In the morning, the young lady matron of the hotel informs me of road construction, but I am unable to understand and learn to appreciate what she was trying to convey to me earlier. Man, road construction or what, it took us 2 hours to go 50 kms and once we get through Andahuaylas, there is a road block which I understand to be for about 1/4 hour but Michael informs me 4 hours. Then a driver says the a moto can get through, so I squeeze by and rub few cars with my side bags but carry on, Micheal watching this makes sure to be more careful than I. Then around another corner is a police manning a road block and detour sign. Again, Spanish no good I tell him Cusco and he points to the other fork in the road, so we take it. Lot more rough rough dusty gravel in 2 wheel track roads. For hours. Lucky we had lots of gas, that was on thing we didn't need to worry about. Finally we merge back with the new road, that is now open, and can see Abancay on a hill off to the left of us and pavement and the patch that I installed 500 kms earlier, started to leak with only 2 kms to pavement. After patching the tire again, with 2 plugs we are on nice smooth pavement. Thank god. Abancay was having some sort of parade through main street so we cut off and went around, expecting to get totally lost, but we didn't. then up the road with about 200 kms to Cusco. We found heavenly twisties. Stuff to drag pegs on, over and over again and again. Switchback after switchback. Michael and I are drooling, grinning and have almost forgotten the dust earlier in the day except for it on the visors and they need cleaning. We arrive in a little farming town of Curahuasi and find a hotel. Looks good but no hot water and the water stinks.
October 28, 2010
Fueled up, we continue down gravel road. Finally, we hit some great pavement but its short lived. We have to go over another pass and there is major road construction for about 100km. But we preserver and arrive in Chincheros. We stay in a nice hotel here and the little lady is wonderful with help. Costs us $44 soles ($18) with secure parking. It appears that the Peruvians like to put road on top of mountains and ride the ridges. We were up at 4200 meters a few times today. Then they wind the roads down to the valleys below, and I mean wind. More road construction. As we are heading south, we are noticing more water (creeks and rivers) and more vegetation. Becoming more beautiful. Hit a chicken crossing the road, Michael said it survived. Begs the question, Why did the chicken cross the road? Another question, why was a chicken playing chicken? Food for thought, Maybe it just could have been food?
October 27, 2010
We head out of La Oraya and south west towards Cusco. La Oraya is a mining town and we didn't find much to like about it. We rode for a while and after finding our way through Hauncayo, we were stopped at a road block and was bribed out of our first $25. Eventually we found our turn off and proceeded onto dirt, gravel roads, another first. Down the road a few hours and I get our first flat tire. The plug kit worked great and we finally ended up in a little town of Churcampa. Now this hostel is the worst we found, with cold showers and small room, but the lady was nice. I have to say that I am amazed at the altitude that people are farming and the pitch of the land they farm on. Amazing where they will plant a crop and it will grow. More amazing is how they are turning the soil and preparing the soil. I saw one man on a 45 degree incline plowing the soil with a pick ax and shovel. Then all the people tending their herds. Drove through herds of cows , pigs, goats, Llamas and I don't know what else, but they walk along the roads and aren't afraid of vehicles. The farmers tend them religiously. Amazing existence farming.
Up early to catch our last flight back to Lima, Peru and our bikes that we left in a parking garage for 10 days. They had not been touched. The day before, Michael and I decided that we wanted to get on our bikes and ride. After figuring out how to get out of Lima (7 million inhabitants) we headed to the east. Drove down a main road that is under construction with the added crazy Lima drivers and after a few hours, the traffic thinned out. Then we started heading into the hills. Wonderful road that climbs and winds its way up to 4830 meters (16,200 feet). We were supposed to start to take our altitude sickness pills 12 hours before ascending and we didn't, so we took a double dose at about 12,000 ft and carried on. We arrived in La Oraya and found a hostel. Probably the worst place we stayed in yet, but I didn't care. I felt like I was dying. Dizzy and nauseous from the altitude of over 3700 meters and I think I poisoned myself with the extra dose, but I'm not sure. All I know is that I was in bed by 5:30pm and had a splitting headache, nauseous and couldn't stop peeing. As the night wore on I felt much better.
October 25, 2010
Got up early to catch our flight to Guayaquil. The flight was routine. Hurry up and wait. We landed about 12:30pm and got a taxi to downtown. After checking in, we did some emails and then went to find something to eat down on the Malecon 2000. They have revitalized the boardwalk along the river and have done a wonderful job of it. The Malecon goes for miles. Reminds me of New Westminster's boardwalk, just much much larger. After we got back to the hotel, Michael and I talked to Julie and a few friends for over an hour. Talked to Adrienne who we met in Nakusp at the Horizons Unlimited Meeting in August. She flew her bike to Bogota in September and has been riding since. Sound like we can meet up in Cusco, so another push is on. So nice to hear everybody and I miss Julie so much. Then I updated pics while waiting for Tony to arrive. Tony and Ana-karina took us up to a mountain in the middle of Guayaquil for pics. Wow, what a large city.
