Day 2 of riding in Peru – Pachacamac

Lima Rides || Sacred Valley Rides || Salkantay || Machu Piccu || Sky Lodge

Pachacamac

Our second day of riding in Peru was in Pachacamac, 45km from Lima. Along on our ride with us with the Holy Trails MTB crew of Diego, Coti and Daniel. It’s unusual to find such a well-developed, maintained and dense collection of trails relatively close to urban areas anywhere in the world.

This area is an amalgam of cement plant owned industrial land with archaeological artifacts. The slopes will eventually be ground into quarries and hopefully the locals will be able to find a compromise so some trails can stay rideable.

We were quickly finding that Diego is among the most well-connected person in Peru. He arranged a dedicated driver for us; someone who knew every nook and cranny of Pachacamac. This greatly enhanced downhill time! Shuttle access is via gravel industrial roads where the Cement Mix Plant has roads that can be driven by public. These particular trails were used by both shuttlers and people who rode them uphill. As always give way to uphill traffic! Even on the weekends when it’s “busiest” there are so many trails in this suburb of Lima that it’s pretty easy to space out so giving way is not an issue.

We did four laps on the slopes around Pachacamac to the South side of the main cement mix access plant then biked another distinct area for a total of six laps. The turnaround in the main Pachacamac area is about an hour. Each trail loses about 400m vertical so you will get your fill of downhill at Pacha.

Overview Map of area

This is a popular spot for mountain bikers!

Our shuttles started from here.

The trails are fast and flowy

This is what the area looks like in the rainy season – photo by Daniel Aramburu

Each trail is about a 400m drop. The trails co-exist with industry and the surrounding community

There are some steeper options too!

This area also has some ruins that we could ride through. These are probably Pre-Inka.

Amancaes Bike Park

We also did a lap in the “Amancaes Bike Park” which really isn’t a bike park. Amancaes is a a collection of purpose built downhill trails developed circa early to mid 2000s. The community of avid bikers has worked on and shaped the land. Here you’ll find tables, berms, jumps and tech-gnar on drifty, fast, sandy soil. Bring your cornering A-Game!

The DH line – Amancaes – lots of jumps and burms on this trail with Coti sending!

Diego – full send

Coti in full flight

Daniel knows the line

Diego sailing

Even some classic sketch!

Terrorista Trail

South east of the main grouping of trails at Pachacamac is Cerro Parapente. In that area there are powerlines feeding the city of Lima from powerplants east of the city. There are alst massive gullies and ridgelines on which to ride and apparently hide. There we rode the trail “Terrorista” named as such because Sendero Luminoso guerillas hid out that in the latter part of their violent insurgency against the Peruvian government. Fortunately they are now jailed and gone; and all one has to worry about is the fantastically loose dirt; and the crazy fast downhill from Terrorista to the valley bottom

Terrorista Trail, loose and rowdy!