I was a rookie. I’d never cycled more than seven miles in my life, and even that was difficult when a hill came along. I maybe cycled to the library in my hometown on occasion. If I was feeling truly ambitious, I would cycle to my mom’s house all the way across town. None of this, however, ever amounted to a truly great distance.
And yet when my boyfriend, an experienced long-distance cyclist who had traversed the challenging roads of Peru time and time again, suggested to me that we should go for a cycling trip that holiday season, I couldn’t resist.
There are lots of great stories to be told from that cycling trip. Each day held its own challenges and triumphs. Here I’ll give a brief overview of what I packed for that trip and what I wish I had at the time. This is, by no means, a comprehensive list nor will I necessarily recount everything accurately, as this trip took place back in 2018. Here, however, is what I do recall…
Clothing & Accessories
I remember the first time I traveled to Peru and saw that I was going to be in a city by the beach. I thought to myself, “Great, there are palm trees, it’s gonna be warm.” Wrong. I was deceived by years of associating palm trees with hot, tropical weather.
Packing for Peru is difficult, especially if you want to pack light and are going to be visiting different regions. The most challenging aspect for this cycling trip was the fact that we were going to be cycling in two different regions in two different seasons: the hot, dry summer of the coast and the cold, wet winter of the mountains.
In the end, I packed just wisely enough that I was warm enough to make it through the cold of the mountains. I had tried to stuff a winter coat into my cycling supplies but there just wasn’t enough room; some difficult choices had to be made. I wish the coat still could have made it though, especially as it would have proven to be more sufficient cover from the rain and snow on one particularly treacherous stretch of cycling we did.
Worse, though, was the fact that I didn’t pack a hat or gloves. Don’t forget the hat and gloves.
I bought a chullo when we were on the road and stole my boyfriend’s gloves. A close enough fix.
Camping Gear
This is a bit more nit-picky, but I really wish that I had a sleeping bag that handled the cold far better. The one which I had was rather thin and there was one night in particular when we were camping out near Huaraz during which I never felt warm for the entire night.
Now that I’ve spent some more time researching gear, I also wish that we had some good, lightweight sleeping pads. They’re also supposed to help with the cold, keeping you out of direct contact with the ground.
I’ve just bought a lightweight tent from Big Agnes and am pumped to give it a try the next time we go on a cycling adventure. When you’re cycling, it’s all about the weight. When you’re stuck going subida for a while, you quickly begin to wish you could rid of any excess.
Food/Water
On the first day of cycling, we didn’t have any snacks packed to start our journey. We also didn’t eat any breakfast. This resulted in me becoming fatigued and irritable far sooner than necessary.
The thing with food is that you can pick it up as you go, which is what we did. In retrospect, I would make sure the next time I go that I always have some kind of high energy snack ready in case I feel my energy levels getting dangerously low or my temper getting dangerously high.
Photography Gear/Electronics
An extra lens would potentially be one of those things where, when you’re going subida, you curse yourself for having decided to pack but, still, those photos though.
I only have two lenses and I wish I’d brought them both. The long lens took some fantastic photos but there were some dramatic landscapes which would have been great to capture with my short lens.
Toiletries
I only have two notes for toiletries. One, don’t forget the sunscreen. I remembered and still got sun poisoning. Two, I found myself at times wishing on the trip that I had brought some eyeliner. I brought no makeup and missed my little pencil when I was feeling especially achy and dirty.
Cycling Essentials
A helmet is always a must when cycling. Bright orange vests were also important to us on our trip especially since we were on some busy city roads plus cycled along the Pan-American Highway. It helps to be visible from as far away as possible in case there is a particularly erratic driver.
I’m happy to say that I was only nearly hit by a car once on our trip. It’s quite possible that the vest was part of what helped to prevent that accident from happening.
As for how we held everything on our bicycles, we had some metal bars fashioned into a rig which we attached to the back. In these, we inserted a couple of gallon jugs lined with plastic bags, to prevent water damage in the event of rain, on either side to hold the majority of our gear.
This rain-proofing we did proved quite effective for our gear within the jugs and the jugs provided adequate space for our supplies. I only wish that, in the future, we have a way to hold our gear that is a bit more light-weight than the metal system.
These are some changes I would make to pack for the trip a second-time around. Yes, perhaps we could have used an extra couple of things but I think we had the essentials covered. Regardless of the moments of cold and cursing the weight of my bicycle as I struggled along the way, it was an epic trip.
