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Just out to get some milk - a three year RTW journey!
JUST ANOTHER ‘ROUND THE WORLD JOURNEY
Is the HUBB the seed or the fuel? I think that for most of us it’s the fuel. We learn of the HUBBs existence once the thirst for information has formed and slack our need at the forum font of textual adventure and possibly the best Q & A sphere on the planet. For me this is no different. But everyone has their own seed. A sentence or phrase, a chance meeting, a documentary, it comes in a variety of genres. Mine was a chance meeting in Turkey with a couple of German overlanders in 2003. I can’t remember their names only that they were riding Africa Twins and that they had journeyed from my own homeland, Australia. At that time, I was riding around Europe and Turkey by bicycle doing 3 month stints at a time. The concept of one continuous trail from A to B by motorbike seemed amazing to my 27 year old mind. The seed had been sown. But, as many on this forum would attest to, this seed needs nurturing and time, maybe this is what baffled my younger self! Skip forward to today, ten years, 10kgs and baldness later and here I sit, joyfully about to reap the fruit of that seed sown so long ago. The plan is to ride from my home that I just sold in Cairns down to Brisbane. Ship the bike to Peru, learn Spanish while travelling for a year in South America before heading up through Central America and into the North. Gently meander towards the east coast before another freighting to Europe. Walk the Camino De Santiago De Compostella, mosey on through France, Germany, Austria, Italy and into the Baltics before once again revisiting Turkey. Hopefully skip across to Egypt, Israel and Jordan before making our way through Iran, some of the Stans, China and through the Karakoum Pass and into Pakistan. Another visit to India then into Kathmandu before the flight to Bangkok where we hope to island hop to East Timor and the final flight home to Oz. We will take three years to do this, well, that’s what I am telling my parents. In reality it could be more or it could be less but so many people seem to need to assign temporal duration to these things! I will be volunteering around 50% of the time, couch surfing, teaching English, learning Spanish, camping, bushwalking and just basically taking my time. I have sold my house, my business, my car and most of all my belongings apart from the sentimental stuff, lets see how far this can take us? And I say us as my wife has decided to join me for this adventure. It was either that or get a divorce, there’s no way she would let me go without her! So, to be honest, it’s our adventure but with me doing the piloting! By the way, her name is Carlie! We are riding a 650 V-Strom bought especially for this trip. Research done, wallet checked, researched again and then we have what we feel kicks the goals to get the job done, her name is ‘Zora’. There is a pile more info on the bike and us at our blog site rtwbymotorbike.blogspot.com.au So here I sit, in Brisbane after the official ‘shake-down run’. Testing the gear, the bike, myself and the quality of beer along coastal Queensland, Australia, now crossing “i’s” and dotting “t’s” organising the first shipment to Peru where the real journey begins. So far so good, but the best it definitely yet to come, join us for the ride! From the road – Mark and Carlie https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...count=1&ref=nf |
Congrats!
Congratulations on taking that first step over the "cliff." Look forward to following your circumnavigation on the HUBB,
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Just stepped out to get some milk ...............
Mark & Carlie,
I'm nearly twice your age(s) and I so envy you. Go for it, and keep in mind Mark Twain's famous quote about regretting the things you didn't do rather than the things you did. I look forward to following your adventures. Cheers, DickyBeach, Sydney |
Hi Mark & Carlie,
I wish you a very interesting and safe trip. Mark, congratulations with a wife that wants to join you on a trip like this.:thumbup1: I'm looking forward to reading your trip reports here on the HUB. Please, make a lot of pictures ! |
:thumbup: very excited to read your blog. have a great trip!:scooter:
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Mark & Carlie,
I am excited and happy for you both, it seems you have the right stuff, a keen spirit and a sense for adventure. Mark, you write well, I will be looking forward to reading of your travels over the coming months and maybe years. Very best of luck to you both, Paul - in Tasmania |
RTW
I saw on your blog the prep of the bike and maybe you would consider a better rear supension and different spring fork for the weight that you carry , I did it on mine and after 40000 of travel I still think its one of the best mod.
Have fun |
I like the seed or fuel sentiment. There is certainly a loop of inspiration and possibility.
Any chance i could borrow some of your Australia to South America logistics research. Will your bike be registered and insured in Australia the whole time? If so which insurers are worth talking to.... Sounds like a great trip... all the best.. |
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Cheers |
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yes, the bike will be (read: needs to be) registered the entire time. Of course the gremlins in the transport department say that you can't register a vehicle while o/s however get a friend to do it for you and there shouldn't be any problems. As for insurance, I have spoken to the governing body for insurance in this country and they have told me that there is no facility to do this from Australia, ie no aussie company will insure a vehicle while o/s. The result of my research, I will do as many have done in the past and insure my ride with persistent vigilance, calculated risk and careful observation. I rode a heavily laden bicycle through many, how shall I say this, dodgy places around the world and took out the same insurance policy then with no ill effects. Cheers - Mark |
G'day Mark & Carly,
My two favorite Spanish phrases! Dos cervezas por favor. & the obligatory, Dos más por favor. Looking forward to tales & photos. With a bit of luck, I wont be too far behind you, fingers crossed .... Have everything on the market and I'm chomping at the bit. Happy travels! Cheers Dave |
Will follow with interest.
Sounds facinating ,lots of photo's Please.Noel:D
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It's a long one!
After a mild flurry of report activity to get the ride report started things seem to have stalled somewhat. I’m even hesitant to post a report that reports on the lack of action to report on! However there is no doubt that while these ride reports are filled with plenty of action on two wheels, I for one, enjoy the reports for more than just gps coordinates, mileage stats and endless photos of motorbikes in front of amazing backdrops (although that stuff does appeal to my sense of how the world SHOULD work). Other aspects such as the human element of the journey, the emotional discombobulation and the low level trauma, put the colour onto the pages. If that’s the case, then let me get my paint brushes….
In the last post I had almost finished my shakedown run. Things went so well for the entire 2000 odd kms that I started to strut, believing I had out-run Murphy and had lost him and his ilk in my dust. We all know where this is heading. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3rFTxGUcej...71613458_n.jpg I had the bike booked in to be crated up for its journey across the Pacific but from the moment of meeting this filthy creature in charge of this most important of tasks my heart sank. And I knew it was too late to change. Rather than accepting my offer to assist and pull the bike apart he demanded that he be left to do it, saying that there was no need to remove the front wheel or even the panniers. What? With no option but to leave my beloved motor with him I knew that the shipping agent would have a field day with this! The bike was booked on a 48 day voyage from Brisbane, Australia, to Callao, Peru with the sailing date for the 18th Feb. Emails and phone calls to the agent to ensure that things were running smoothly put my mind to rest. That is until the 19th when the agent calls to tell me that it missed the boat. My second “What?” moment. Excuse making aside I really couldn’t believe that this had occurred. I was due to fly out the next day, all these bookings had been premeditated and paid for. OK, so now my guy tells me that it will be on another boat now heading via Singapore and Busan, Korea and should arrive only 2 weeks later than planned. Skip forward to today, now 60 days past the original date of departure and I have just been informed it will be another 3 weeks. I am running out of “What?” moments. I understand that shipping these things can be difficult and there are so many players and that quite often it is simply a case of putting it down in the notebook of life under ‘experiences’. Reading someone else’s story like you are doing then you would agree with me I’m sure, these things happen. When they happen to you though there is a black-forrest cake of emotional layers going on with more bitter than sweet. We should be on our bike by now, getting the adventure underway. Its hard not to get angry at the shipping agent but I have been misled by him now on more than one occasion and now he is threatening to withhold the bike in Peruvian customs. I read other reports of folks saying how great their shipping process was and can’t help feeling resentment that I picked a lemon! But I have a favourite saying, “I have the patience of Ghandi, the optimism of the Dali Lama and the bank balance of Mother Theresa”. I try to live this rather than just jest with it! And so, to fill in the time we have been living in Arequipa for the last 8 weeks in a Spanish language school. Whether or not I can speak the lingo or simply murder it with a level of finesse I will reserve judgement on. We also took the opportunity to visit the local Colca Canyon, an incredibly amazing crack in the earth for a 4 day trek. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fa-9ZjLTxV...0/DSC01528.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NRYZGszT7P...0/IMG_1481.jpg Now its time to make our way to Lima, slowly, and hope that I don’t get another email from my shipping agent! Cheers folks |
So finally we are underway.
We sent our bike by sea, Brisbane to Callao, the shipping agent giving us a 48-53 day wait time. We thought to spent that at a Spanish language school in Arequipa, arm ourselves as it were, with the linguistical weapons for the next year in Latin and Central America. As it turns out, we chose our language school well and our shipping agent exceptionally poorly. Finally, after more than 90 days and continual misrepresentations and frustrations later, our bike arrived. The crating performed by the agents guy in Australia was abysmal. I paid 450 valuable dollars and was able to pull it apart by hand. It only had two sides, was open at the top and seriously, held together with clingflim, it was industrial type however! My pride and joy arrived filthy dirty with bags of belongings just thrown in haphazardly. I’m not sure what I should do about this agent. I want to warn others against his unprofessional service and downright lying ways but don’t want to get bogged down with all the negativity. Short to say, if anyone would like more information on who NOT to ship with, PM me! http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9MZeskWvH5...0/DSC01617.jpg The Peruvian customs was a 4 day nightmare but the karmic gods kicked in with the good stuff and smoothed over the warehouse procedure by providing me with a lovely young lass with perfect English, spare time and a staff pass that jumped all the queues! Released from bondage and it was time to wrestle with the traffic that I had been a passenger to for the last 3 months. Let it be said that the Peruvian driving technique is a blend of bumper cars, telepathy and blind faith. Here we go, into 6pm nighttime peak hour traffic into the centre of Lima from the very dodgy port suburb of Callao to our hotel. I needn’t have worried, the 12 kms were almost bumper to bumper, horns baring, exhausts exhausting. I didn’t have a crash nor even get lost, I might have gotten lung cancer though! Next day we pulled all our belongings apart and for the very first and very exciting time packed the bike for her truly maiden voyage right in the courtyard of our hotel of course. Then program the GPS while muttering a short prayer to the gods of satellites and out into the world we headed. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BIM1APQJ-C...0/DSC01627.jpg Our first day was always going to be a short one and we made it to Barranca, a seaside town just shy of 200kms north of Lima. Locate a hotel, unfurl and its was off to the owners recommendation for a ceviche dinner. Ceviche for those who don’t know and should, is a Peruvian version of a dish found in many coastal areas around the world. Basically grab your fresh fish, filleted and chopped, mix with lime and lemon juice and other regional spices and eat. The acidic juices actually cook the fish. It’s great. After a sleep that closely resembled a coma we were back and up on the road, again heading north. This time our goal was a bit vague, not knowing what colour rabbit we are able to pull out in these early stages but we are powering on up the Pan-American. I know that many of you who have done this trip before will be sitting on there with a tongue-lashing at the ready, let me explain. We have a volunteering commitment in Ecuador which we are now later for, thank you Mr Pretend Shipping Agent. We plan to return back down through Peru in September and stay high in the mountains, in fact we will not see the Pan-Am once on our southward journey. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vc0rcZlQfk...0/DSC01632.jpg So after what we thought was a long day, only 360 odd kms, not bad for a second full day on Peruvian roads, we arrived in Huanchaco, just on the seaward outskirts of Trujillo. And here is where a small admission is necessary. I made a rookie mistake. Before I could even get that first beer down I started feeling terrible. By 7pm I was done. I had dehydrated myself during the day, so much so that it was decided to take a rest day the next day. I know, soft huh? Anyway, lesson learnt but it did provide a rather sleepless night filled with vivid hallucinations and flashbacks. Cheap thrills. Today we have made it to Puira, our last Peruvian sleep before the 120 odd km push to the Ecuadorian boarder and our next country. Our day today filled with low grey skies, intermittent rain and suicidal bus drivers. The scenery has been breath-takingly boring. Apart from some teasing glimpse of the Andes foothills in the very distant background and the worlds largest rubbish dump cum dessert in the foreground then you will have to excuse the lack of photos in this post. Tomorrow its off to Ecuador. Now, its off to dinner! |
Good read! Not that it makes you or anyone feel any better, but I too have had issues EVERY time I have shipped vehicles or bikes. The best was when I shipped a truck from Baltimore, Maryland to Southampton, UK.
It didn't make the boat (like your bike) despite being there ONE MONTH early. Then, they told me, not to worry, it would be on the next boat and would only be one week late. Fantastic! That part was true, but what they failed to tell me until much later was that the vehicle was delivered to Bremerhaven, Germany, NOT Southampton, UK. So, that was obviously fun trying to get that out of customs and of course arranging to go pick it up. Hooray for shippers! |
Please help out other travellers by reporting on your shipment.
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But it sounds like your experience was worse than many! Please fill out the Shipping Form here and let other travellers know about it. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/node/add/shipping Then, the next person who wants to ship this route will know to avoid these guys, just in case they haven't seen your post here! You could be saving someone a lot of aggro. In turn, next time you have to ship your bike by air or sea, check out the Shipments database and maybe save yourself some time and money. :thumbup1: Shipping the Bike | Horizons Unlimited Glad you're finally on your way, though, and hope it only gets better now! :D Cheers, Susan |
Thanks Susan,
I have updated the Shipping section with my story. The journey is underway now and already the drama is fading into the distance in the rear-view mirrors! But the lesson HAS been learnt....... Cheers |
I really enjoy reading your posts. Keep up the good work!
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Into Ecuador....
We crossed the border into Ecuador at Macara with little challenges. The biggest hassle a wait for lunch to finish which we dealt with by hitting a nearby ‘menu del dia’ ourselves. After a frighteningly quick inspection of the bike on the Ecuadorian side and we were through. The customs fellow almost signing the last paper from his car window, he clearly had a hot date lined up. Once into the country we plotted our next leg. I had heard of a great ride from the border north and away we went. The twistys began and the clouds fell in sync with the rain. From 1000kms of boring straight Pan-American highway this was my personal silver lining that wasn’t to be. The fog got so thick it was hard to even get close to the posted 40km/h (even though those of you with sharp eyes will be able to spot the speedo in the pic!) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4c30MmY9K2...0/DSC01643.jpg Up until then the road was a brand new ribbon of freshly laid tarmac, winding its snake like way through the densely jungled, steep sided mountains of the lower Andes. Nothing but a tease to now having to over use my rear brakes. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LleAcNpcrd...0/DSC01644.jpg But things got pretty exciting pretty soon as the fresh road disintegrated into muddy slush, newly churned by the road workers currently taking shelter in last gas station for who knows how many more kms! Now a small admission might be due here. I’m not so good on the dirty stuff. I like the fast corners, late braking cheap thrills of the black-top and the plan was to slowly ingratiate myself into the muddy stuff, especially with a fully loaded bike complete with a wife suffering my abuse at the road through the helmet intercom. The next couple of hours turned my pristine brand new motorbike into something I am kind of proud of, a real touring bike! The road was a mess and the rain was falling as quickly as my mood. But somewhere inside my helmet came that voice that many adventure riders must hear, “toughen up princess, THIS is price the ferry man demands for future joy!” There are many different ways to look at overlanding. A fair-weather ride and take shelter from the rain or as an endurance contest. I am somewhere in the middle, I’ll do what I have to to get the job done but I would rather conditions looked more like the motorcycle commercials on TV! In my infinite wisdom (a phrase my wife will roll her eyes at), I missed the turn off to a supposed campsite. Now we were faced with a longer day ending in Santa Rosa around 8pm. It’s only the first week and already I had battled the mud and dirt and broken my rule of not riding at night. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PiAfE_g1ZY...0/DSC01641.jpg But cut to the chase, we had an appointment to keep that we now had to hustle towards. The result was the need to stick to the torture of the E25 main Ecuadorian highway north. A heady blend of carbon monoxide, crazy overtaking techniques and my own personal game of traffic frogger with the overloaded trucks. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g9uinopTVT...0/DSC01633.jpg 3 days, numerous rain showers and uncountable close calls later we finally start the climb into the cloud forest where we had organised a week or so volunteering in a bird sanctuary/lodge. I should have taken more notice of the adjectives, ‘cloud forest’. We met the man in the small, quaint, rain soaked town of Mindo who gave us directions to the lodge. What followed was a road that made the previous muddy track feel like a German autobahn. Once upon a time it was the main road from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. This would have been around the time of the Romans I think. Now it was a slippery, muddy goat track skirting precipitous drops into the wet depths of Hades. At one point I think my training as a whitewater rafting guide came in handy. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d5QC4oVsMo...0/DSC01665.jpg I am happy to report that the score of Mark vs gravity is still well in my favour. What I didn’t count on was the cold, both temperature and that expelling itself from my body. For the last 10 days we have been doing odd jobs around the lodge, mine mainly focusing on marketing the property strangely enough. Carlie has been busy in the kitchen and teaching English while every chance we get we get out to checkout the amazing bird life. What the owner doesn’t know about birds either isn’t worth knowing or would be boring enough to comatose David Attenborough. And he is a great photographer, so good in fact that even I managed to snap a couple of worthy bird shots in his company! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zoq9s7UObX...0/IMG_1976.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7QR2E0ItLj...0/IMG_2189.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cE8bialrFN...0/IMG_2292.jpg Finally the weather has turned enough to inspire us to head onward. Carlie has booked us a couple of tickets to the Galapagos where we will spend a week or so in the footsteps of Darwin, whose weighty tome I have now made myself a challenge of to digest in readiness. So the bike has copped a clean, a minor service and a stern talking to in preparation of the road out of here. Or maybe it was me that get the stern talking to, I really have to learn to turn the intercom off on the dirt roads! |
The Galapagos - not much riding in this one ....
Hey folks. We just spent some time out in the Galapagos, one of the '
"must's" of Ecuador in my mind now. I know that there is not much 'ride' in this 'ride report' but I thought to share my experiences. 1000kms west off the South American coastline lies a small archipelago of rocky, arguably barren, collection of motley islands. Their name, quietly and reverently heard in places likely to subscribe to National Geographic, is the Galapagos. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HkFbRHkdWt...0/IMG_2601.jpg By some stroke of luck they were visited by a young 27 year old naturalist whose thoughts and ideas were both quite revolutionary and inflammatory. But in 1832, some 28 years before his famous book, a young Charles Darwin was quite taken by the place, and so were we! Skip forward to today and even though his grizzled yet thoughtful likeness graces the front of tacky t-shirts and cheesy coffee-mugs, there is little doubt his influence has saved many a playful sea lion or grumpy iguana. All this and he only mentioned the islands a mere 26 times in his 200 plus page publication. By another stroke of luck these ramshackle volcanoes in the ocean have also been claimed by the country of Ecuador. I very much doubt the future tourist windfall was in the forefront of the sovereignty all those years ago. But it is now. The cash bonanza that is eco-tourism economics is laying golden tortoise eggs. With up to 125,000 camera toting nature tourists visiting each year, the recipe is perfect for ecological destruction; putting Darwin’s ideas of Natural Selection to a real life test. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LzB8fWndWI...0/IMG_2886.jpg What chance does a graceful pink flamingo delicately feeding on nearly microscopic prawns have against the almost boundless resources of the tourist, hungry for that perfect bragging photo or the local industry that has risen to serve them? The answer lies in the best example of sustainable tourism I have ever witnessed. Gone is the dynamite fishing of the Philippines or the Japanese tourist doing a Kabuki dance on fragile coral in Australia. Here the unobtrusive signage is strictly adhered to, nature not merely respected but almost reverent and a highly trained guide to hold your hand, or slap it, as navigator. For our journey his name was Ivan. Just as quick with facts as with his own brand of questionable humour. In the Galapagos nature is the star, but to fully appreciate her beauty, you need to know her story and Ivan is her biographer. You know he is pimping his knowledge and that there have been many more before you but it still feels special. From the ‘chicky—chicky’ mating dance of the Blue-Footed Booby, through the colour changes of the Marine Iguana of Isla Espanola up to the dubious excuses for the national football team’s failure, his insight was invaluable. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jB-LKIGjFr...0/IMG_2708.jpghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Ssyt6jg4-...0/IMG_2447.jpg The animals themselves display and arrogance bordering on annoyance at us bi-peds. Their genus blissfully unaware of the destruction capable by us so-called top-of-the-food-chain dwellers. Our mastery of nature to do such things as build cities in the desert and create antibiotics is no more than a bit of historical flatulence to a 200 year old tortoise. It’s when a 7 week old sea-lion pup can scatter a highly paid executive out of his way that you know nature has a chance. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uD-8YsgvCh...0/IMG_2918.jpg And while every journey is unique, our foray seems particularly lucky. Out of season Humpbacked Whales, endangered Chatham Mockingbirds, swimming with Hammer-Head Sharks, Galapagos Flamingos close enough to touch and of course clear skies to illuminate the turquecent waters bordering white sandy beaches. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pq4i07r8a8...0/IMG_2984.jpg Time has stood still for the original inhabitants of the islands, but it wouldn’t for us. Even at 8 days we have barely scratched the surface, flitted from one immensely complicated ecosystem, memories made with Nikkon or Cannon, then to another just like Darwin’s’ Finches! It’s not hard to penetrate the minds of those who have dedicated their lives to the study and preservation of this area. And as I try to keep a steady hand against the swell of an ocean devoid of wind but full of life in depths unfathomable, it is a lesson we all need to remind ourselves of; nature is king and deserves our loyalty. We should pass the hat around and bring the Chinese Communist Party, maybe the Saudi Royalty and even the CEO’s of the world out to the Galapagos, just to spend a captive week with Ivan! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sX4oS3G8_E...0/IMG_2932.jpg |
Awesome photos - on my bucket list. Thanks for the report
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Beautiful photography! Many thanks for posting.
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Its been a while between updates. This is where I procure reasons somehow relating to the speed of the trip or some type of adventure that has kept me away from the keyboard. Given enough time and liquid inspiration then I’m sure I could conjure tales of such entertainment. However I will try to keep this report factual.
The past couple of months have actually been spent indulging in what I call ‘slow travel’. It’s the kind of movement through foreign lands that befits those of us who are time rich, but money poor! Back from the Galapagos and in Quito we didn’t hand around long. Reunited with the bike, Carlie and I went our separate ways for the day, her to explore the old town and do some shopping for some essentials, me to find a place to watch the spectacle that is a World Cup Qualifier match in South America. These people take their football seriously and the whole city came to a stand-still for the duration of the game. After a 1-1 draw with favorites Argentina the streets were filled with drunken Quitoans, not sure if they should party or commiserate. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6q43T2zby5...0/IMG_3052.jpg The next morning we chartered our way out of the city, once again realizing that we were completely at the mercy of the GPS for our sanity. We were heading back to the coast but firstly a early morning ride over a high pass had us colder than we had been so far on this trip. Yet again we made a rookie mistake and didn’t dress appropriately. The result, Carlie was to spend the next week with a minor case of bronchitis. But these trips are always about the learning curve aren’t they? On a brighter note the weather was clear and the road west down to Santo Domingo was spectacular. Two-laned twisties with correct camber, small road side villages and a pleasure to blast past the trucks and buses. One village in particular notable for its hanging pigs, must be a local specialty but I was having too much fun to stop for bacon. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XVH_EO5Hah...0/DSC01890.jpg We made our destination of Canoa in good time and begun the search for a place that offered camping. Being just out of season however many places were either closed or had simply decided that campers just don’t bring in enough dinero. Finally we found a place on the beachfront that would accept our low budget and set up camp. We ended up staying for over a week with a couple of great nights with a Dutch family who had been traveling for around 8 years in their tricked out Mercedes truck! I cut a deal with the owner of the place to do some photography and website work for beer, trust an Australian to work for booze! But our second volunteering gig was fast approaching and off south along the coast we headed to the small village of Manglaralto, 2kms from its much bigger and touristy brother, Montanita. Where the later was the scene of cheap sidewalk cocktails in plastic cups and dreadlocked surfers, the former was the sleepiest, most genuine coastal village you could imagine. A place where kids played on the streets and cars were a bit of a rarity. Our task here was to assist in building a 4 room hostal for some local owners. Having been given free reign over the style of the place we let our creativity loose. Carlie got colourful with the paints while I built doors, windows and decorations out of bamboo. We had a great two weeks with the other couple, Andrew and Danica before yet again it was time to move on. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UjwSLvfYQj...0/IMG_3163.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fz5qk2DfcH...0/DSC01849.JPG This time however, it was the ride and not the destination that was to be the focus……. .. |
On leaving the coast we were to head up into the Ecuadorian Andes and our third and final volunteering job for quite some time. We have been travelling at near snail-pace, criss-crossing the country enjoying the amazing diversity that Ecuador has to offer. I sometimes read ride reports that have people ‘do’ this country in 3 or 4 days. Well, hopefully they will get the chance to revisit this amazing country properly later on in life!
We had allowed ourselves 4 days to make the roughly 470kms from the coast. Plenty of time to indulge my new found hobby of discovering roads that the good people at Garmin only see fit to give the thinnest of thin lines to! The first day was without a shadow of a doubt my hardest on a motorbike. Ever. Once we started into the foothills the road condition didn’t deteriorate, it plummeted. From smooth asphalt to 4 inch thick sticky mud in 5 kms. Add to this switchbacks that would have Salvador Dali scratching his head and inclines more often found on escalators and it really is no surprise that I dropped the bike for the first time. Ever. It was one of those back wheel spinning, forward momentum stopping, gravity winning type scenarios. All was well and the obligatory photo taken before hearing another vehicle approaching, the first car we had seen for almost an hour. After a battle with the mud we were upright again and on our way. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vzdRUcB4Uu...0/DSC01859.JPGhttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VTOpdPpkYd...0/DSC01867.jpg Now we are riding a VStrom. So far I love the bike and it has performed flawlessly. But few will argue with me that there are better machines for mud and serious off-road action, especially 2-up. But my philosophy is ‘test the limits’ and this day certainly put my money where my mouth is! Finally we crested the pass and things dried out. That’s not to say that life got significantly easier. The road continued to be a mixture of large rocks/small boulders, gravel, sand and pebbly river crossings. I don’t know what the designers had in mind for this bike suffice to say that in all the sales literature I saw before purchase I never saw it on a road like this. Finally we reached some better road and then hit the highway. But my flights of backcountry fancy were yet to be satisfied. Another ‘interesting cut’ was on the menu before our destination was reached. Now I call them ‘interesting cuts’ because no-one who could seriously say they know me would ever call my diversions from the given path ‘short’! This one had us take the back road up the Andes, a little used, locals-only, rock and gravel incline which, while providing some spectacular scenery, seemed to go on into infinity. At one point we asked a fellow and his wife how long to go. He said about a day, but he was on horseback! Onward and upward we traversed, my choice of Heidenaus justified as loosing grip now and we would get a closer inspection of the houses in the valleys far below. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b4hCq_DG9I...0/DSC01882.JPGhttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-by6GsK-YNo...0/DSC01939.JPG Just as I was starting to make rash promises to myself never to test the map making skills of Garmin again, our destination hove into view, the chronometer now registering dark and my need for a beer registering urgent. I have no idea the name of the hotel I slept in, the restaurant I ate in nor even the city I called home for the night. But I do remember the sense of accomplishment I felt. This is the shit for which we do these things! .. |
With our destination a small village tucked in the Andes near the famous Laguna Quilotoa and 3 full days to get there we took our time. First stop was the small village of Salinas where in the 70’ and 80’s an Italian missionary decided to empower the local people to pull themselves out of poverty, their claim to fame had been the highest infant mortality rate in the region. He taught them how to make small goods, chocolate and cheese and the results are spectacular for our ‘chicken and rice’ enforced diets.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4r4QUpiLSD...0/DSC01873.JPG The weather turned tragic after lunch, just in time for our ride over the nearby 4000m pass. As we got closer the clouds got heavier until they could contain themselves not longer. Then the temperature dropped to around 5 degrees. Then the wind really started! To cap off this lovely ride, a drive the guide book waxes as ‘stunningly scenic’ with ‘towering volcanoes’ the road workers had moved into the area and left kilometers of churned mud and gravel as the ideal surface. A surface I was now horrified to see was bordered by snow! Now I know there are people that live in cold places and the idea of snow while on a motorbike wouldn’t have them catch a bus. But I hail from significantly warmer climes, the tropics in fact, and my simplistic philosophy reads like this ‘if there’s snow, don’t go’. Amazingly however, as soon as the summit of the pass was breached all traces of rain, snow and even mud disappeared. It was almost as if a switch had been thrown. It was still as cold as a mother-in-laws glance but the road now stretched on into the distance, miles of nicely curved tarmac heading down into Ambato. The next 4 hours were monopolized by traffic jams, one-way streets and two large cities, but at least we could now remove layers of clothing. In fact we even had to crack out the sunscreen, giving the locals in cars surrounding us plenty of diversion watching me apply this in the thick of slowly moving traffic. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qm2C0ojXl7...0/DSC01887.jpg After spending the night in Latacunga it was off up and back into the mountains. A perfect road wound its way west and up, sheer motorbiking joy on a road all to ourselves. After a memorable 2 hours it was time to hit the dirt again at Zumbahua and towards the laguna. I know I go on about the cold but this place at 3900m was simply too much for us Aussies. It was however made for up by the laguna itself. An extinct volcanic crater now partially filled with water is on many a travellers list and for good reason. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJvhWKhAIx...0/DSC01911.JPG http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-03NuNBYNrU...0/DSC01942.JPG Thats a landslide between a 2km ride home and back tracking! http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5hKh1AT0J2...0/DSC01943.JPG That's me back tracking.... Next day we wound our way on small dirt back roads skirting the Toachi Canyon, a 1000m gouge into the soft volcanic soil stretching 50km north of the crater. This part of the world is not just going to be our home for the next 5 weeks but it just happens to be incredibly beautiful. Walking tracks and dirt roads wind their way from village to hamlet in between rustic farms and farmers. It will be quite strange to be off the bike for so long but this will be our final volunteering gig for a couple of months. Then its off back to Peru, on the back roads of course. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NUe7zTVYmC...600/hiking.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N0Taw58T24...s1600/girl.jpg |
fantastic.
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Leaving Ecuador
We were heading back to Peru, where drivers want to kill you, chickens that want to die and dogs sleeping in the road that clearly don’t care either way.
The roads in Ecuador were spectacular pretty much since 30 kms out of Macas on the edge of the amazon. Once I battled thru the road construction that is. The road, winding up the eastern slopes of the Andes, was wet marbles in heavy cloud. Finally the roadwork finished but then the surface was still slippery slick and unpredictable asphalt until we breached the pass at around 3300m. The fog finally parted at the behest of a fearsomely cold and gusty wind to reveal a scene taken directly from the glens of a Scottish tourist brochure. We didn’t stop to sample the waters as the ambient temp gauge on the dash had slipped below double figures some time previously. But this same wind had also dried the roads to allow full use of the tire sides. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hRzWpMMoC2...0/DSC02071.jpg We carried on thru villages and valleys taking sometimes 40kms to cross a valley 2kms wide and 1 km deep. We passed the Nariz del Diablo, failing to see the fabled engineering feat but marveling at the sheer valley walls and endurance of a couple of bicycle tourists we waved to. As the sun got closer to the mountain clad horizon we hit traffic and negotiated our path into Cuenca. The GPS again the savior in cities, whose otherwise clear grid patterns have become a labyrinth of one way streets. We found our digs after a nice chat with a chap who would have loved to have bought a DL650 but the high import taxes of Ecuador adding another 40% onto the price I paid in Australia. I had to drop a pannier to get the bike into the hotel courtyard which made a perfect site for our first South American oil change. Finding an oil filter was mission impossible so I had to use the one I was carrying. My preference would have been to hold on to the spare for a place where civilization would not be so civilized but the hour wasted in the search was forgiven in response to finding two of my favorite consumables, tapas and micro-brew! http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NLb1Gqmt6w...0/IMG_3556.jpg The next day was a long one, but still on great roads towards the border. First up was a high and cold pass out of town but then things started to warm up. The layers started to shed like a drying onion. Finally we were warm after almost 2 months or more of cold conditions. I made the statement that I would rather be sweating in my suit than shivering in the rain. Let’s see if that comment holds up! Macara was better second time around. A nice parrilla followed by a midnight banging on the door by a seriously misguided fellow tourist. I think she will consider carefully before knocking on doors after 10pm in the future! The border crossing went smoothly. The customs guys in Ecuador only checking my papers on my request and telling me that I could return to the country at any time in the future, against some advice I had received on the forums. The Peruvian fellow epitomized the differences in the countries. Indolent, sloth, grumpy and argumentative versus easy-going, professional and facilitating. All things considered it was an easy crossing, given my experience now of a sample size of two, both at the same place! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ewdnubSsXf...0/DSC02115.jpg The decision not to cross south of Vilcabamba was sealed the day prior when we hit the deck near Loja. Rounding a corner I first saw the landslide from the right hand side of the road. I had about 4 seconds to make a decision, a veritable luxury in motorcycling terms. What to do? The rain had turned the dirt into mud but I saw plenty of tracks through already. So far the road integrity in the wet was good. There were 3 options: hit it hard and fast and pray to the gods of momentum; get in a good road position and speed, grab the bike with the knees and stay clear of the front brake; or stop, hopefully in time in a wet corner. In the 2 seconds of luxury I decided on the middle option, ride it straight and with good velocity, around 30-35kmh. I was off the brakes and on-line when we hit the change in the road colour. I don’t even know how far into the slick we got before we were down. A low side fall that finished with the rear of the bike closer to our destination than the front. It was a calculated decision in a pressure situation based on zero experience. In my own defence we could barely even stand in the mud without slipping, a fact we discovered maybe too late! But we were fine, the bike no more than muddy but my confidence had gone back to primary school being bullied by Paul Jennings in the playground! Let’s just say that the next 20kms set no lap times! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-soiDqs5OZZ...0/DSC02093.jpg |
Returning to Peru!
Crossing into Peru and we were back in the dry, hot, barren north of the country, sheltered from the rain by the Andes Range, it was dry and crispy. The road, apart from the frequent chicken and surprise speed hump was fine. A short-cut took us through places few gringos get to write home about and fewer still that would want to.
For the first time in months the road stretched ahead, straight and unwavering. It was with pleasant acceptance tinged with some guilt with which I now rode. For over 100kms the landscape remained static; huge hazy mountains on the left, heat shimmered plains of stunted growth to the right and the regularly broken yellow line hypnotically pulling me forward. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kHJNi67Sg6...0/DSC02124.jpg Once we hit Olmos I wasn’t to know but I was about to ride some of the best mountain roads known to motorcycling. This time we headed up the western side of the Andes monoliths, again the road turning back and forth on itself like an epileptic serpent. As the sun was getting low the search was on to find a suitable camp site. Now it’s not for everyone and there are always arguments for and against but we practice the art of ‘stealth camping’. We never trespass, knowingly anyway, or damage property. The skill is simply to find a place away from eyeballs where we can set the tent and cook some dinner. Our campsite on this day came both with these attributes and also one other desirable feature, an amazing view of 3000m mountains in the setting sun- quite possibly the best campsite I have enjoyed! Apart from the odd stray dog and a shepherd with her herd of scraggly looking sheep we were left in peace. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QSsbF56nBt...0/IMG_3572.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wo9L6D5eXd...0/IMG_3581.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dre44v2sCM...0/DSC02140.jpg The next day we continued into the mountain range on fast and curved roads until an odd sound from the bike enforced a quick stop just outside of Bagua Grande, a huge valley where the temp is said to be the highest in Peru. Remember though, I’m not complaining. We stopped in front of an old girls place, her run-down mud brick hut sporting a shady tree and one of the only pigeon coops I have seen in South America. We learnt two things over the next 15mins of sharing some cookies with her; that she raised the pigeons for food and that the bolt holding the crash bars in-place had completely given up the journey! Not a critical discovery, either one, and so the day continued towards Gotca waterfall , beside a rapid river and through valleys so narrow that at times the cliff hung precariously and defiantly over the road. After a short miss-interpretation of the actual location of the falls we arrived at the small town whose name I can’t remember but view will never forget. Again we camped but this time in the yard of a hostel, our financial saving on accommodation re-invested into a delicious bottle of Chilean red at the flash hotel next door. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ONtrnO9PTt...0/DSC02153.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k3lS-6d8cK...0/DSC02161.jpg Breakfast and a 3 hour walk later we could mark off the worlds’ 5th highest waterfall from our list. Back on the bike and into Chachapoyas to a hotel with parking. We like to mix it up a bit, a couple of days camping and then a proper bed to sustain the fine balance between sanity and fiscal responsibility. That afternoon we treated ourselves to THE BEST steak since I sold my BBQ back in Australia. Our destination the next day was only 80kms in distance but would take us along dirt tracks clung to cliff sides whose bottoms could not be seen, and not because of the non-existent traffic barriers either! We headed south and then up, towards Kuelap, an ancient pre-Incan ruin said to rival Macchu Picchu but without the crowds. Well, I know why. The road was tough and potholed but thankfully dry. It took us around 2 hours to do 40kms to which our reward was the chance to camp behind a brand new tourist facility that while finished, was yet to be opened. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dsfQzaXp0c...0/DSC02215.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V2s7aAAl8A...0/DSC02219.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XXfxZOhi1P...0/DSC02225.jpg Our Kuelap experience was a memorable one but it certainly had us hoping that the people were wrong about MP. The amazing thing about this place was two-fold. Firstly it required more stones be brought up the 3100m mountain than the pyramids of Egypt, during the 6th century mind you and secondly it was only discovered in the 70’s. We wandered around the complex in relative peace, disturbed only by grazing alpacas and screeching Peruvians, the view FROM the site possibly trumping the actual view OF the site. An early morning return was rewarded with an amazing sunrise over the very mountains we would be winding our way through that day. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ye-ndxlj3N...0/IMG_3610.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7szMW-hv4l...0/IMG_3616.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUfe-UQeok...0/IMG_3629.jpg Skip another 80kms down the road and we have found ourselves delayed for 12 hours by road works in Leymebamba. It’s not on the tourist trail and I doubt that situation will change in the near future. But they have coffee and it’s not raining, two things in my motorcycling life I truly enjoy! A few pics from a visit to the local markets. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7qr0s1h7ev...0/IMG_3521.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zsqfy0vcXn...0/IMG_3537.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9XaZ7dDPim...0/IMG_3544.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sDmSos5jr5...0/IMG_3551.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gJ8GrXLhWp...0/IMG_3553.jpg |
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The Galapagos KO's the budget but even with the fiscal thoughts in mind I would do it again in a heartbeat! It's almost too easy to take great photos when you have the best models! Cheers |
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it almost feels decadent to be writing up all this stuff. Sometimes I look back at the pics and scratch my head thinking, "wow, is this happening?" Hope you are enjoying the ride with us! Cheers |
Finally the harried road worker dragged the barrier across the dirt road and out of our path. Only now it wasn’t just our forward momentum that had been halted but a chain of honking, revving, cat-calling cars, utes and trucks, all venting the same frustrations I had felt some 9 hours earlier when told I would have to wait for the road construction to conclude for the day. Only now I felt for the lass in fluro-orange safety gear only doing her job!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_5d11VZDpt...0/DSC02230.jpgWith the typical Peruvian que-jumping we were off up the hill. The time was late and we had only one destination, to find a campsite after the road works and before it got dark. Quickly the road rose upward while the verge dropped away. Within 5 kms the road had taken on path-like characteristics, only this path had no hard rails and a drop that would leave very little for my next-of-kin to bury . In front of me drove a Hilux, full of men and crates of beer, their voices the loudest back at the roadblock. I now focused on their tail rather than risk another glance down to my right towards the dusky, twinkling lights of the town I had just left behind far below. Finally the tarmac started and the road began to edge it way from the provision of imminent and gory death. As the temperature dropped and the heavy dirty clouds rolled in things started to get worrying. Night was falling fast and we had yet to spy even the faintest attempt at a campsite. This was no road to ride in the dark! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AkalNoAQnW...0/DSC02237.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-obslVn0nw_...0/DSC02244.jpg Rounding a bend we saw a siding left behind by the road workers, not perfect but it would do. A cold moist night ensued, the absolute peace broken only by the occasional dare-devil driver and a bird in the morning that must have had avian Tourette’s. Back on the road and 8 degrees on the dashboard told us why we were so cold. While a rising and falling fog teased us with glimpses of scenery we knew was there. Once again, cresting the pass at around 3400m and the weather became Dr Jekyll to the fogs Mr Hyde. Now the motorcycling challenge wasn’t so much to ride the right line but to keep the eyeballs off the scenery and the wheels from taking flight over yet more precipitous road sides. We were now looking into a valley that held our destination, 2kms closer to the centre of the earth than we were now. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s5zQtLZ4vZ...0/DSC02255.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--zalXD0cuo...0/DSC02256.jpg The road, now a worm with Parkinson’s, no piece of straight blacktop longer than 300m, gear changing up and down enough to wear a hole in the boots, the brake lever continually on the move and the valley floor still unseen. Slowly however, as if the ambient temperature gauge and not the odometer was the judge of our location, the air lost its chill and started to motivate thoughts of shedding layers of clothing. From alpine heather we were now riding through irrigated fields of mangoes when we hove into view of Balsas, a dusty, sleepy, ramshackle collection of mud brick buildings before learning once again that the road was closed. This time a 6 hour wait was our reward. Now it may seem strange but while we awoke to the low single digits, we now sought shelter and shade from 40 degree heat. Our companions in the village square for the day a sleeping grandfather whose occasional conscious moments were spent yelling out the names of the fruit he was trying to sell. Also in attendance was the not so occasional Anthony, a 9 year old local boy with plenty of time and plenty more questions. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jZRuDilK-q...0/IMG_3671.jpg Finally, as the shade of the canyon had only just begun to alleviate the heat, the barrier was raised and again we were off. The new tarmac lasted for around 5kms before dirt prevailed. This time a liberal sprinkling of water was apparently required by the road builder, our path now a mud slick complete with impatient bus drivers hurtling towards us. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IjPF0jogCU...0/DSC02270.jpg Yet another stop at the road works before things really started getting interesting. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XjwCE9KHxc...0/DSC02273.jpg The next 20 minutes of riding we have no pictures for. Not because it was not spectacular, but because it was so dramatic. Once the surly Peruvian lass allowed access it was all engines revving along a churned up muddy road, to which I became the last to traverse. Barely registering 20km/h, my eyes were firmly fixed on the road. After about 3kms of this the road reverted to its original hard-packed dirt with two clear and safe tire tracks edged by soft and slippery gravel and dust. I had the chance to lift my gaze and take in my surroundings. To my left a rock wall, to my right, no more than 1m from my front wheel, nothing! Absolutely nothing but the chilly, pasture scented air from farms 1000m below. I could feel Carlie freeze behind me, her legs tightening, willing me to stay upright and straight ahead. To make matters worse, we were in the right hand lane, a complication should we encounter any on-coming traffic on this one-laned excuse for a road. But things were about to get much more challenging as the beginnings of an amazing sunset threw scarlet splashes through the Andean sky. It wasn’t the approaching darkness that concerned me, in fact once night had fallen it was much easier to focus on the road. No, the problem now was to take in this brilliant sight and still stay alive long enough to write about it. Sure, priorities! Easier said than done as huge cumulonimbus clouds turned shatteringly pink as they rose over majestic peaks and valleys, the whole scene now presided over by a purple sky. Time stood still. My mind schizophrenically torn between the need to survive and the need to be mesmerized. It could have been 30 seconds or 30 minutes but eventually the light faded and my life was now consumed by gravel and gear changes. But we made it to town; I drank four beers and wrote this story! |
First off let me warn readers that there will be an excessive amount of photos of mountains in this post. Not because we have taken up climbing, nor due to any new-found enjoyment of the cold but simply because I am an Australian. A place where the highest ‘peak’, and I use this word loosely, barely scratches the atmosphere above 2000m above sea level. Now here I find myself in the Cordillera Blanca, or the White Mountains. It sounds very ‘Lord of the Rings’ like and some of the scenery would give that cinematography a serious run for its money (sorry Kiwi reders). But I will let the pictures speak for themselves……
This area was always marked for a hike or two. Carlie wrote about our warm-up day-hike to Laguna 69 in a previous post. Now it was time for the main attraction, a 4 day unsupported walk along the Santa Cruz route. First up was two days up a monster of a glacial valley passing icy cold and amazingly turquoise blue lakes of snow melt. Take the backdrop of 5000m+ mountains away and you could almost think of a tropical island. Until the wind kicked up and reminded the weary walker that it was time to don the third layer of thermal clothing! On day 3 we crested the pass at 4750m, surrounded by white mountain monsters (possibly home to the Latin Yeti), unfathomably clear skies and a group of 18 walkers on a tour complete with donkeys carrying their entire luggage, food and bicycles! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MnARdecpZw...0/DSC02606.jpg Yea, we climbed around 2kms UP for this photo! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jjI4VFDRIX...0/DSC02610.jpg The tourists could have at least carried the bikes themselves! I don't think the donkey knows how to ride. Then it was into another valley for one of the coldest nights I care to endure before gratefully completing the walk and hail the next bus back to town. Our driver now sporting the fuzzy, downy moustache of one to whom it is a novelty. And we were about to descend what is to date one of the most amazing roads I have ever seen! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Hzcf2mU92...0/DSC02628.jpg That's our road just there! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mrzhIU1PE_...0/DSC02642.jpg Not sure what to write here apart from the pic simply does no justice! Back on the bike and it was off now to Huaraz, 80kms down the valley to meet up with Zach, a fellow motorcycle traveller I met online. Our journey appeared to converge for the next 1500km so we thought to join forces with another intrepid soul and share the journey. I have to admit that this was not my first online date. I had dabbled in the dark side of internet dating once before with mixed results, my experience this time was one of pure enjoyment. Zach proved himself an infectious source of optimism and adventure, not to mention numerous travelling luxuries including travelling slippers, a real folding chair and to my own joy, nutella! For the following 6 days we found our way through the Peruvian Andes along some amazing road through some even more amazing scenery. Again, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tiagcdnpNx...0/DSC02702.jpg Yup, it's a two way highway! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hq6uAgnzjl...0/DSC02708.jpg Traffic jam, Peruvian style Camping was high on the agenda, however for the first 3 nights we found ourselves unable, terrain, population or climate forcing us into the grittiness of Peruvian city life. Our first night was in the outstanding Huanuco, outstanding in its utter confusion, smog and overabundance of casinos! Next night was Conception, our choice of hotel so inspiring I wrote a story about it! Third time lucky we stumbled across a nice place in Ayacucho and the bikes even managed to evoke some jealousy from both Zach and I by spending the night in a fully stocked liquor store! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FD1HZg1hmK...0/DSC02720.jpg We asked if we could sleep here too! The next day we hit that ever-present scourge of Peruvian trails, road works. This time forcing us to spend a night where I have no hesitation in boasting that we were the first Australians/motorcyclists/white people to call home for the night. Again, enough to evoke a story from me! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yaG9VRRDXt...0/DSC02725.jpg We had quite the sizable audience that night! Due to the road block we had to be up and past the barricade before 7am. This was to prove to be a long day in the saddle. If I was to tell you in kilometres I would lose credibility immediately. However just after lunch the road turned to dirt until 5pm. Then the town we planned to stay in gave ‘decrepit’ a new meaning and we shot for a camp site supposedly 15kms further. 25kms later we were still searching, 40kms later we realised we were now over 4000m high and it was now too cold to camp and to enhance our enjoyment, the sun had set. We ended up camping on a basketball/football court out of sight of the road! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9dZ2lk8xfS...0/DSC02735.jpg Camp? Basketball? Football? Hide from locals? This place had it all! And that's Zach on the left. Next day we made our triumphant entrance into Cusco, our destination, full of our own piss and wind, high fives all-round. We were kings (and queens) of the Peruvian Sierra. There were now pubs to navigate and beer bottles to trade for handlebars. |
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After spending a few relaxing days in Cusco wandering the streets, eating tasty food and checking out the Incan and colonial stone architecture, it was time to make it to one of the new ‘7 wonders of the world’ – Machu Picchu. Some people travel all the way to Peru, just for the ‘MP experience’, but for us it was (not) just another destination on our long journey. Machu Picchu receives up to 4000 visitors PER DAY – people arriving there by train $$$, by foot on the famous Inca Trail $$$ or, as we did it, ‘by the backdoor’ $.
It was a convoy of 4 motorbikes that left the hostal Estrellita (little star) on a drizzly Cusco morning. We had been riding with Zach, from California for the past week or so, south from Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca, and we’d just met up with Frank (Florida) and Alex (Austria) in Cusco. It was a little tricky negotiating the wet, cobblestoned, one way streets, but once we were out of town and on the way, the rain cleared up and the roads dried off. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KDWV283sC7...0/DSC02778.jpg bikes in the Cusco hostal http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vamVahhY4N...0/DSC02775.jpg Our travel buddy, Zach Our route took us through the Sacred Valley where we had a coffee break in the quaint but touristy town of Ollantaytambo, and then climbed almost 2000m over a spectacular pass surrounded by snow -capped mountains and glaciers. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YdogUvDnhH...0/DSC02780.jpg coffee break http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fk0p41R5bm...0/DSC02802.jpg up the mountain pass As soon as we crossed the pass into the next valley, the weather changed into a misty rainy mess, so it was a slow careful wind 3000 down to the valley floor, to the dusty jungle town of Santa Maria. Luckily by this time, the weather had cleared again and it was a dusty, but not muddy 30km of dirt road winding high above a river canyon to that nights destination of Santa Teresa. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nR4-ZuNc1f...0/DSC02809.jpg weather turned nasty http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WenXgL2Eyy...0/DSC02830.jpg road to Santa Teresa There was nothing particularly special about the town of Santa Teresa, but we had heard that there were some especially nice hot springs nearby. We parked up the bikes in the hotel lobby, grabbed our towels and headed to the baths. Now, we have seen some awful thermal baths on this trip, and some barely acceptable ones, but the Santa Teresa ones were wonderful! Sparkly clear water in natural rock and stone pools, surrounded by towering green mountains. We stayed until we were wrinkly! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8ejHuheXm5...0/DSC02914.jpg after a long days ride The next morning we said goodbye to the bikes, and caught a 30 minute taxi ride to ‘hydroelectrica’, which, as the name suggests, is a hydro electric plant but also the end of the railway line that runs from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu village). The is a walking path that follows the railway line for 12km through a lush jungle setting all the way to Aguas Calientes. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QdPaTb0iPw...0/DSC02842.jpg walk along the railway tracks We arrived in A.C. a little after midday, and after stopping for a cold drink, found an abode for the night. A.C. was by far the biggest tourist trap we have seen on this trip. Think.. super inflated prices, touts in front of every restaurant (which all had identical menus), and bands playing loud obnoxious pan pipe renditions of 90’s hits, to which overweight, slightly intoxicated package tourists were dancing in the streets! But.. it was set in the most spectacular of locations – deep in a narrow valley of towering jungle clad mountains, atop one of these which Machu Picchu was perched. The alarm clock went off at 4.30am, as Mark and Zach planned to hike up to the summit (basically an Incan stone staircase 600 metres high) for when the gates opened at 6am. I couldn’t think of many activities I would like to do less at 4.30am, so I opted for the overpriced bus trip to the top. The first bus departed at 5.30am, but by 4.50am there were already about 100 people in line in front of me! Mark and Zach encountered the same phenomena when they arrived at the gate to the walking path which opened at5am – at least 100 in front of them and even more behind. They likened the climb to a race up the mountain! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--17Ys6tkHz...0/DSC02878.jpg the view to the valley floor from the top. 600m, Mark climbed this in 40 mins and kicked Zach's butt! Having said all this, we were still among the first 100 or so through the entrance, and got to enjoy some special moments of tranquillity from a high vantage point overlooking the ruins, with absolutely no people in sight. Watching the mist swirl in and out, revealing different vistas and backdrops was surreal. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DZ1xP4GQHa...0/DSC02854.jpg Good Morning! At one point we got to enjoy watching two white alpacas race around the grassy courtyard, as if playing tag before the masses arrived when they would have to act regal and subdued. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TlSbgqPqXU...0/DSC02870.jpg alpaca play Most people in the developed world know of Machu Picchu, and could bring to mind an image of the site if they were asked to. It is as familiar to many as the pyramids in Egypt or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. So the actual view of Machu Picchu didn’t come as a huge surprise to us, but the location and setting blew us away – words can’t really describe this special place, and pictures can only do it partial justice. Overall we agreed that it exceeded any expectations we had. We spent a total of about 5 hours wandering the ruins, which were in pristine condition – not a piece of litter, trinket seller, or even an interpretive sign in sight. We managed for the most part to keep ahead of the crowds, and I read snippets from the guidebook to interpret the broken rocks as best we could, considering no one really knows what purpose Machu Picchu served. I think the mystery of the origin added to the overall mystical ambience of the place. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ifkG6c_PMP...0/DSC02907.jpg THE shot! Had to be done http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g2HP2s4yBq...0/IMG_3943.jpg look at all those people.... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYLMbmDWql...0/DSC02883.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cSGPrpZjUs...0/DSC02879.jpg having a sneaky breakfast http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8zNeklYllv...0/IMG_3917.jpg 'hitching post of the sun' http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-prDdZkSk3Z...0/IMG_3939.jpg Zach and Mark climbed up for the view! and the challenge..... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-beOpxt0gwW...0/IMG_3926.jpg |
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