Chivay to Arequipa 22.6.12

Up early and into a gravel ride to get to the coca canyon in time to see the Condors catching the thermal to get out of the canyon to go looking for their breakfast. Also the early start was to be in front of the buses due to the dusty nature of the road. We were riding off at about 6.30 after an early breakfast. The road was abut 60km of gravel to the viewing spot for the birds, and had a few challenges on the way. Generally it was a good surface for gravel however there was a couple of spots that it became a bit rougher and more challenging with it reducing to single lane, rutted and loose. There was one spot that caught me out, a rough area of decent, that was fine and controlled with engine breaking, I thought I was through the worst and changed up gear and let the bike accelerate, only to see a rutted gutter just ahead. Needing to slow down, I applied a bit of back break (for those that have not ridden two wheels on loose surfaces, the back one is the only one that can be used safely as applying the front break is usually followed shortly after with the bike lying on the ground along with rider). Unfortunately I applied a bit too much of the back break locking the wheel and stalling the engine. No worried, just release the break and let the wheel restart the engine, problem solved right? No the surface was loose gravel and sand and the wheel had insufficient purchase to restart the engine, so instead I continued my descent with the rear wheel locked up, leading to some quick sideways action from the bike first to the left and next to the right, before the wheel found purchase and cranked the engine. Where is the go pro camera when you need it, although it probably didn’t look anywhere near as spectacular as it felt? Next obstacle that we had been warned about was one km tunnel. Two ways but not entirely two lanes! We could see the other side of the road so the instructions were to watch out for any oncoming traffic and not to enter if there was any one coming. We looked clear so in we went. There was really only one lane clear with the sides consisting of deep bull dust, not really conducive to upright riding. Thankfully we met no one and continued without delay. The valley narrowed and deepened as we traveled downstream. The valley around where we stayed consisted of hundreds of terraces that were made before Pre-Inca. Apparently the Inca also used and improved these terraces with irrigation and of course walls. They were particularly good at stacking stones, and textiles. These terraces eventually narrowed and finally disappeared as the country become too steep even for the Inca.

We came to the end of the gravel and pulled up at the viewing platforms for the Condor. There were a few people their. We found a vendor who was selling coffee from a flask, which was a welcomed warm up as we all got a bit cold on the bikes, despite three layers of Merino, full liners, and winter gloves. Being a wild animal there is no guarantee of seeing the Condor, and they only fly if the thermals are working. Geert warned us several times that we may not see them, and failed to accept my prediction that we would as there would be good thermals, based on nothing more than a feeling in my water, and a sense of optimism. On cue once we finished our Coffee and had sensation back in our camera trigger fingers, the first Condor came into view at the lower edge of the canyon! I told yak Geert.

Colca canyon is the deepest canyon in the world at 3000m? Deep. “The condor is the biggest bird in the world” Geert informed us. “What about the Albatross, that has the biggest wing span?” said Hax, “that doesn’t count” said Geert. “What about the pelican, isn’t that the heaviest?” said Harry. I thought the Ostrich is pretty big too, but sensing Geert’s humor fading, thought better than to mention this one. Poor old Geert, he should know by now he is guiding a bunch of smart Asses. We didn’t push the issue. Google later filled the gaps, confirming that the condor is the largest land based bird of flight. Whichever way you look at it it’s a beauty, very large and very graceful to watch soaring in the thermals. There were two adults and one juvenile, identifiable by the brown feathers, as opposed to the adults black and white colours. Geert had us set up at an excellent spot, and as hoped the juvenile landed for a rest on the rock not far from where we were watching, giving us a good view up close. Yes they are a big bird.

We spent about an hour and a half watching the Condors flying, during which a steady increase in numbers of buses and tourists arrived. In the last 15 minutes or so they had moved on, and it seemed a good time to get back down the road before any buses started heading down the road again. Back down the shingle road saw no incidents with me being much more careful of the gear changes and back break use. We stopped for a few photos in the valley, looking back at the canyon land and across the valley opt the pre-Inca terraces. We headed into Chive to fuel up, a dog cam e across my path and did not seem to hear me coming, which lead to an emergency braking episode and a near miss, by a few centimeters only. Geert later told me I should have accelerated and put my weight back to run the dog down! Hmm, I think the braking is the reflex I will stick with.

Back up the winding road to 4910m altitude. Enjoyed riding this road the other way, with a rapid climb to the maximum altitude of the trip once more. Lots of corners, with the extra thrill of a few unpredictable potholes and mid corner gravel. We stopped at the top once aging to soak up the view of the seven visible volcanoes. I did a jog across the road, up the bank and headed for the higher peak however this was just showing off for the camera as I did not have that much breath at just under 5000m. Back on the bikes and down the other side to the same lunch spot.

At lunchtime Geert told us that he has a bad reputation for never bringing the same number of riders back to the Peru motors hotel. With 80km to go into Arequipa, we thought that this information was a bit premature! We rode round the volcano Chachani initially on a plateau that had numerous Vicunas on it, then a gradual winding decent down to the lowland altitude of 2000m in Arequipa. After Geert’s warning at lunchtime, I was in no rush to pass vehicles on this road, and consequently followed a bus with a terrible lean presumably secondary to shot shocks. On every right hand corner it appeared that the bus was on the verge of toppling over. I think the occupants must have been feeling pretty queasy.

As we rode into Arequipa it struck me how much more confident we are on these conditions now after three weeks of riding in these cities. We are more confident in the push and shove give way rules (or lack there off) and are trusting that as we push and shove no one is going to hit us (not yet anyway). We fuelled up and then rode the bikes to the Peru Motors workshop where they are to get there post tour fix up. They no longer look like the pristine bikes that we started on, not only covered in dirt, but with a few bumps and bruises and in the case of Harrys bike with slightly shorter Hero knobs.

We headed out for a celebratory dinner with the three amigos, Geert and his girlfriend, who had fairly limited English but is a proud Peruvian, having a disagreement with the waiter about his recommendation of wine as he said the Argentinian wine was better than the Peruvian wine! We had the Peruvian wine.

What a great trip we have had. Glad that Geert didn’t mention the poor return rate of his customers until the last day. It has been a trip of superlatives: the driest desert in the world, the largest salt plane, the most dangerous road, the highest navigable lake, the massive alte Plano, and the deepest canyon with the largest bird. We have ridden over the highest sealed pass (according to Geert, how has looked for evidence of higher to no avail) and spent a prolonged period of time at an altitude that is commonly associated with altitude sickness. We have been surprised by the road quality, and had expected more off road, although none of us are complaining, as it would have been very difficult to cover the ground without these excellent roads. Great fun riding, interesting environment and culture and good company. The bikes have been good to ride, but a bit disappointing with how frequently things have been falling off them. Unlike the Australia trip where I was happy not to get on the bike again for a few weeks, I do not fell this way yet, and would be quiet happy to continue Oh well back to reality, looking forward to getting back to the family and routine.

Juliaca to Chivay 21.6.12

Up and away pretty early as no breakfast, through town without too much bother. Geert’s truck connected with bus on the way out of town, which was the first contact we have seen with his truck no damage done. Hax has had some contact with a van giving him a nudge I think in Lapaz but surprisingly there has been no other contact despite the push and shove road rules. We stopped for breaky and fuel at San somethingorother, a little town about 50km down the road. It seemed to take a fair bit of negotiation to order eggs from the roadside restaurant. The lady running the place had her bambina in a fabric sling. These slings are carried by many of the women, generally of very colourful fabric that is wrapped around the shoulders and neck, and can carry very heavy and large loads at times. The only way to be sure that she had a baby in there was to ask, as the baby is completely wrapped in the fabric. She was happy to let me take a photo of her and her baby, but did say something to Geert about me that Geert refused to translate, I can only guess the translation, possibly a challenge to my masculinity I suspect.

We climbed up to a plateau at about 4500m altitude. This was an enjoyable road that climbed to this large plane high plane. There was a range of vegetation as we climbed as usual, but was dominated by tussock type grass, then we stopped at a large lake that made it difficult not to draw comparisons with NZ with this looking very much like the McKenzie country, but of course on a larger scale and at an altitude that exceeds Mt Cook! Down the other side as we travelled west, and into dry dessert once again. It was cold and I was feeling very sleepy and about to pull over for fear of falling asleep when Geert passed us and directed us over to roadside stop where we could admire the view of the three volcanoes that surround Arequipa. These guts do look particularly active. El Misti is a perfect volcanic cone and erupts every 500years apparently (It last erupted 500years ago). Down from this high point then a right hander to the lunch spot. This road had a fair bit of carnage on it. We passed two trucks that had gone off the road into banks with serious consequences and one van that had gone off the road (on a dead straight stretch). We had sandwiches, while Geert told scary stories of road ahead with tales of hidden corners, chicanes and blind corners. With this pep talk we progressed cautiously but none of it came to pass. This was actually a fun road that climbed up to the highest part of our trip at 4910m. Of course there was a trinket market here so given that this is probably the highest sealed road pass in the world, and no doubt the highest roadside market we had to purchase a few things. It felt right to support these hardy soles that are up here selling their wares. Took photos of the 7 volcanoes visible from here, one of which is the start of the Amazon River. After a bit of time congratulating ourselves on how well we have acclimatized, winded down to the Colca valley with a loss of about 1500m in 20km or so, past Chivay to a small village with a nice eco hotel (not sure what qualifies it as an eco hotel). Geert had become anxious to keep moving so we could get to the hot pools. A quick change and off we went to the hot pools for a soak. We soaked for about two hours. This is a very nice location, with canyon walls, clean hot pools with a bar, so we ordered cervesa and pisco sour without leaving the pool. When it did come time to leave the pool I felt particularly heavy, not sure if it was too long in the pool or too much Pisco. Dinner at the hotel then early night. We are all a bit tired.

Cusco to Juliaca 20.6.12

The day started with me feeling a bit out of sorts, requiring some paracetamol, loperamide and acetazolamide (I rarely take meds, so must have been feeling sorry for myself!) followed by a brief lye down, then a harden up pill (psychological) and a series of strong coffees (I think these worked).

We had a change in plan today. We had planned to travel to Espinar, however there has been civil unrest with the area being put into a state of emergency, and is in lock down. It is an area that very few gringos go to, as it is off the tourist track, so the chance of us getting caught up was too high so we missed this and instead backtracked to Juliaca, better to back track for one day than to spend three months as a hostage, followed by a sticky end (I exaggerate (probably)). Not much to comment on as we were going back over the same ground, out of Cusco, up to the Sacred Valley gates, up the fertile valley with the harvest happening and lunch at the same tourist stop. Up over the pass and onto the Alta Plano again. We did stop for a break at an interesting little town with a nice plaza and a very old church. Followed a sign for the Banes (toilet) and followed the sign to find it was actually into someone’s house. We gave a tip for the service.

Juliana was described by Geert as a sh$t hole of a place, the worst city in all of Peru. It seemed OK to me as we came in, just another dirty city with chaotic traffic and a lot of beeping and whistle blowing police. Found the hotel eventually and later went to a pretty decent restaurant for a feed. Harry put himself to bed early and missed dinner, as he is not feeling well now. Hax, me and now Harry, must have had some bad water somewhere.

Day off Cusco 19.6.12

We were taken on Geerts, “World famous walking tour of Cusco, powered by Peru motors”. It turns out that Geert is a closet Incophile and knows a hell of a lot about the Inca culture and architecture, and has a real passion for it. He lived in Cusco for 6 months while learning Spanish and hence knows the place very well. Interesting morning wandering around the street of Cusco looking at the various grades of Inca wall, depending on the stature of the building.

We started with a look at the general lay out of the city as represented in an excellent street map made from concrete at the start of the Inca city. The Incas had heaps of gods, the most important being the Sun god, and a monument and fountain has been built at the start of the city. The city itself is set out in the shape of the Puma, which is another Inca God. OF course over the years it has grown to the shape of the geography, however the old city form has been maintained. We wandered up to the old site of the sun temple, the most sacred of temples for the Incas, with only the high priest and the king (Inca) being able to enter it. It was open roofed, and lined with gold so would have been fairly brilliant. The Spaniards when they concurred the Inca were not satisfied with beating them they set about completely demoralizing and squashing there culture and heritage (no cultural sensitivity in those days). Hence the took all of the gold and sent it to the King in Spain then demolished the temple and built a Catholic church on the exact site of the Sun temple. They were not silly though and they maintained the Inca wall foundations were excellent and gave a good foundation for the church. In keeping with the status and importance of the sun temple the walls are probably the best example of Inca dry wall masonry with the walls being perfectly smooth and 500 years later despite numerous earthquakes are still in perfect position.

We moved on to the city center and looked at the Catholic cathedrals of which there are three, one named after the triumph over the natives and depicting a Spanish Knight with a devil under his boot and sword, the next the main cathedral and the third something to do with the Family. Interestingly there is a fourth chapel that has been renamed (how history changes). It was a chapel where the Spanish inquisition occurred and people were tortured and murdered here in the name of religion. It was previously known for this use, “casa dela inquisition”?, but has been renamed to the “house of the holy sacrament” or some such thing, that disguises its bloody history, along with the bloody history of the Christianity in these parts. There was a huge fan fair occurring in the Plaza, with a stage set up for the Cusco dignitaries and a huge series of street dance troops from various religious, corporate, and school groups proceeding around the Plaza square. A very energetic and exciting atmosphere, with loud music, dancing, cheering and general good fun revelry. There were as always heaps of police present. We went down a few very old alleys and past important Inca walls. It is really interesting architecture as the buildings are generally build on the Inca foundation walls with adobe Spanish colonial buildings on top, with very ornate balconies. An interesting mix of two architectural style, both very impressive but quiet different, however they blend very well.

The “World famous walking tour of Cusco, powered by Peru motors” excludes any shopping however Geert had one exception for a shop that he felt had good stuff, not the usual ‘Sh#t’, so we dutifully looked in here and I purchased couple of gifts for the kids. We then progressed to the Dutch café, and had a pretty decent Coffee and some Dutch Balls, a deep fried delicacy, very nice. The tour continued, a stop at a high quality tee shirt shop, to satisfy Haxs search for the perfect tee shirt. I was told off by Geert for drifting towards another shop, much to the shop owner’s disgust. I dutifully went into the tee shirt shop and bought a tee shirt to wear on the plane, we are getting pretty smelly at this point. Geert reassured us that he receives no commission, but his shopping allowance was very tightly controlled, hmm I wonder.

The ‘World famous walking tour of Cusco, powered by Peru Motors’ continued, we headed up through the steepest street in Cusco, which is also very narrow, to another plaza where most of the artists hang out in this city. Another old church here. All of these churches are in very close proximity, and with a large Christ the redeemer statue looking down on the city, it leaves no doubt about the religious affiliations in this neck of the woods.

Numerous other facts and figures came flooding from our world famous guide who was very animated in his enthusiasm for this city and the Inca culture. (Less enthusiastic about the religious history other than to point out the numerous cruelties that have flowed from the church over the years). Our ‘World famous walking tour of Cusco, powered by Peru Motors” ended at a café for lunch, which Geert said we would feel at home in. Close but no cigar, it was an Australian flag at the door. Excellent café put together by its Aussie owner. Sadly Hax let on that he is not well and had no appetite and headed back for a lie down after this café. (Felt a bit better on the way back and lay on the grass watching the festivities, then had a one hour massage, and did some shopping!)

Harry and I took a taxi up to Tambomachay, about 10km up the hill. This is an Inca ceremonial bathing area, which is fed from a spring from the hill and is still flowing. We planned to walk back to town from there taking in a few sights along the way. Across the road was Pukapukara, the red fort, which is thought to have been either a hunting lodge, guard post or stopping point for travellers. It got its name as the granite has a red tint to it. Both of these are typical Inca stonework.

From Pukpukara, we walked down the road for a bit but then decided to cut across country and walked down the hill to a gravel road we could see in the distance. We commented that this looked like typical Puma territory, then got a terrible fright to hear the high pitched squeak of several guinea pigs, notorious wild hunters. Before we knew what was happening the surrounding hillside burst into motion, as the grass appeared to boil with a massive mob of previously hidden Guinea Pigs. There was a brief second when time seemed to freeze as we processed the impending certain death in the most painful way imaginable with guinea pigs slowly nibbling the flesh from our bodies as we fought hopelessly to free ourselves from the pressing masses. Guinea pigs, despite their cute looks, are vicious and highly organized pack hunters. It was every man for themselves as we launched into the downhill sprint for survival.

Now both Harry and I have studied the Flashman chronicles and have a few tricks up our sleeves from this invaluable source of rapscallion behavior. I speak for myself, but am pretty sure we are cut from the same cloth, when I say, once again, that I am a natural coward. This said we don’t call him ‘Harry the bastard’ for nothing. He ankle tapped me in a predictable attempt to knock me down and thereby save himself by my sacrifice to the surging mass of guinea pig death. Of course I predicted this move and went with a quick forward role and was straight back to my feet but not before hurling my Nikon camera in a Kung Fu Panda style, mid role hurl at Harrys feet. Harry had underestimated me and caught by surprise failed to stop the camera strap successfully wrapping around his ankles, and down he went in a grinding heap. “Brilliant!” I thought, “I’m clear now”. There was a spine chilling high pitched, squeaking noise as the hungry mob descended on Harry’s prostrate body. Harry was to his feet in a flash though and only two of the pigs had managed to get a hold of him, one by his ear the other at his neck dangerously close to the jugular, the guinea pigs favorite target. Harry ripped the pigs from his body as he used all of the martial arts training skills to full effect in a cartwheeling descent, the successful pigs flew of at high velocity, followed by a squirt of Harrys blood that seemed to intensify the resolve of the pursuing Guinea pig mobs enthusiasm for a feed of Gringo. 

To my shock Harrys cartwheel technique was incredibly successful as he sped past me. As he passed me he picked up a huge, square and smooth rock, presumably an Inca building block and threw it to me. My reflexes let me down as I instinctively caught the bolder and naturally slowed down. With this brief loss of pace, the pigs grabbed at my ankles! In a peculiarly detached way I felt the sharp teeth penetrate my skin. The pigs moved as a mob but worked as one. The first pig with its teeth in my flesh held on with a vice like grip, as the next following Pig climbed up his back to reach the flesh of my lower calf, then a third was up the backs of the first and second ones to fly at my mid calf with its terrifying buck teeth fully extended. Just then in a moment of clarity I realised I still had the boulder in my arms. I dropped the boulder down the back of my leg which had the effect of ripping the pigs out of my leg leaving ragged wounds, but more importantly the stone completely flattened the three pigs and momentarily shocked the pursuing mob into a rapid retreat. There cute little legs going in a blur in the reverse direction causing several of them to lose grip and go into a head over heals tumble. I wasted no time to get back into my pace.

Meanwhile Harry had become discombobulated with his vertiginous decent in a high speed and sustained cartwheel. He seemed to loose control and go across the hill rather than down the hill. This is a terrible mistake if you are ever in this situation, as the guinea pig has the greatest speed across the hill, compared to the straight down hill descent where their small front legs put them at a critical disadvantage. Harry seemed to regain his senses and stopped the cartwheel, and started running again, but his world was clearly spinning, as he couldn’t maintain a straight line. Now once again this is a terrible strategy when being pursued by these man killers, as those same short front legs while hopeless for descending are brilliant at rapid change in direction. It looked like Harry was doomed and I was free, as surely one Gringo would satisfy this pack of pigs. Just to be sure I took the opportunity to scream at the top of my voice “ Cuidado! Cuidado!… there are Llamas!” (Translates roughly to “Danger, Danger… there are Llamas!”) pointing just down hill from Harry. I felt the sweat triumph of watching Harry panic and slow down. Everyone knows that Llamas are even more dangerous than guinea pigs.

I felt the panic subside, as Harry was clearly doomed. I watched with morbid curiosity as the pig pack flowed down onto him like a horrific guinea pig tsunami.

Clearly I forgot HTB is also the explosives expert.  

Harry in one smooth movement, with calm certainty, even under the shadow of the wave of razor sharp buck teeth, pulled a stick of dynamite that he had saved from the silver mine in Potosi, out of his back pack, lit the fuse and threw it to me.

Damn my reflexes. I caught it and the guineas seemed to understand what this means. Pre chewed food…

Of course I am writing this, and lets not forget who the hero of this story is, so the dynamite obviously failed to explode as expected. In fact now that I re-read this part of the story that last bit didn’t actually happen. The squeaking was a peculiar long billed bird, or flock of birds that flew off once they saw us. We continued our peaceful walk down the hill.

We were uncertain of our chosen path, and there were a lot of horses being ridden down this gravel road, which had us wondering if we had lost our way. It was a real wild west scene again with two cow boys galloping after three horses running with all of their will, in what at first looked like and escape attempt, but then it became clear that the cowboy was whirling a rope around his head and the head of the horses to keep them running, so he was just burning off energy I guess. We trusted our instincts and traversed to the next monument successfully. This was Q’enqo. Another Inca ruin that is made around a limestone outcrop, and had a series of caves, with areas for presumed sacrifices, and ceremonies.

Wet traversed across the hill once more and gained our bearings when we saw the Jesus Christ statue. We went across to the main event of Saqsaywaman (pronounced “sexy woman”, by us anyway). It means satisfied Falcon. It also represents the head of the Puma city plan. This was the main fortress of Cusco and is really very impressive for several reasons. One is that it has three levels of fortifications, in 22 zigzag patterns, which provided a defense barrier, but also represents the teeth of the head of the Puma. The really puzzling thing is the sixe of the rocks, they are huge and weighing several tonne. They are shaped in the typical Inca pattern, interlocked on several planes and must have been lifted into place and removed numerous times to get the fit perfect, all with human power. It is not know how they did this or what tools they used, a bit surprising really. The Inca had no records however the Spanish documented everything when they arrived, but despite this no record of tools or building methods. This is a big site, however only 20% of the original fort remains, with the rest of it having been removed by the Spaniards for their own buildings.

We were admiring the view of the city from the top of the fort. An American couple asked Harry to take a photo of them if front of the city. He obliged, and then they asked “would you like a photo with your friend?” “oh no thanks I don’t really like him” Harry replied, they looked puzzled, I added “he only hangs around me because he gets lost easily”, they looked quite concerned and retreated into the fortress.

We headed back through town to check on Hax who was still alive, and in bed. Hax still had no appetite so Harry and I were guided to the best guinea pig restaurant in town. The festivities were still in full swing; they were dancing in the streets. We went up to the restaurant in the plaza and Geert ordered our Guinea pig. They are only little so we ordered another dish as well. The Guinea pig came out on a plate, whole with a pepper in its mouth. We got a photo then it was taken away and chopped up into quarters and returned. The skin was very chewy, and the flesh was like salty rabbit, well I guess it was more like guinea pig really. There was an excellent local band playing panpipe and flute dominated music. Dancers accompanied them and were very vigorous at times. I was dragged up onto the dance floor by one of the dancers and made a hash of imitating the local dance moves. I resisted the temptation to break out some bath towel moves, which can be used to any music in a truly cross-cultural dance routine. We took the Guinea pigs head home in a doggy bag to offer to Hax but he was sound asleep. He didn’t want it for breakfast either?

Ollantaytampo to Cusco 18.6.12

Slept in this morning, then after breakfast went for a walk around the village. This is one of the best-preserved Inca villages in Peru apparently. Very tight alleys with a variety of houses in various states of design and decay. The streets are typically cobblestone, and have gutters with water flowing through them in a controlled manner from the river. The hills surrounding the village are dominated by Inca fortifications and buildings, all still in pretty good condition considering they have not been maintained for much of the last 500 years. We wandered around looking at the village, people and markets. We stopped for a coffee as Harry got excited to see a coffee machine of the same brand as his one at home. It was a pretty good coffee, but this was helped by Hax directing the barista about stopping the extraction sooner than he otherwise would have. People were busy in their business in the plaza, which is mostly selling trinkets to tourists. Whenever there was a tourist bus stopped in they swarmed with their textiles and pottery. There was a family with small children in the plaza and the mother was caring her baby in a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. This same blanket form of baggage is the main way that things are carried by the women here and most women seem to have one over their shoulders, the only give away that there is a baby in it is if a leg or arm is sticking out.

As we were walking back we found an art gallery and Harry and I bought a piece of art each. Back to the hotel, packed and then off for another day on the bikes.

We headed out on our freshly cleaned bikes, cleaned by the hotel staff while we were out, who also took great joy in giving use fruit from their garden, gooseberries and a passion fruit type of fruit as well as tamarillos. The clean bikes did not last for long as we headed down a gravel road then followed the railway line for a km or so before heading up another gravel road into the hills. We were headed for Moray, an Inca archeological site. We wound our way up the hill past a group of horses walking up the road, and a motorbike with three people on it. The terrain flattened off and cultivation began. Hax stopped to look at a depression in the ground with circular Inca walls. We stopped to photograph the interesting landform, and Geert speed past. There was a group of people meditating at the bottom of the depression, playing music, and generally getting in the way. A few jokes were made at the expense of this group, then Hax, the usual laid back Hippy type jumped on his bike and said “meditate on this!” gunned his engine and took off in a shower of gravel from his spinning back wheel. Good old Hax, he is no ordinary Hippy.

Just around the corner was the car park for the Moray archeological site, which the depression was part of. This is an interesting area of three natural depressions in the ground, the deepest being 70m deep, that the Incas terraced with typical Inca dry stonewalls. They used this as a laboratory apparently doing genetic engineering for various crops to try to get them to grow at altitude better. At the bottom of the depression it is up to 15 degrees warmer than at the top. Sadly they failed to cross wheat with Llamas to create the ultimate altitude crop, but they did manage to optimize the various crops that they relied on. We walked around and down into the largest depression. The steps into these were once again the typical it seems steep of flat stones protruding from the wall, very handy but very widely spaced. It must have been a challenge for the Incas who had an average high of 145cm according to Geert, as they would have been carrying a load up out of these areas, and the step must have been at the limit of their stride. I had a go at meditating at the bottom, but it was no better than anywhere other laboratory or farm.

We continued along the gravel road to Salinas de maras. This is a pre-Inca slat farm. It has been functional for many years (not sure how many). The mineral rich water flows rom a spring in the hill and this is directed onto a web of terraces, with 2000 terraces, where the water dries out and leaves the salt. There is a complex web of channels that direct the water into each of these 2000 terraces that are controlled by blocking the appropriate channels. The water had a very strong brine taste, and the white terraces were quiet a sight.

After lunch we headed into Cusco. This was another very important Inca city, which became less important after the Inca Empire fell to the Spanish. However it had resurgence with the rediscovery of Machu Pichu and is now a thriving tourist town. A bit of a challenge getting to the hotel Geert had booked due to road works in the street of the hotel creating a complete roadblock. Got there eventually weaving the bikes in through the maze of wet concrete and holes in the pavement to get them of the road in the hotel yard.

Wandered to a massive trinket market, and marveled at the similarity with all of the other trinket sellers around the country. Same stuff different city. Dinner was at Geerts favourite restaurant, the Fallen Angel. This is quiet a place, set in an old attached house (for wealthy people) with a central courtyard. A beautiful historic building but it is so packed full of art, figurines and disco balls etc. that it is difficult to see the building. There are four hotel rooms in the upstairs part of the courtyard that have been kitted out very lavishly and can be hired for about US$300 per night, the owner showed us the two that were not in use, with pride. Another excellent meal was had by all. Hax couldn’t resist the cocktail menu and had a Latin Lover. Don’t worry Sarah, it didn’t taste that good.