Imagine that there is a therapy, without side effects and immediately available and free! A therapy that ensures that your cognitive functions are improved. That would be nice huh? I'll tell you it's already there, it's called being in nature.

My day starts at 6 am as I am awakened by a little boy who keeps yelling 'Amigo' at me. We had breakfast together and played fun games. That's nice to wake up to. And finally, he also helped me tear down my tent! After a friendly gesture of saying thank you I continued my journey.

As I was used to in the Andes, I knew that roads were not always optimal. There's a good chance I have to. But luckily there are also good roads where I have speed. During my descent I already say goodbye to Bolivia in my head and I say welcome to Peru.

In Peru it seems like I am cycling at home in Australia. I am surrounded by trees and even color of the sand is the same color as this like at home. The difference with Bolivia is certainly present.

A few things immediately stand out to me. In Peru they use more colors on buildings, Tuktuks drive around, fields are surrounded by fences and people call from afar to greet me. That used to be different…

I decide to follow a hiking trail down, which unfortunately means that I have to take my bike by the hand. Once arrived in the valley it is really fantastic! Definitely a case of #NoRegrets and I continue my journey. I find that because of the great driving here in Peru, I find it difficult to take a rest day. But I still do it once a week. It is not only tasty, but also important to give your body a rest.

After the rest day I continue on a route that I found on bikepacking.com. In the GPS description it mentions if there is a detour that you should not miss. So I decide to take the detour. Unfortunately, because of the dense fog, I see very little. Fortunately, for a while, and a few kilometers later it clears up again and I drive on until I stop for an overnight stay.

The next morning I unzipped my tent and didn't know what I saw. Snow! I can't see anything and it's freezing cold. The snow lasted for 36 hours and I decided to keep myself warm in my tent and then hit the road again. Fortunately the paved road is still good and I am on my way again with an oncoming bright sun and a clear blue sky.

My planned route turns out to be less good than expected. Almost everyone I meet on the road tells me that there is 2 meters of snow. I am disappointed about this, not only have I been looking forward to this route, but the detour that I have to take otherwise is huge. I bet it anyway and continue the route. In the end it turns out to be not too bad, fortunately, until I get higher and I have to push my bike. I check my GPS and if this continues I will have to walk 80km by bike, which will be about 4 days… But I want to keep going. Unfortunately I have to decide to go back and use my escape route.