After Machu Picchu we returned to Cusco for a night. At the Norton’s (Rat) Pub on the plaza we met Micha, Igor who I met in Medellin and Chessi who I’d been riding with in Equador and Peru. On Saturday morning we left Cusco driving out through the bedraggled end of city and into the [...]
After spending a few days in Cusco recovering from the previous three days riding rough roads endlessly through the Andes, we took a bus to the Piscacucho train station – where the trains now leave for Machu Picchu. The late afternoon bus ride took us down into the Sacred Valley which has gentle rolling green [...]
Machu Picchu Getting There After The Floods (a) General: This inca site is located in a deep gorge of the Urubamba river, right where the High Andes meet the Amazon. The site is surrounded by virgin cloud forest. The mountain rising above the site, which you see in all the pictures is called Huayna (Wayna) [...]
The phone alarm clocks incessant chirping ate it’s way into my consciousness at 5am like an unwelcome visitor, signaling that that we had 1/2 hour to load up the bike and escape Andahuaylas before the road-work crews closed our only hope of making it to Cusco before the night fell. So we grudgingly hurried in [...]
After the previous long dusty day riding, Kai and I woke up in Ayacucho undecided whether we should spend a day relaxing (and searching for Alpaca sweaters) in town, or make for the next town. After examining the time Kai has left and the distances we are trying to cover (Machu Pichu, Cusco, Lake Titicaca, [...]
Kai’s private taxi organized by Hostal Kokopelli in Lima for $15 met him at the airport but then told him to wait for another person arriving on a different flight – after 30-40 minutes the taxi driver gave up and drove Kai to meet me at the hostal. We sat and drank some beer and [...]
Update: Just met Micha (Germany on Africa Twin) in Nortons Pub on the Plaza de Armas in Cusco this evening after not seeing him since Medellin. He just got back from Machu Picchu. He drove 5 hours or so on paved (badly) roads and 1.5 hours on dirt plus 1.5 feet of water crossing the [...]
After the marathon 14-hour ride the day before I had a leisurely breakfast in Huanchaco (a rich Trujillo beach house suburb with a not so spectacular beachfront) and set off once again along the barren PanAmericana south towards Lima. Not really sure how far I would make it I drove an unpleasant 6 hours or [...]
On Chessi and I’s first full day in Chachapoyas Chessi wanted to go to the Kuelap Ruins, a fortress with three keyhole-type entrances (one apparently resembling a giant vulva) situated on a ridge about 3000m high overlooking the Utcubamba valley. The drive follows the river on a decent dirt road at about 400m for 30kms [...]
The Pirelli MT-21 front tire that I’ve had on the KLR650 since Houston had warn down so that it was no longer a ‘knobby’ but more a road tire. So with the best intentions I set out in Cuenca today to find replacement tires (the Pirelli MT90 put on in Medellin doesn’t do very well [...]
Things Said
August 31, 2010 (9:31) Santiago Chile and arriving in Buenos Aires Hi, Saw that you rode from Santiago to BA. My brother and I want to take an unguided motorcycle...
August 19, 2010 (8:44) How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires great article thank you very much!
July 21, 2010 (7:36) How to air-freight ship a motorcycle from Buenos Aires This is great information. Any idea who to contact in Los Angeles since I want to do the same th...