After spending the last 5 days non stop on the road I was looking for a break today which lead me to the lake Paron and the pyramid mountain. Again, another 5 hours on dirt roads which was not really a recovery as I would have wished but another amazing adventure and wonder of this earth was waiting for me.
Luckily, I left the town of Huaraz which was in fact a nice place to stay but I was tempted to follow the advice of Ersin who told me to possibly make my way up to the beautiful lake and mountain.
I knew the road would be anything else but a walk in the park and asked several people for the conditions of the 35 km long lasting adventure. No problems. Terra firma! No arena and no issues at all. The prompt answer of different people confirmed my plans to conquer the 5’300 m peak in about 2 to 2,5 hours time.
The first couple of kilometres was indeed rather easy and consisted most of the time of a firm solid ground with a couple of stones here and there. Easy and I already thought, why would I need such a long time when my average speed was 50 km/h. Well, this question was answered fairly soon when the terrain rapidly changed and sand and rough gravel determined the rest of the road. The last 45 minutes after the check point were the worst and I wished to have changed my tires in one of the towns before.
This is what the locals understand with no problem? I mean seriously… This was like dancing with bowling shoes on ice. No grip at all and I had to do work hard in order to keep the bike en route, the gravel and the sand were just very difficult to challenge enemies.
However, the landscape and the mountains in the background were just unbelievable amazing and all my sorrows were gone, at latest when I reached my final destination. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the colour of the lake which was held in an intense turquoise. Furthermore, the famous mountain Piramide was making a big statement in the background while perfectly visible and not covered in clouds like many other tourists were reporting on online media.
I guess, I picked a lucky day and could actually not believe my luck! The scenario was just surreal and I was wondering what to do first: An easy walk around the amazing lake or a challenging 40 minutes the climb to the viewpoint.
Guess what I did? Of course, I went for the challenge and climbed up that steep hill next to the lake which did not look so difficult from my starting point. I was convinced otherwise when reaching latest the huge rocks which I had to overcome. I first thought this is a joke and there must be another way which I did in fact but resulted in a true nightmare. All of a sudden I was stuck on an extremely steep part of the mountain and every step I did had to be carefully planned. A lot of lose rocks, gravel and sand made the ascent extremely difficult. Did I mention that I had my motorbike clothes and boots on? Not really the perfect choice for such a climb, lol.
However, when I reached the viewpoint everything was forgotten and I had one of the most amazing views in my life. There was this incredible intense turquoise of the lake, the deep blue sky and if that was not enough, there was snowcapped mount Piramide proudly posing in the background. It was like a painting. Like a dream which became reality.
I stayed for around 30 minutes at this magical place before I made my way back again to the village.
Everyone needs to put this place on the bucket list. It is just incredible and I still need to process what I saw today.
“Speechless”
