The entire trip was on pavement, but for about 100 kms it was single lane. This area followed a large river about half way up the low mountains. That means we had to stay on our toes because the road didn’t have 1 km of straight stretch. Nothing but curvas peligrosasI.really needed to have a pee so when the road took us to the bottom of the valley, Bill stopped and I found a secluded spot on the many types of cacti. One of them had a fruit on it that looked like a fruit I had seen for sale in the villages. I picked a ripe one and pushed a fingernail into it to open it up. I touched my tongue to it to find the juice was sweet. Then I dropped it on the ground This is when I discovered it had microscopic spines that had come off on my fingers AND my tongue! I spent a few minutes pulling them out of my fingers and spitting them out of my mouth. but I couldn’t get them all without tweezers and it was 35C under a broiling sun in the valley. So I climbed back on the bike and headed off.Suddenly the road changed! We were back on a brand new two lane autopista. Granted there were a couple of detours around where they haven’t gotten around to building the bridges but for the last 30 kms into Huanta the curvy roads were fun!We stopped for lunch in Huanta but decided to continue on to ayacucho since the road was so good. Mostly sunny 35
