Wow!

We had thunderstorms and heavy rain most of the night in Huancayo so it was nice to listen to while I digested my Cuy (guinea pig) dinner and worked on the blog. In the morning there was fresh snow quite low on the mountains but it looked like it was going to be a nice day so we headed for Huancavelica and hopefully the high pass towards Ayacucho. Because of the rain there were lots of slides that had come down on the road. It's amazing how fast the road crews here get on the job as we had only minor delays and made Huancavelica in good time. When we were getting gas in town there I asked a policeman about the road we were headed for. Basically he said its okay unless it rains then it's really bad. It only looked like it might rain so we thought we'd go for it. The policeman even had another cop jump on the back of his bike and they escorted us through town to find the road. It's a good thing they did. It would have taken us at least half an hour to figure it out. After they said goodbye and left us they turned around and came back to tell us that it could get really bad if it snows.

South of Huancayo and the weather was getting better.

Weird rock formation.

I snapped this from the edge of the road while we waited for crews to clear a slide. That road is down by the river. The farms go way up the mountain. I'm pretty sure people have to walk up there because we couldn't see any roads, only trails.

Our helpers in Huancavelica.

We started climbing (getting the idea? it's always a climb or descent) out of Huancavelica on a pretty good road but we could see a storm brewing ahead so we were laying on the throttle pretty good. It didn't matter. Pretty soon it was raining and hailing. It was nice there wasn't much traffic. That should have been a hint. We only saw buses and trucks and not many of those. We crossed this altiplano near Pucapampa that's supposed to be the highest (4500 m) habitable altiplano in the world. There was a small village there but we didn't see anybody and didn't stop for pictures because it was hailing way too hard. There were hundreds of llamas grazing here in the open range and the guidebook said we might even see the rare and highly prized ash-grey llama. We saw quite a few of them. We went through the main Abra Chonta pass (4853 m) but the goal was to turn off here and hit another pass. Our guidebook said this was the highest drivable pass in the world at around 5059 meters above sea level. At the turn off to the pass we stopped to confirm directions from some truck drivers. They thought we were nuts but we headed up there despite the crappy road and the fact that it was now snowing. It was only a three kilometer detour but it was a bad road and we met three trucks coming out of a mine somewhere. Neil went right to the pass but I found a good spot to turn around about 300 meters before the summit and waited. The lightning on the ridge above the pass also influenced my decision. Actually, my head was throbbing a bit too. From the altitude I suppose.
We got out of there and headed toward Ayacucho. The road continued to get better but there were heavy thunderstorms with rain, snow and hail. We went over yet another pass, the 4750 m Abra de Apacheta, and the rocks were all kinds of amazing colours. A sunny day to come through here would have been awesome. Even though we got rained on pretty good, we were very lucky to avoid the worst of the storms. Somehow the road always turned down a different valley just as it looked like we were gonna get it.

Our first llamas

Approaching the altiplano near Pucapampa.

Approaching the Abra Chonta pass (4853 m) and between thundershowers

This was the highest drivable pass (5059 m). Neil was just around the corner with the lightning.

Headed for Santa Ines and another thunderstorm.

Dodging another storm.

When I first came around the corner I thought this was a waterfall. It was some huge mineral deposit. It looked like it was all formed by a little spring coming out of the ground near the top center. Pretty cool.

We kept at it and eventually hit pavement which was nice as we now had to make a little time. It kept raining until just before Ayacucho where it cleared up and was absolutely beautiful. Back in the film days we called it a Kodachrome day. I was wishing I had my old film camera. The sky was so blue and the mountains were so green with these really dramatic and brilliantly white clouds. Pretty awesome. I just couldn't capture it on the digital camera. On the last ridge before we descended into Ayacucho we could look back and see the blackness of the storms we had left behind. It was a good thing to leave behind.

Coming down the hill into Ayacucho.

We found a good hotel right near the town plaza in Ayacucho and listened to more thunderstorms while we ate dinner. It rained most of the night again. In the morning we hunted again for the road out of town toward Andahuaylas and Abancay. Did I mention that you need to be a clairvoyant to find your way around down here? There are very confusing road signs and almost no street signs. The easiest way is to just ask someone on the side of the street. They are usually very happy to help as long as you engage in a little small talk about where you're from and where you're going. The road started out not too bad but eventually deteriorated into a quagmire. I dumped my bike on a slimey corner coming up the hill out of Ayacucho and pulled the mounting bracket of one of my sidecases. I'd already figured this might happen and used a ratchet strap as a temporary fix to get us going again in quick time. The road continued to get worse and the construction crews along the way found us a little entertaining although they gave us a lot of encouragement. It took us a 9 hour day to do the 250 km to Andahuaylas and we crossed over two 4200 meter passes enroute. We were both bagged at the end just from being so totally focused on not falling in the greasy mud of the road. I was kind of ticked off too because I'd fallen again when my wheels went on opposite sides of a log that was buried in the mud. It was all funny after but I was pretty much covered in mud from the tuck and roll. We went for Chinese food that night and I could barely finish my beer I was so tired. Unfortunately, for some reason, my camera didn't record any of the pictures I'd taken that day.
On Saturday morning we got up to the sound of more rain. For some reason we thought is was paved road from here but Ohhh No. We had about 138 km of gravel to get to Abancay and the kid at the gas station said that takes about 6 hours. Awesome. We took a wrong turn out of town and it was super greasy and slimey and I was starting to think about staying put until the road dried up a bit. Luckily we sorted it out and the road wasn't too bad for the first while. Then of course it got really foggy. I may have mentioned before that people like to drive on the wrong side of the road at blind corners. Well, they do that in the fog too. Not too sure why but it definitely adds a twist to the ride.
At one point I looked back in the mirror and Neil wasn't there. We had just crossed a creek so I figured something must have happened there. I pulled over to run back to the creek and realized we were at about 3500 m ASL or so. About halfway back to the creek I was huffin' and puffin' and couldn't run anymore. Luckily, a local had stopped to give Neil a hand with his bike. He'd bumped up against a rock during the crossing and couldn't hold the bike up and it settled into the creek.
In general it wasn't a bad ride but it took us about four and a half hours to do the 138 km to Abancay. From there it was an uneventful but nice ride to Ollantaytambo. The climb out of Abancay was pretty cool though with all the switchbacks. I didn't count them but if you have a look at Google Maps it will give you some idea of how twisty the road is. When we parked in the town plaza in Ollantaytambo some people gave us some advice where to stay as it was the only place they could find with parking for bikes. It turned out 3 biking couples were staying at the same hostel as us. It was kind of cool because we got to exchange stories from the road and where to go and where not to go. Except for us, everybody was headed north. One couple from England (who had sold everything to do it) were in their second year of travel and had shipped their bike to South America after traveling through Africa. It might be cheaper to send the bike to South Africa rather than Vancouver when I'm done. Wouldn't it? Hmm...

Almost needed a bath and it got worse.

The road was awesome until the fog rolled in.

On the road to Abancay. You can see a farmer working his potato crop.

It's almost perfect now. Foggy and muddy.

I had stopped to take a picture and this Toyota truck stops. These guys pile out and want pictures of themselves sitting on my bike. The guy with the camera wanted to know if my bike was for sale. If the road was any worse it would have been.

A typical house for this area.

One of the very many villages we passed through. I still can't get over how populated it is here. Everywhere.

Abancay is the brownish area near the top center of the picture.

Rio Apurimac between Abancay and Cusco

Ollantaytambo is a very small town 90 km by road northwest of Cusco. We chose to stay here because it's a convenient place to stay before heading to Machu Picchu. We actually took Sunday off because we were so tired from the previous 5 days riding. I know... Booo Hooo! Anyways, it was a good place to hang out. I got some Christmas shopping done and there was lots of ruins right here in town to look at.

This is a typical street in Ollantaytambo.

Above Ollantaytambo looking across from some ruins to other ruins on the other side of town.

Ruins overlooking Ollantaytambo.

This is really someones front door in Ollantaytambo. The stone is Inca original and it's very common in town.

More Inca handiwork.

On Monday we took the train to Machu Picchu. I don't even know what to say about it. It's incredible. You just have to go see it. It's not just what the Incas built, it's where they built it. It's amazing. We hired a guide for two hours and it was well worth it. He said it may have only taken 90 years to build what we see. If you go, take the train ride. It's a pretty cool way to see the dramatic drop of the gorge of the Rio Urubamba and the transition from the semi-arid Ollantaytambo area to the cloud forest around Machu Picchu.

This was stonework on the royal buildings. They got the best. Naturally.

Someone advised us to walk up to the Sun Gate for the view and put everything in perspective. I'm glad we did.

You can walk to the top of the pinnacle in the background to see more ruins. It usually takes about an hour. The record up is about 30 minutes. The record for coming down is held by a German tourist: 12 seconds. It's pretty steep.

On the train ride back to Ollantaytambo.

Some entertainment on the train ride.

In comparison to the previous week, today's ride was pretty boring. We followed a wide river valley past Cusco to the 4312 m Abra La Raya pass southeast of Sicuani. From there we continued to the city of Puno on the shore of Lago Titicaca at 3800 m above sea level.. The scenery was still beautiful, just different. It kind of reminded me of the Alberta foothills. It was a 500 km ride in the rain and wind and hail with temperatures around 4 deg C. It seemed pretty easy compared to what we'd been doing.

More of Neils' friends.

See you in Chile.