I Met This Lady and Immediately Made a Connection

There are lots of perils to look out for on Peru’s roads – aggressive lunatic drivers in barely maintained cars, deep culverts off narrow bumpy twisty roads, rain channels that are invisibly deep and slippery, and tiny ladies in multiple frilly petticoats and big felt hats herding sheep with all the time in the world. 

But this one was new to me.

Leaving Ayacucho on a very narrow and twisty road connecting all the small farms, I saw a line across the road. At the last minute I realized that it was actually a rope tethering a cow to a tree. The radius from the tree had allowed the cow to cross to find better grazing and the tether was strung across the road. Before I could react it was whipped under my front wheel, and then jammed into the sump guard. I was stunned and the cow was none too pleased to be yanked rudely off her favorite grass and dragged rapidly down the road until I stopped.

I was worried that she could easily have pulled the rope tight and flipped the bike but she just stood there passively while Pablo managed to extract the rope. She did evacuate her bowels in front of us of course; which was nice. I’m not sure if this was from fear or just to show what she thought about her mistreatment.  I’m just glad she hadn’t pulled the line tighter or this story may have had a more interesting and less humorous ending.