Our ride yesterday was so different from the day before. We rode 112k and 1587m on a newly paved road with good shoulders and very light traffic through some of the best scenery. We are in Mollendo on the coast.
Today, we change course and head east and up to what everyone says is the most beautiful city in Peru, Arequipa, where we have a nonriding day and where we will take the bikes in for needed maintenance and cleaning as the sand must be in every possible opening on the bikes. Going back to the ride, we had two different days in one. For the first half, we had light winds and sunshine. In the last half, the strong headwind returned, the sky turned ugly grey, and the temperature fell. The hills and mountains were sprinkled with whitish sand that looked like the first dusting of snow in the fall. I could not convince my mind that it was not snow and it was still well above zero.