. But of-course she could explain to all of us why it wasn't fair... you know I am taller, there was strong wind when she was trying and Earth gravity was bigger.... funny.
¨We were taken by car back to downtown where we split up to our homes to take a shower. In the evening we are meeting up again to Isis good bye party.