Asia Singletracks

LOMAS DE ASIA 14.10 0020 mountain bike peru

Lomas de Asia

Asia valley is almost 100K from Lima, but the name origin is based on the ancient local language. A drive for a couple of hours is needed to get there. The Lomas are a gift to mountain bikers, and they exist only on the Peruvian coast and a bit in Chile. After Pachacamac this is maybe the second best to ride. Only Lomas de Atiquipa, 600K South compares and surpasses in quality.

You may start from Asia or Bujama, I prefer Bujama.
Starting from there, the first part is a dry land to climb up and best if is very early, in summer is an inferno to climb with the sun burning your brain.
Once reached the pass, the land starts to get wide open, the tip is to get as left as you can, that way you will catch the singletrack and after that just have to follow it “lomeando” a word that means to flow with the side of the mountains. 

Nice climbs, great XCs, some amazing drops, a dry land in summer, a very wet in winter, if the plan is to go in summer, at least 3lt of water and food is a must to carry on to survive the challenge.

Caral on bikes

CARAL 02 mountain bike peru

Caral

Caral is the main site of archaeological investigations, the beginning of Andean life, the pyramids have 5,000 years old, anyway our goal is not the archaeology but the environment that had not too many changes, except for human behaviour, for centuries.

In the valley the villages are on one side of the road, so we choose that side for riding. The route is typical as any coastal one, with a dry mountain on one side and a very green land on the other side. The ride is about 30K of smooth climb starting at the highway crossroad, passing near some other ancient buildings and an Inca citadel, surely built during the conquest of the Pachacutec army around 1470. Very important, leave the city very early, from our meeting point we had to cross the whole city, and it takes 2 hours or a lot more to be on the highway, once there it takes a couple of more hours to reach the starting point, A very good breakfast and carry enough water, the sun, if appears, is a devil itself.