Days 149 to 153: Cusco, PER to La Paz, BOL

Day 149: Cusco, PER to Puno, PER (391 km)

The road from Cusco to Puno was mostly high speed pavement, something we still enjoyed after the grueling days in the mountains of Peru. It was a bit cold, though, as we rode at close to 4000 m altitude for most of the day. We left Cusco fairly late in the morning, and still managed to make it to Puno by 5 pm. Also, we didn't catch any rain, which was a first in a while.

Days 150 and 151: Puno, PER

There's not much to say about Puno, other than it is located right by the famous Titicaca lake. Definitely not a looker, so no pictures from the two days we spent there. The highlight of the stay is probably the killer chocolate cake we encountered in a bakery close by to our hotel.

Since we had cable TV and decent wifi at the hotel, we decided to stay there for a day. The main reason is that we wanted to catch the Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz UFC fight in the evening. In North America, UFC events are typically PPV (pay per view), but in Latin America they are shown on cable TV on the FOX network. Fortunately, we had this channel in the hotel, so we were able to enjoy watching GSP kick ass while sipping on some cold beers.

We had planned to leave the next morning, but we both woke up tired and decided to stick around for an extra day. This gave me the opportunity to do some catching up on the blog. The previous day, Mihai had spotted a shopping mall with a modern movie theater, and they played Django Unchained (latest Tarantino joint) in English with Spanish subtitles. Therefore, we went to check that out in the evening. Good movie, very entertaining.

Day 152: Puno, PER to Copacabana, BOL (134 km)

The next day, we rode the remaining 126 km to the border with Bolivia. The border crossing procedure went great on both sides, and we were done with the paperwork in about an hour. From there, we rode the remaining 8 km to Copacabana, where we would spend the night.

Copacabana is a small town, right on the Titicaca lake. There are quite a few tourists around, as this is where most of the tours to the Isla del Sol (island of the Sun, on the Titicaca lake) depart from. We booked a cheap hotel room with a nice view. 

There was a cool Mercedes Benz expedition truck parked in front of the hotel, so we chatted with the driver, Steve. The truck belongs to a UK-based company, which owns several similar vehicles and organizes trips in several parts of the world, taking something like 10-12 passengers at a time. 

We had asked Steve about the Isla del Sol, but he said that if we saw Machu Picchu, we would not be impressed by the rather minor Inca ruins that can be found there. Therefore, we decided to skip, and to head to La Paz on the following day.

View of Copacabana from the surrounding mountains. 

Day 153: Copacabana, BOL to La Paz, BOL (142 km)

Great twisty roads for the first half of the day, with more nice views of the Titicaca lake. 

At some point, we had to make a barge crossing across the water. The wooden barges (there were several of them) were kind of sketchy looking, and powered only by old outboard motors. This seemed ok for 2 motorcycles and 2 mini-buses, but the same barges were also used to transport some heavy trucks, which would have made me a little nervous if I was the driver...

At around 3 PM, we made it to La Paz. When you first enter the outskirts of the city (the El Alto town, located on a plateau), the scenery is far from nice. Just ugly brick buildings and lots of traffic and dust. However, when you finally make it to the edge of the valley where La Paz lays, the view is spectacular. Notice the snow capped mountains in the background.

Next up, La Paz. We ended up spending a week there, mainly thanks to the great hospitality of Marco (Mihai's work colleague in Haiti) and his family.

Days 145 to 148: Cusco and Machu Picchu, PER

Day 145: Cusco, PER

Based on the recommendation from Dale and Tonya (a couple of riders from the US we met on the Stahlratte boat), we chose to stay at the Casa Grande hostel in Cusco. Not only it spared us the trouble of looking for a place to stay upon our arrival on day 144, the hotel's location is excellent (one block away from the main square), and it is one of the very few places that has secure parking for the bikes. 

The mission for day 145 was to get some maintenance done on the DR's, as well as to find someone that would agree to hand wash our filthy motorcycle gear. Our friendly hotel receptionist got us in touch with a brave lady that agreed to wash our pants and jackets. We then asked around and quickly found some oil for the bikes. All the moto shops are located on the same block in Cusco, which is pretty practical, as you don't have to run around all over town. You find what you need in one spot. 

We then moved to a gas station, where the bikes were pressure washed (first proper cleaning since leaving Montreal...), and where we were able to do our oil change. I also replaced my rear brake pads, and we called it a day.

First proper cleaning since Montreal...

Day 146: Cusco, PER to Machu Picchu, PER

On the previous day, we had booked an all inclusive tour to Machu Picchu, which was departing  from Cusco at 2 PM. 

We took it easy in the morning: slept in (even if it's a vacation, we don't get to do this often), had late breakfast, bummed around on the internet, and then met up with the hotel receptionist, which had booked the tour for us. The bikes would stay at the hotel. We also paid for the room, just to have somewhere to leave our belongings while we're in Machu Picchu.

The program was the following:

Day 1:

• Taxi from hotel to the collectivo (mini-bus) station.
• 1.5 hours by mini-bus to Ollantayambo.
• From Ollantayambo, 1.5 hour train ride to Machu Picchu
• A night's stay in a hotel was included, as well as breakfast.

Day 2:

• Bus to Machu Picchu at 5:30 am (20 mins.)
• Visit of Wayna Picchu at 7 am, and then guided tour of Machu Picchu at 10 am.
• Train from Machu Picchu to Ollantayambo at 4:15 pm.
• Mini-bus from Ollantayambo to Cusco.

Total cost: 230$. Pretty steep by Peruvian standards, especially the train ride (100$) and the entry fee to the site (around 60$). 

The mini-bus ride was just a reminder to us how much more fun it is to travel on a motorcycle. Backpacking is not for me; I wouldn't do such a trip by relying on buses for transportation.

We made it to the station just 5 minutes before the train took off, so it was a close call. There was a bridge under construction on the way, and we lost a good 15 minutes waiting there. Once again, peruvian roads being unpredictable.

The 1.5 hour train ride was cool. We were sitting next to a lady from Quebec who has traveled quite a bit around the world as well, so we exchanged some stories and impressions on South America. The train was full of tourists from all over the World, even if we're in low season. Machu Picchu is definitely a hugely popular touristic destination.

Once there, we dropped off our minimal luggage at the hotel, and headed out for dinner. The ''gringo ghetto'', or how I called it, is quite expensive, so we opted to go across the bridge to the part of the village where the locals live. We had delicious roasted chicken (and that's saying a lot, coming from a guy who doesn't like chicken that much...), with tasty fries and rice, all for just under 3$ per person.

We called it an early night at around 10 pm, since we had to wake up at 4:30 am (ouch...) to catch the early bus to Machu Picchu.

A few pictures from the Machu Picchu village (the gringo ghetto part):

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This photo was taken on the side of the village where the locals live. There was a large artificial turf sports field. A lot of people there, just having fun, playing soccer and volleyball. Nice atmosphere, and a great idea to keep the kids out of trouble. Too bad there's not more of such fields in the generally poor towns of Peru.

The following are photos of pictures seen in a pub in Cusco, after returning from MP. They show how the village has been severly damaged by flash floods back in 2010.

Day 147:  Machu Picchu, PER and return to Cusco, PER

We woke up at 4:30 am, had some bread and jam at the hotel, and headed to catch the bus to the site at 5:30am.

The plan was to visit the Wayna Picchu (WP) ruins first. These are located on top of the Machu Picchu (MP) mountain, right above the main site. In order to preserve the WP ruins, only 400 visitors are allowed per day. Mihai has already been to MP in 2008, but he had missed out on WP, so this time around we wanted to get there early and make sure we would make the cut. 

At 7 am, the gate to WP was opened, and we both dashed on the trail, in order to get ahead of the crowd. The weather was kind of shitty (rainy and cold), but the 1 hour hike was difficult enough so that we made it to the top out sweaty and out of breath. I ditched my rain poncho half way through, and just continued in a t-shirt, even though it was still raining and probably not much more than 12 deg. Celsius.

We hung out at WP for about 2 hours, waiting for the clouds to clear up, so we can get a good picture of MP down below.

At 11 am, we joined a guided tour of MP. Fortunately the weather got better by then. By 2 pm, it started raining again, so we left the site. We were pretty much done visiting anyway, after spending close to 8 hours there. All in all, a very cool visit. I was definitely not disappointed.

We caught the return train to Ollantayambo at 4:30pm, and were back in Cusco by 9 pm.

A few pics from WP:

Rain sucks.

On top of Wayna Piccu. Pretty steep.

View of Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu

Wayna Picchu

Wayna Picchu

...and the photos from MP:

Machu Picchu

Bed/table. Does not look very comfy.

The Inca Rail train between MP and Ollantayambo. Four cars on the way there, and only one on the way back. I don't know what happened to the rest of the gringos.. ;)

Day 148: Cusco, PER

We stayed an extra day in Cusco, just to relax and to do a little more sightseeing.

Cusco itself is the only 'good looking' town we've seen in Peru. The historic part of it is very nice and well maintained. It was originally an Inca town, but when the Spaniards arrived, they destroyed a lot of the buildings and re-build their own in the colonial style. The interesting thing is that they re-used the foundations of the Inca constructions. Therefore, many buildings are Inca/Colonial hybrids.

A few pictures of the city:

Days 143 and 144: Ayachucho, PER to Cusco, PER

Day 143: Ayacucho, PER to Abancay, PER (390 km)

The day started off with some high speed hard packed dirt roads. 

Then we hit a long stretch of road under construction. The next 100 km was pretty crap, lots of waiting after heavy machinery, traffic and clouds of dust. It got pretty hot too.

The road eventually got good for a while.

We were actually making good time, until we ran into this:

There was a land slide on the road, and the crews were working at cleaning it up. It was gonna take a while, so I just laid down next to the bike and took a nap. An hour and a half later, we were again on our way.

Waiting for the road crew to clean up the land slide.

Loader at work. Almost done, here.

Because of all the delays, we got to Abancayo after dark. Sometimes you just can't avoid it. We had some pretty cool scenery towards the end of the day. Some places reminded me of Utah.

Day 144: Abancay, PER to Cusco (200 km)

Riding the peruvian mountains, especially in the rain season, is very unpredictable. You never know how long it will take you to get to your destination. The maps (paper and gps) are not very accurate, so not only you can get lost easily, you also never know (when it comes to secondary roads), whether the next stretch will be pavement or a rough and muddy two track. On top of that, throw in other elements such as daily rain, wash outs, mud slides and bridges under construction, and this adds up to what can be called real 'adventure' riding.

Day 144 was supposed to be an easy 200 km of pavement all the way to Cusco. The first 100 km were good: all asphalt, as expected.

This what I call ''twisities''

Then, as we rode over a bridge, we ran into a line up of trucks, buses and cars. Not good. We made our way all the way to the front of the queue (about 1 km long...), only to find this:

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a very large mud slide. I went to do some recon up front, and there was no way we could get the bikes across. There was up to 2 meters deep of mud and huge rocks blocking a good 100 m of the road. My guess is it would have taken a few hours to a large bulldozer to open the way, and there was no heavy equipment in sight yet. 


We talked to a few people there, and someone mentioned that there is an alternate path we could try. We followed a few cars into the two track dirt road. It didn't take long before all of them get stuck, but we managed to get by and to continue on. However, the track became  increasingly worse, and  eventually it almost disappeared into the vegetation. I was starting to get a little skeptical whether it would take us somewhere, or if we would come to a dead end and have to turn back. 

The trail wasn't too bad at first, but it was very slippery.

Yes, this is a road, at least according to the GPS...

Eventually, we ran into this abandoned hacienda. We were getting a little tired from plowing through the mud and vegetation for the past few kilometers, so we took a break and snapped some photos.

About 1 km later, we ran into this Toyota Land Cruiser.

The driver owns a farm in the area. Very nice guy, he gave us pointers how to get out of there,  and also told us a little about the hacienda we have seen just a moment ago. Apparently it was build in the 1500's and it was the birthplace of Peru's national alcohol, pisco.

Half an hour later, we finally reached the secondary road that would take us back to the main road.  We saw this from above:

Another mud slide on the main road! Fortunately, the two hour 20-something kilometer detour we took brought us past these obstacles, and we were able to continue all the way to Cusco without further problems.

There are definitely no easy riding days in Peru... We struggled quite a bit over the past week and a half or so, but it's tough days like these that you end up remembering many years from now as the epic ones. I'm really glad we took the road less traveled in this country.

Next up, Cusco and Machu Picchu.