The Grand Tour - Part 13 - Florida to Pacora

This was going to be a ride of almost 400kms (250 miles) but as it was along the 5N highway (Carreteira Fernando Belaunde Terry), the main road over the Andes in the North of Peru I was expecting a fairly easy ride! I was to be mistaken.
The first third of the journey was straightforward, and I was making good time, and stopped a couple of times - once for a comfort break, and the second overlooking a beautiful lake/dam

Vulture watching me at my comfort stop!

Unidentified dam/lake along the way - the colour of the water should have warned me there had been heavy rain along the route!

As I headed up to the highest pass on this stretch of road I got stuck for some time behind a bus - the road twisted and turned as it climbed, and was too narrow to safely pass for quite a while, but eventually - just as we entered some light mist - I got past. As we climbed the mist got thicker, slowing me down, and then it turned to fairly heavy rain - with visibility down to maybe 25 metres! With a sheer cliff bordered by a deep (50cm) rainwater gully to my right, and a drop of some 500-1000 metres to my left, and nowhere to pull off once I passed the summit it was a nerve-wracking descent! Most of the corners were hairpins, and many not indicated, so my progress was painfully slow - and all the time I felt that the bus would be catching up with me in this poor visibility!
Oli had knobbly dirt tyres, which are not idea for wet tarmac, so I approached each hairpin with much trepidation, and cornered very slowly. By now I was also very wet - I had a good jacket on, but my legs had no protection, and I could feel water in my boots as well! All the time I expected the bus to come bearing down on me, as he knew the route and would probably not have been as cautious as I was. Just as the rain ended and I rode out of the mist I saw a large open area to the left, so pulled off into that (I needed another comfort break desperately too!), and a few moments later the bus indeed thundered past!
The sun had come out, too, so I knew I would be dry soon, and continued on my journey. We were now following the Utcubamba river, and the smooth sweeping curves made progress a but quicker - except that there were many places where the rains had caused landslips, with mud and boulders partially blocking the road! The road crews hadn't arrived yet so it was a bit of a slalom through these, with boulders the size of small cars in the middle of the road in places. Fortunately it was easy to weave my way through on Oli, and I even passed the bus during one of these blockages as he had to approach them with much more care - though I always kept one eye on the mountainside above me in case more earth came down! Traffic was thankfully very light throughout the day, something which I was grateful for on most of my journey.
I was able to maintain a good speed once out of landslip territory and soon found myself looking for a place to have something to eat - by now I was dry and hunger was my next concern! I was riding along unknown roads - I had come this way by bus to Chachapoyas the previous year, but this stage of the journey had been at night - so wasn't sure where I could stop, and was also getting to the stage where I needed to refuel (though this wasn't desperate as I was carrying a spare jerry can which would give me about 60kms), but eventually found both a petrol station (there were actually many along the way) and somewhere to have lunch, and take the opportunity to check my map to see where I was!
It appeared I was only about 80kms (50 miles) from my booked accommodation, and despite the mist, rain and landslips had made reasonable time, so after a leisurely lunch I continued on my way. I seemed to have left the high mountains behind and the rest of the journey was along a fairly straight and flat stretch of road, the N1 (called the Old Panamerican Highway!).
As always I had printed a route map to the accommodation, which was reasonably detailed, but when I reached Pacora, which is a tiny place, I could not find anything that looked like the turning to the small farm. I stopped and asked a couple of people and they didn't seem to have heard of the place, so eventually I just turned down a dirt track and by luck found it, despite no signs! The buildings were quite a way from the locked gate so I hooted and a lady came and let me in 

My bungalow

she had several dogs with her, and though I had petted them as I introduced myself one of them chased me and nipped me on the leg, putting a small hole in my trousers, as I rode up to the bungalow! This was the first of 5 stays I have now made at Rancho Santana!

Distance travelled today 395 kms.