Machupicchu

Well...it could be defined as a tourist trap, expensive and overcrowded but still it's a breathtaking place!
We could have taken different ways to approach the site with our bikes, but we opted for the one that made it easier for us , considering the rain, our tires not exactly in great shape and the desire to do something new, as a train ride in this magical valley.
The train from Cuzco is 3:15 hours...long long hours in a very small seat, especially for tall tall people. The view is great! Valleys after valleys following a raging river dark chocolate color by the recent rain. Vertical peaks and tropical vegetation...
Then the terminal, and a bus ( more$$!) to the actual ruins( more$$!).
An other ascent this time on a muddy road not always exactly wide enough for two busses at a time...and the drop in the 2000feet valley( few inches from the almost bold tires) it really made me sweat few times, considering I was on a window seat...drivers seems totally confident so just trust the Universe!
Then the old city! Incas? Aliens? Whoever was here and did this it's impressive!
No words to describe the feelings. No words to describe the beauty, the majestic of the nature...everything...I was and I am speachless!
And we even got a rainbow!
So go see it!
But stop at Aguascaliente and spend a day on the hot springs...A day back and forth from Cuzco is truly exausting.
We'll possibly talk about Cuzco later.

From Nazca to Cuzco

An incredibly beautiful road! Starts with deserts airpins (hot desert)than it keeps going up to 4000 meters, were we saw our first llamas and we had to wait for more than an hour for road works, making friends with all the truck drivers also stuck. Then lunch in Puchio a small village in the middle of nowhere, then the road kept going up to 4500m and it got so beautiful, and so cold and cloudy and it started snowing and we had to keep going of course...fun!
But then we passed the weather and we started going to lower altitude trough a beautiful endless valley. It was too late to make it to Cuzco but there were not many places to stop for the night( as we were told). So we decided to push it to Abacay. So we arrived at dark to find big rocks, sticks, tires, branches in the middle of the road...then busses, trucks, cars, stopped along the way, then police, then a nice ongoing riot! A civil unrest due to the protest against the alleged corruption of the mayor of the city.
After waiting for a while, hearing all kind of opinions on what to do or not to do, and a couple of moment where we thought all the hell was going to break loose,a kind cop offered to take us on a secondary road to avoid the blokade.
OK. So we followed in the dark, on a super dusty dirt road up on the hills, the police car that took us to the road to Cuzco.
At that point I was so tired that as soon as we saw an hotel sign we stopped in a very bizzare place. Where we had to wait for the room to be done, and for the food to be purchased...so we had the latest,crapiest dinner ever on a night stand and we watched the only channel available that had a obscure french movie with spanish subtitles. I was so tired that I could care less and I was soon snoring away. But in the middle of the night we got woke up from the sound of torrential rain...I forgot to mention that we had to park down a dirt road,and cross a field that at that point we thougth it was inevitably trasforming into a mud bath...more fun!
It was actually ok in the morning, so we rush as fast as we could out of there. Had a little breakfast ( rice and pork!)and soon after that Karl got his first flat tire! Fun!
But then all went well and now we are in a nice hotel in gorgeous Cuzco, two blocks away from the main square and right in front of an ice cream parlor.
I had some breathing problems this morning and think I was suffering from altitude sickness but after chewing on a few hojas de coca I feel great!
And ready for Machhu Pichu tomorrow!

Nazca

This morning we left Lima…to get lost in the maze of this huge cahotic city . I even got rear ended by a scooter! So we asked direction to two cops on motorcycle and they ended up escorting us out of the maze even using the siren to make it faster…and they were so nice and smiling!
After we made it to the freeway we rode for a long time in an ever changing desert ...really beautiful.
And cold! Equator still surprising us with its temperature.
Then we had a quick stop at the look out tower for the famous Nazca lines ( I defenetly would suggest a bit of a search online). Not impressive view but still amazing to be in this sacred place.
Then we made it to Nazca…that we were expecting as a small dusty anonymous town…but it surprised us quite a bit! Full of life and business, new sidewalk were one can actually walk safely, cafes, restaurants, hotels…people smiling and really busy…clean and not so chaotic…and a lot of water for one of the driest regions of the world.
I had to enquire about this , considering that we are in the middle of nowhere…so I was told that the new stuff is because of the recent earthquakes and the wealth …because of tourism…great! It seems like it’s working good here!
So we had pizza and pisco sour…and chocolate cake… again defenetly planning a diet for my return.

Lima

Last night we arrived in Lima and landed by chance in a very charming ( and a bit run down!) Hotel . ( the Gran Hotel)... that it happen to be rigth in the center of the old Lima....So today I did a long walking all around the historic center of this 7+ million people.
I visited churches and inquisitions places and museums, and I got a big fix of catholicism...plenty infact. But hey! The art work and the architecture are great!
Too bad that the church did so many horrible things everywere and all the time...from "holy" wars to burning thousand of innocent women...in name of the love of (its)god...oh well.
The city is noisy, polluted and crowded, but I got a feeling of less neurosis than in other places...
Under the San Francisco church there are mounds of bones belonging to at list 25thousand people...I wish I was here for Halloween. Well. Next time!
Ice cream good, parillata too big...but sooo good! I'll have to start a vegetarian diet when I'll be back.
Tomorrow we'll ride toward Cuzco...brrr!

More Peru....

The road from Mancora to Trujillo is a long flat streight long flat streight long flat streight uneventful road...desertic and undeveloped, made exception for few villages by the name of Nueva Piedrita or Arena Blanca or Mala Vida... very simple shacks made of sticks and mud, old cars dusty and dilapidated and lots of tuc-tucs overloaded with al sort of costruction materials...
Good time for meditation and chanting in my helmet...and Karl's acrobatics.
The only stop, at a gas station was the higtlight of the day...we had a very nice talk witha local policeman that told us:"Matchu Pitchu will give you the sense of the strong spiritual energy of this country and you will feel the magic of the universe..."
and the smile of the kid that cleaned our stop lights was priceless..
Then we entered Trujillo and we found the hostal "backpackers" super nice people.
We spent the last 24 hours trying to set up a tire change in Peru'. On email, on the phone and with the help of all the extremely helpful staff of the hostal! But we might end up doing it in Iquique. 300 km south of the border. We think that it will work. ( Thanks Annette!)
It's cold ! And we are on the coast! And it has been cold since we crossed the equator line! Surprising but so pleasantly unespected after two months of smoldering heat!
Truijllo is nice, although it seems that people here honk their car horns constantly like anywere else creating an incredible cachophony. Contemporary musicians?

Peru

So we are in Peru. In Mancora. Were there is a huge surfing wave...but...in December!...
Still the beach is lovely and Karl got a chance to ride few little waves...and it's not hot!
The border crossing from Equador to Peru' was painless (!!!) and fast.
Equador left a good impression on us. Beautiful country,nice people smiling and helpful everywhere. Quito was ok but it was raining and we realized that big cities are not our favourite. Traffic a mess, very stinky of diesel fumes and noisy.
Talking to the locals and listening to the news on TV ,from a different perspective,about the world and politics,is very refreshing. Hearing the world "socialism" not as a scary concept but just as a different way to take care of things make the difference. Corruption is an issue but I think corruption ultimately is everywhere,yes even in country number one!
Anyway. We are doing good and now trying to organize a tire change in Lima...An other huge city that we will have to brave!

It exists!

We finally found it!
La Mitad del Mundo! The middle of the world!
A great tourist trap worth every penny!
But apparently its position it’s not really accurate, so we didn’t even bother to try the water trick…
that anyway I believe it is a trick (supported by science too)…
But it was fun to be in line to step above the painted line that separates the two hemispheres with all the other excited visitors, and to be ( on our bikes) the subject of many of their pictures too! Ecuadorians are very nice and gentle and always very curious (as everyone else) about where we come from, were we are going, the size of the engine, the speed, the cost, the gps, the radios etcetera…
We even rode back about 15 miles to do all of this…but we have no regret!
And the bras that are hanging from the monument are not from the Equator’s fans but from women supporting the breast cancer research.