all around Machu Picchu

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HeyHo!! He we are sitting again in Andreas' & Marianne's house in El Valle Sagrado del Inca. Ten days have gone past since we arrived, and besides resting and cooking lots, we have made an adventurous 4 day trip to Machu Picchu and a 2 day visit to Cuzco.

Our house has a nice garden, and steps to sit in the sun and watch the bit of snow left on the rocky tip of a mountain, the afternoon sun shines on the agricultural terraces built by the Inca centuries ago. El Valle Sagrado was the main agricultural zone of the Incas to support Cuzco with its 200,000 inhabitants, the capital of the Inca empire stretching from southern Colombia to northern Chile and Argentina. Calca is a nice little town, with 2 plazas next to each other, a lively daily market, and last week its town party for one of the many saints. We saw one of the many processions for the saint, his giant statue being carried by about ten men through town, with a marching band following, and further on groups of dancers with wooden masks and great costumes dancing to drumplay. The whole week there was a big fair around the plazas, with a small ferris wheel and a pottery market selling lots of huge pots and vases burnt in the fire – a pity we can't take some on the bikes, they were great. We feel all around comfortable and are sooo happy Andreas and his family welcome us so nicely into their house with pisco sours – especially as we hadn't ever met before! (Andreas is a good friend of Swen's brother, they met 5 years ago traveling in Peru.)

After 3 ½ days of rest here we started off to visit Machu Picchu. In order to avoid paying the incredible fees to get into the area we took a less traveled route to the site. Most travelers either hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a 4 day hike and then to the ruins, then a train back to Cuzco, or take a train there and back; the whole thing could cost anywhere from $300 to $500 per person! It is prohibited to hike the Inca Trail without an expensive guide, meaning we couldn't do it on our own, so we decided we would take a bus several hours to a small village where we would hike down the valley for 8 km then along the railroad tracks for another 11 km to get to the town of Aguas Calientes. We would stay there the night and in the very early morning (3am!) make the 5km steep hike up to the ruins, stay until around noon when we would hike back down and along the tracks and up the valley to the town again. Then the plan was to stay there that night and the next morning would take the bus back to Calca.

Well, it almost worked out that way! We had a couple of strange adventures and pleasant surprises along the way to extend the trip by a day and a half. It all started on the bus to Santa Maria. We flew along a windy, steep mountain road over a high pass (4300m) then back down to the jungle-like valley (1500m) where we began our hike. The bus trip took longer than we thought because only half was on paved road so we only had time to hike 2 kms down to the river to some hot springs we were told we could camp at.

Tired, head still spinning from the nauseating but beautiful bus ride, and dusty we arrived to the most beautiful, peaceful, relaxing thermal baths and were greeted by Peru's most friendly workers. What a treat! We soaked in the pools – several very large stone pools with hot water coming out of the rock to fill them, with a little cold water waterfall spilling into another pool to cool off under it. A large green field was just across the pools waiting for us to sleep on the soft grass. Felix, the guard we made friends with, told us about a lesser known back entrance to Machu Picchu that we could take in order to save a little money on the outrageously high entry fees.

Happily and excitedly we set off in the morning towards Aguas Calientes. It was a nice, peaceful walk along the train tracks, huge flocks of parrots squawking as they flew overhead. We didn't carry much, the two small backpacks we borrowed from Andreas were all that we had, mostly filled with snacks, water and food.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes in early afternoon, quickly found an affordable hostel to shower and organize. We would only take a small bag full of sandwiches and water with us to the ruins. It was a quaint, picturesque town, filled to the brim with foreigners and restaurants and bars competing for business with 4 for 1 drink specials, free appetizers, etc. We strolled around town for a while, taking in the sights and drinks, but had to go to bed early because of the planned 3 am departure to arrive just before sunrise at the ruins and avoid the majority of crowds.

The alarm woke us to the sound of a big downpour – it was raining like crazy. We decided to wait it out a bit, but by 4:30 it was barely sprinkling so we set out with a faster pace to still arrive by or close to daybreak. Sweat had completely soaked our clothes by the time we were about 2/3 of the way up the steep 3 mile (5km) climb, but then we didn't have to worry about smelling bad because it had started to rain again. Slipping and sliding, clutching on to plants and trees, scrambling through dense bush to get through the back entrance, light was coming and we hurried to get in. After what seemed like an eternity we made it through, albeit a little muddy, sticks and leaves in our hair, with torn pants (Kat's) and completely soaked through. The sun couldn't break through the rain and clouds, so we shivered as we walked in the fog around the amazing stone buildings, apparently the only ones who didn't have rain ponchos.

Finally around 9am the sun conquered the clouds and rain – being able to dry off and warm up, we could finally fully appreciate the outstanding beauty of the ruins and its location on a high ridge, and take some amazing pictures. It was such an impressive sight to see as the clouds faded away and we found ourselves surrounded by mountain peaks and the neighborhood-like network of Incan houses and temples.

Happy to have experienced this world wonder, we started the hike down to pick up our bags in the hostal and set off on the ~19 km (~12 miles) hike back to the hot springs. There is a train we could have taken part-way but unfortunately they stop selling tickets 30 minutes before departure – we arrived just a few minutes late. Not even offers of bribes or tearful explanations of 'how tired our legs were to walk anymore' succeed in getting on. So we had to walk. It wasn't that bad, we made it half way more or less quickly, with a quick dip in a small river to cool off, and then took a taxi the last 8kms to town. After early dinner we walked the 2kms back down the hot springs and practically dove into the hot pools the second we arrived.

It was amazing how sore our legs were – apparently biking uses completely different leg muscles than hiking, and we had walked over 25km (~15miles) today! The hot water helped to relax the calves a bit, and massaging each others legs even more. Still, the next morning we could barely walk, the legs were still so sore. So we treated ourselves to a taxi ride to the town, then waited for a few hours for the bus, but ended up hitching in a big truck when we learned it would still be a few hours more to wait for the bus. Again we were on the narrow, winding mountain roads with crazy bus drivers. We got into Calca after dark, stumbled home and crashed out quickly. What an adventurous 4 days these were!

It took another day relaxing for our legs to recover sufficiently to make a 2-day trip to the city of Cuzco. And what a wonderful time we had! It definitely renewed our faith in our youthfulness! We have been feeling like we are getting a little old: waking up early, eating healthy, in bed by 9pm.... we haven't lead such an exciting night life lately! We got off the bus about 10km out of town in order to walk past 3 other major archaeological sites. The ruins were interesting and impressive – one called Saqsaywaman, or, to the local 12 year old boys “sexy woman”. We didn't go in them as the tourist ticket required to get in is pretty expensive, but got good peaks from along the walkway.

Cuzco is a very easy city to wander around, there are many things to see: museums, artesania markets, food markets, plazas, european style restaurants – and most of all just the narrow cobblestone streets wit its old Inca foundation walls and colonial building on top. We stayed in a wonderful hostel with a great terrace view of the city, and even the Plaza de Armas could be marveled at from our room window.

Cuzco used to be the capital of the Inca Empire, so when the Spanish conquered it they had a lot of work to do to try to destroy as much of the old temples of the Incas as possible, and built their own churches right on top of them. Luckily some of the structures of the Incas are built with such massive stone blocks, that the Spaniards had some problems destroying it all, and thus just had to built on top or around certain parts – they are now the main tourist attraction and their precise stone-masonry work is really impressive.

The town has lots of good cafes and restaurants, a nice nightlife, lots of art and music, and lots of travelers and “alternative” folk. So we had a good night out in a little bar with live jazz-funk music by great musicians, and went to bed after midnight for the first time in months. Are we getting old or not???

Before taking the bus back to Calca the next afternoon, we wandered more through town, saw some Inca mummies in a museum, and had a HUGE and delicious falafel pita in one of the steep stairway alleys. By late afternoon we reached “our” house in Calca, and had a nice night with our friends. We will enjoy another day or two of rest here, before we will get back on our bikes to head towards Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian border. It's been a great break from the bikes and we feel refreshed and very happy to be out of the mountains – at least for now!

FOR ONCE: a video

Sammy and Jesse, traveling with their parents on tandems with us in the video, made this little film about our 4-day trip together. Thank you!

Peru, Huanuco to Cuzco

more pictures are as always here

Finally we made it to our very needed rest spot! We sit writing in Andreas' & Marianne's house in Calca, just outside of Cuzco, in the “Sacred Valley of the Incas”. We arrived here yesterday pretty exhausted after the past 2 weeks of travels on rough mountain roads, and are very much enjoying the relaxation and break. It has been nearly 4 months since we left our last rest spot in Panama, the longest stretch we have done without a proper break, and we could feel it these last days!

We left Huanuco – where we left you off in the last post 2 weeks ago – just the 2 of us as our 3 travel companions stayed behind for an extra rest and repair day. We were finally on paved roads after what seemed like an eternity on bad dirt roads. We had done a 2 hour deep clean and scrubbing on the bikes – something that had been pending for quite a long time. It felt so good to be flying out of town through the long valley on newly oiled and shiny bikes on smooth pavement. We had some big climbs, up to 4200m (12,600ft) that we reached sometimes with a little help from some slow moving trucks, and passed by Cerro de Pasco, the worlds highest city at almost 4500m (14,500ft), and once one of Peru's biggest silver mines. But it was incredibly cold, especially on the Tibetan-looking high plains that we had to cross at these altitudes. We were wearing nearly all of our clothes and were still cold, below freezing at night and just a few degrees above zero when we started the days in the early mornings, only getting to about 10°C/50°F during the day.

We were working hard to get out of this region of coldness and steep ascents and descents, and were focused on getting to our momentary goal of Cuzco. We put in more hours in the saddles, but still went less distances in these days due to the steep climbs and bad roads. Just when we passed over the highest peaks of this stretch and hit the long slightly descending valley leading to the city of Huancayo – right where we were excited about being able to make some record distance days due to 160km of very slight downhill – Kat's back rim broke and we were forced to hitchhike the nearly 200km into town. It was fortunate, however, that we arrived in town and found a nice hotel room just in time for Kat to get sick with amoebas and be stuck in bed-bathroom for 2 days. We did manage to enjoy the break (after Kat got better) and hit the big supermarket where we wandered up and down the aisles looking at all the great things we could eat. We made some big fresh salads and had cheese and olive appetizers, went for some Chinese food, some vegetarian food, ate Doritos, great breads and pastries from the bakery....
We found a good replacement rim surprisingly easily and spent nearly half a day replacing the broken one and doing some other minor repairs. That day our friend Max caught up with us and we had a nice dinner together and set off the 3 of us the next day.

We were again fortunate to be on a paved road for the first 50kms (30 miles) but that was the last of the pavement for the next few days. The dirt road started off OK, but deteriorated after about a day just when the worst part of Peru began it's attack: “zancudos,” or little annoying bloodsucking biting sand flies, swarmed around us nearly all day, especially on the hard, steep climbs where we couldn't ride fast enough to get away from them. We (especially Kat) were being driven crazy by these pests; we used up a bottle of repellant and still were bothered. But the nice weather, great scenery and nice camp spots made up for this annoyance – we crossed again some spectacular canyons and desert scenery, with short stretches through high “pampa” on the tops of the loooong climbs. We discovered that cycling in Peru is probably the most challenging cycling we have done, making anything we had ridden before seem easy. But at least now we are acclimated to the high altitude and biking at 4000m/12,000ft doesn't leave us so breathless! Now at 3000m/9,000ft we feel like we are at sea level!

The last 50kms to the city of Ayacucho were paved, thankfully, and we arrived in town exhausted and dirty. A warm shower and Chinese dinner fixed things quickly and we enjoyed a nice day off in probably the most pleasant Peruvian town we had been to yet – colonial plazas, pedestrian areas lined by old mansions, quiet little alleys and good internet cafes with Skype to call home.

The next 10 days or so to Cuzco were going to be challenging: 5 peaks of at or over 4000m (12,000ft) with descents to at or under 2000m (6,000ft) in between each of them were on the route, most days we would have to climb about 1500m (4,500ft) on reportedly bad roads. We were trying to be positive and mentally prepared for the tough climbs. Both of us had been experiencing on-and-off-again intestinal disturbances and as we set off the next day Kat was especially feeling weak and tired. We made it about 12 km on the dirt road when we decided enough was enough of struggling on bad roads and not feeling 100%, so we hitched a ride with a trucker who ended up taking us 10 hours and 270kms (~150 miles) to the city of Andahuaylas – saved us 3 days and was just two day's ride away from where the paved road began again!! Max stayed behind, he would be going on a side trip to some Incan ruins so we said goodbye, and perhaps we'll meet up again in Cuzco.

From Andahuaylas, where the truck left us off, we still had one of those 1500m, 50km (4,500ft, 30 mile) climbs on dirt road to conquer – which we did, climbing very slowly over nearly a whole day up to 4100m again. The next morning finally a long downhill with probably 50 switchbacks took us steeper than ever down to the town of Abancay, and the start of the paved road all the way to Cuzco. There were another 2 of those killer-climbs still in between us and the Inca “Center of the World”, but now on paved roads everything seemed a lot easier, and it was possible again to get some help from friendly, slow moving trucks to tow us part way.

We had some nice campsites in abandoned houses, a small, dirty room in a municipal building of a small town, a small bed and breakfast type place, and by the haystacks in a farmers yard , before (hurray!!) the last small (3700m/11,100ft) climb. Then a thankfully 45 km (~30miles) of perfectly flat roads in the “sacred valley of the Incas” took us to Calca, where Swen's brother's friend lives and has offered us his house for as long a rest as we needed. After 9 months and 4 days on the road, nearly 10,000km (~6,100miles) biked we will take him up on that offer and rest away!

Doing that now, we will leave you till later... resting happily!!
Aaaah, and as always, don't forget to look at the photos – the climbs were so tough, but the photos (and memories) merit the efforts!