20/10/2026
Week 3 of Charlotte and Nico’s ride from Peru to Tierra del Fuego, 30 July – 5 August. Seven days on the Peru Divide, the first week on the bikes every day.
Five passes above 4,700 m, the highest close to 5,000. By now they were used to the altitude. On the first day they called a ride below 4,300 m “basically sea level”.
There were llamas everywhere, and more and more mines. At almost 4,800 m, they passed Raura, one of the oldest and highest mines in Peru, surrounded by glaciers that have visibly retreated. One day they didn’t drink from a stream because there was a mine above it. Later, the only person they met that day, a man at the entrance of a mine, filled their bottles from a 20-litre water tank. He works twelve hours a day, fourteen days in a row.
And they were hungry. All the time. On the way up to a pass at 4,600 m, a family in a small house gave them a bag of fifteen brioche buns and didn’t want to be paid. “We’d even have taken out a mortgage to buy those 15 little buns, we were that hungry!”
The full story of week 3, including the pass that broke them and a second round of chocolate: https://pilotcycles.com/en/stories/rider-journeys/week-3-seven-days-on-the-peru-divide/
We’re catching up with them week by week. For where they are today, follow them on Polarsteps: https://www.polarsteps.com/RISEwithCharlotteetNico
