Vilcabamba to High Camp in Podocampus National Park above Valladolid

Beautiful, beautiful ride, but quite intense. Very rainy and muddy after the first 20km (12 miles) of pavement ended. It was so beautiful (and slow) that I lost all track of time and when Nancy said "Is it really 5:30?" I figured we were probably in trouble. We were. At dark we managed to find a flat spot that didn't appear to be a swamp, but it was raining still. We set up our tent, did our best, and crawled in for the duration. Our tent was not up to the task. Everything was wet. But we survived.

Beautiful scenery and an intense climb. We should have started an hour earlier (at 6:30 instead of 7:30) and we would have made it to Valladolid.