Mountain Bikers riding in a line down center of grass-covered mountain valley with small herd of alpacas on the left. Photographer's name, Jose Galaz, in black at lower right
If you're planning on doing this trip, and like me, you're not a fast rider, here's a tip ---> When wondering what way the group is heading, just look for the llamas and alpacas running away, and that is where you should be going!
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Photo Journal: Mountain Biking Peru

November 30, 2016

The best Dai­ly Dirt con­tent always comes from our Rid­ers, the pas­sion­ate moun­tain bik­ers from around the globe that are eager to explore new trails, cre­ate long-last­ing friend­ships and ride, ride, ride! That’s why after our Inca-Trail All Moun­tain Bike trip in Peru this Sep­tem­ber, I was excit­ed to con­nect with Rid­er and pho­tog­ra­ph­er, Jose Galaz to see his pho­tos and read about his adven­tures moun­tain bik­ing in beau­ti­ful Peru. We have four dif­fer­ent moun­tain bike trips in Peru, and our 10-day All-Moun­tain trip allows rid­ers to expe­ri­ence spec­tac­u­lar scenery and the vibrant Inca cul­ture. Par­tic­i­pants on this trip (and all our trips!) expe­ri­ence some of the best rid­ing Peru has to offer.

Rid­ers explore beau­ti­ful trails through­out the Cus­co and Ollan­tay­tam­bo region and get to expe­ri­ence one of the won­ders of the world: Machu Picchu.

Click here to view the Inca Trail All-Mountain itinerary.

Thanks for shar­ing your pho­tos and sto­ries Jose!

Photos: Mountain Biking Peru

“Some rides nev­er end, in your mind at least. Rid­ing the All-Moun­tain Inca-Trail with Sacred Rides does­n’t end on the 10th day, it keeps going, it makes you smile every time you remem­ber some­thing about the expe­ri­ence, even if it was months ago.

For me, a trip to the Peru­vian Andes com­bined some of my life-long pas­sions: as a teenag­er, I stayed out of trou­ble by prac­tic­ing and per­form­ing Andean Folk music dur­ing and after high school. Fast for­ward sev­er­al years, and as a ‘recov­er­ing couch pota­to,’ moun­tain bik­ing became my new obsession.

Thanks to my bike, I dis­cov­ered, among many oth­er things, my lat­est pas­sion for photography.

Sacred Rides made it so easy to have a wor­ry-free trip, to enjoy every day to the fullest, appre­ci­ate spec­tac­u­lar views, absorb the Inca cul­ture and cre­ate life-long memories.”

We arrived to the Miraflo­res area of Lima very ear­ly and had all day to walk around and sight-see. I was hap­py to share this adven­ture with my good friends, Sean and Gil.

Looking down at man working in salt mines, surrounded by uneven blocks of pale yellow and golden brown with whitish salt borders
You get to see so many amaz­ing things on the 10-day Inca Trail All Moun­tain trip. Here, we stopped at the salt mines near the town of Maras in the Urubam­ba Valley.
Two Peruvian girls, around ages 10 and 4, holding hands on dirt road in village outside of red brick wall
These girls stole my heart. On the first full day ride, we start­ed from the small town of Chinchero and rode through some small vil­lages. We stopped in one vil­lage and I met these girls who had been up ear­ly to help with dai­ly chores. They were qui­et but allowed me to take their pho­to, before wav­ing good-bye.
Four mountain bikers riding up cobblestone street along pale yellow wall in a Peruvian village
You can tell by the smiles, that this was a lot of fun! To fin­ish this ride, we rode down ancient Inca steps, through nar­row streets, ped­aled by dogs and down cob­ble­stone streets full of colour. Yes, this is an adven­ture that makes you smile!
Five mountain bikers sitting on bikes high up on a hill, looking out over the red tile roofs in the valley below
The group admir­ing Cus­co and the end­less red tile roofs just before sunset.
Woman in traditional Peruvian clothing of red dress and red hat, carrying two small orange bowls of food past a couple of mountain bikes parked outside a small house
We all agreed, one of the high­lights of the trip was hav­ing lunch at a pri­vate Peru­vian home and expe­ri­enc­ing the local cul­ture, food and cus­toms. This woman helped serve us lunch. The hat she is wear­ing can take on dif­fer­ent mean­ings, depend­ing on how it’s worn. A tilt­ed flower on the hat means ‘sin­gle and look­ing’ — but I could­n’t get my sin­gle friend Gil to make a move!
Distant view of three mountain bikers cutting across a grassy mountainside on narrow trails
There are so many trails all over the Sacred Val­ley, you could spend a life­time moun­tain bik­ing Peru! You have to choose your line wise­ly, and be sure you have the prop­er skill/fitness lev­el to expe­ri­ence this ride!
4 people in bike helmets sitting on ground next to a colorful blanket across from a Peruvian woman and her family sitting on the ground
In the mid­dle of nowhere (lit­er­al­ly!) we met this woman and her chil­dren. They walked miles down to the Sacred Val­ley, so we stopped on the side of the trail to buy some local crafts.
Looking over a grassy hillside at the snow-covered Andes mountains in the background
For so many years I dreamt of see­ing the majes­tic Andes. Dur­ing this ride we descend­ed into the Sacred Val­ley with beau­ti­ful views.
Mountain Biker riding over moss-covered rocks in mountain valley in Peru
Our very skilled guide, Yhon, show­ing us how to roll some of the many rock gar­dens we rode on the trip.
4 people sitting on each side of a long yellow table covered with colorful placemats while a Peruvian woman in a red dress stands behind them with food
An amaz­ing group to share this adven­ture with, this was one of the best days of the trip!
A red bike leaning against remains of a stone wall with a wooden door in front of wide stone steps going up mountainside in Ollantaytambo
End­ing an epic ride in the beau­ti­ful town of Ollantaytambo.
Mountain Bikers riding in a line down center of grass-covered mountain valley with small herd of alpacas on the left. Photographer's name, Jose Galaz, in black at lower right
If you’re plan­ning on doing this trip, and like me, you’re not a fast rid­er, here’s a tip —> When won­der­ing what way the group is head­ing, just look for the lla­mas and alpacas run­ning away, and that is where you should be going!
One mountain biker riding quickly down steep rocky trail along cliff's edge while another person walks their bike down behind them
I’m not ashamed to say, that I walked a few sec­tions of this trail. Our guide Xavier makes it look easy, but these Inca steps were tough! There is a cliff on the left side of the pho­to, and there isn’t a lot of room for error.
6 People from mountain bike tour posing together on lookout point over Macchu Picchu
The itin­er­ary has one ‘rest’ day to see one of the Sev­en Won­ders of the World — which is a no-brain­er, you have to see Machu Pic­chu! I’ll nev­er for­get this moment, no words can describe the beau­ty. This is a shot of our group at Machu Pic­chu, you only need to bike togeth­er once and it seems like you’ve known each oth­er for years.
Mountain biker riding quickly down gravel trail with Peruvian mountains and green valley in background
On this day, we did two shut­tle runs and rode some great fast down­hill trails with spec­tac­u­lar views.
Man in mountain bike gear kneeling next to Peruvian woman wearing brightly colored clothing selling souvenirs
We met amaz­ing peo­ple every­day. Most of the time, we con­versed with the locals walk­ing home. This woman offered us some sou­venirs, so I pur­chased a small purse for my daugh­ter. Our amaz­ing guide Wayo, is on the left.
Young brown alpaca eating grass in foreground with Macchu Picchu and mountains in the background
This is a clas­sic shot that I had to share. Do I need to say more about this amaz­ing place? I’m not much of a hik­er, and I was sur­prosed how dif­fi­cult is was to hike to the ruins — total­ly worth it though!
Mountain Biker standing next to his bike lying on the ground as he hands out small toys to group of young Peruvian children
Just out­side of Lares, I had a few toys left and decid­ed to give them to a group of chil­dren next to the trail. Before I knew it, I was sur­round­ed by smil­ing kids. I made sure every­one received a small toy.
Four people riding mountain bikes across a field on a rolling hill
A group shot rid­ing near Cus­co with my friend Sean in the lead.
Three mountain bikers sitting on bikes on a rocky path with a herd of sheep walking past them on the left
Here are my friends Paul and Car­o­line meet­ing some of the locals.
A couple mountain bikers and a couple young Peruvian children sitting on a grassy hillside with a baby alpaca in a green sweater lying next to them
The kids were a lit­tle shy, but they let me pet their sheep for a lit­tle while.
Many people walking on the wide cobblestoned street in the plaza in Cusco Peru, surrounded by pale yellow buildings
Sun­day evening with the locals in Cus­co! Our last evening togeth­er was a busy one around the main plaza. This was a buck­et list trip and I enjoyed every sin­gle moment. If you’re think­ing about doing this trip, and have been moun­tain bik­ing for awhile — don’t think about doing this trip, just do it! You won’t regret it!
One person sitting on a mountain bike and another sitting on the ground on a golden grassy hillside
Our guide Xavier (left) was such a hard work­er, and always made sure the group was hav­ing fun, while stay­ing safe. Wayo (right) joined us for the last three days of the ride — this guy can sure ride. Not pic­tured was our shut­tle dri­ver Mauri­cio and Yhon. The team went above and beyond for the group — Sacred Rides has amaz­ing local guides. Thank you!

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