91km – 2498m up – 2084m down – 5640 kcal – 9:24h
Another long cycling day, for which you have to find
the answer to the question ‘how often can I stop to take photos, without risking to ride into darkness?’. Anyhow the DLR is always in the Camelbak, ready to shoot. It was a lot to climb and mainly on gravel. Just the right thing to start into a beautiful cycling morning 
on the faces of al off-road lovers! For me there was another question: ‘Will my bike survive this day?’ with a worn-out rear suspension joint, wagging with its tail like a happy dog. 72% of the day was be on gravel, a torture for the beaten bike, although not as rough and steep as on previous stages. If it will sustain this without further damage, it will make it until it finally retires on doomsday! With this in mind I gently navigated it over the rough ground. As usual, the constant climbing for hours was awarded with breathtaking panoramas from the summit at almost 2700m above sea level.
Often the view allows to trace back from where we came or give an idea, to where the road will carry you next. It is remarkable how fertile the land is, even in such high altitudes. All around the people were working in the fields and children were playing or carried by their mothers. Everyone is very 
friendly and almost every Hola or Bueno is returned with an answer and a smile. I took the time to take a few photos that I like to share with you.
The nicely dressed little girl with the gumboots was a bit scared by the ‘strange gringo’, who instantly dropped his bike on a climb to catch a ball that escaped from the playing kids and was rolling fast down the hill and would have been lost, if I hadn’t caught it.
After already more than 5 hours into the day, I reached lunch stop at 44km, with 1400m of climbing done so far. However that also means: ‘1100m more to climb and 47km to go’ –> not much time to spent at lunch. The climbing continued until kilometer 67, when the fun part of the day started:
10km cruising in 2200m with a slightly drop of elevation. The remaining 14km was a huge downhill into the busy town of San Jose Pinula. The hotel is located at the other end of the town. It is a busy hotel, with 6 weddings on this very day. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anything from the wedding buffet or left over cakes. So we must be satisfied with a 400 kcal dinner. Not much to cover for the 5000 kcal burnt to arrive at this place. At least the bar was fully stocked and I could get another ‘grande cerveza bicicletta’ (grosses Radler). If one though ‘nice hotel, first class rooms’ must be disappointed to find her- or himself accommodated in a bunkhouse, a steep walk away from the main building. Luckily also far away from the party music! However the locals are still burning down fireworks like crazy … seems the ‘burning devil’ is not yet over.
