Day 66 - Entrada Cusco

Our aim was to leave Espinar and reach Cusco in time for lunch, which we did. Lunch at the hotel was truly excellent. 

At the end of the previous day, we receive a message on Whatsapp from JC (Juan Carlos) saying what time we need to be at breakfast and when to have our bags ready to load into the truck. Normally everyone is early, as happened this morning. Although we were supposed to meet at 7am at the reception and walk the block and a half to the truck and bike parking. Everyone did this 15 minutes early as usual, and he arrived there most upset. It was the first time we had seen him even mildly concerned about anything. He gave us a lecture on following "orders" so that everyone would be safe, and ended up telling us that for various serious misdemeanors, we would be thrown off the trip and required to get ourselves and our bikes home ourselves. It was all a little over the top. 

But it turned out to be as a result of a two hour discussion he had just had with his boss. He required that we ride in a particular order with Rahn and Paul behind him and Jeff and myself making up the tail. This actually seemed logical and would cause the least likely problems on the road, particuarly coming into a very busy city like Cusco where traffic is likely to be "hectic" and Rahn will take a more bullish view to vehicles cutting us off, than the rest of us. The threat to throw people off the trip was obviously a beat-up and when he had calmed down, we all went about our day in good humour and safety. I actually had a fine ride which started very cold but soon warmed up. 

We stopped for petrol about 20km out of town but I did not fill up as I had a range of over 450 km with my larger tank so used the time to clearn my visor, mirrors and screen, plus lights. When we took off, we rode some generally good roads north, and stopped on the outskirts of Cusco at the original Inca south gate, an impressive structure with the well known close-cut blocks and a water channel over the top taking water to the fields. It also had the block-steps standing out from the walls, that people climbed. 

The road into Cusco was busy, but on bikes we were able to lane-split between cars and trucks with some safety and efficiency. Drivers in Peru tend to taunt you by moving slowly into the intersection or way but I have yet to see an actual accident so everyone knows the "rules". Of course on a bike you are far more maoeuverable, so we often run up the inside to the lights and park in front of everyone, something done by all other motorcyclists. The trick is to avoid bridge abutments or large holes in doing this, so it is generally at about 10 km/hour. 

We are staying at the Costa Del Sol, another Wyndham hotel which we really like. It is a restored monastery quite close to the main square, so I would later walk with Sheryle to look for Alpaca presents for our kids and to try to find the old Belmont Monasterio Hotel where we stayed in 2009. It is still there, as flash as always and currently has a room rate at US$550  which is very steep for Peru, but with all the foreign visitors, obviously draws some trade. 

Sheryle has an upset stomach so we went back to our room to rest. Tomorrow afternoon we have a city walking tour to do if we wish, then the next day we fly to the Amazon.

Day 65 - Chivray to Espinar - Colca Condors

We are heading north in Peru, so as to reach Cusco tomorrow, one of my faourite cities in South America. In this case the very ordinary town of Espinar is new to Compass and to us. It was created as an interim stop, so that we could stay in Chivray to see the Condors. 

The organisers had warned us of badly deteriorating roads and "some" gravel sections, which were actually 142 km of gravel along a ridge top. In fact the gravel road turned out to be far easier than the very pot holled sections prior to it, which were rough and dangerous. 

But prior to heading off on that secdtion we headed west out of Chivray to the third deepest canyon in the world, and it certainly was impressive. The condors live here as they can hatch their eggs without any fear of them being taken by predators, high on the side of the cliffs. The condors come out in the early morning between about 7am and 09:30 so we were there for that, along with a crowd of others. There were plenty of good vantage points and the view was incredible. At one ti

me we could see more than 10 condors at once. Their colours tell you how old they are with the older birds being black with white chests and the younger ones with more brown colours. 

We then took our drive along the ridge, rising to more than 5000 metres, which my bike did not like and stalled a number of times from lack of fuel. I will need to research the issue more, but once I started decending, it was all ok again. Unusually the group split and we took a shorter road to the highway which was well sealed except for one section of about 10 km that was truly a challenge with large ruts and stones!

On arrival in Espinar, we found that our hotel now faced onto a mall, and we were not allowed to ride out bikes to it, so we parked a block and a half away and schlepped our bags around the streets again. I enjoyed the day despite the challenges, but look forward to making it to Cusco tomorrow. We stay there three days then fly to the Amazon (in Peru) for two nights. All of that is to come. 

Day 64 - Arequipa to Chivay

 This particular stop and the next one were not included in last years tour, but many people said they wanted to visit Arequipa and also Colca, the Canyon of the Condors. So that was our plan.

It was a relatively short run, so we left a little later than normal. The road climbed up a high pass, almost to 5000 m, being actually 4910 m via many winding turns, ideal for a motorcycle. There were all the usual plaques and signs on top, but one thing that really stood out was the Apu's, tiny piles of rocks, each made by a person to ensure that their soul was lifted to the mountain tops when they passed. The interesting thing was that there were thousands of these, spread in every direction, with some a few kilometres from the summit.

Chivay is a village if anything. It has one decent restaurant and one reasonable hotel - ours. But neither were special. I had to lug the luggage up a double set of stairs, which while possible is always a challenge with multiple cases or bags. 

Having done that, we had decided to go to the hot baths, about 10 km up the road. The heated water is artesian, not surprising given the volcanos nearby. Will drove us in the truck , while the others had a re-run on the winding road just for fun. We arrived to find that the proposed spa was closed, then realised that there was a new one just a hundred metres further on, accessible by a swing bridge across a fairly raging river. We arrived to find about 7 man-made pools all at different temperatures and only one other occupant. So we tried a few until we found a hotter one. Then the crowds (and our colleagues) arrived an hour later - I guess after work, and soon there were 300+ people present! We really enjoyed the hot spa and slept well, for an early start as the condor only fly in the early morning and evening. 

Day 63 - Exploring Arequipa

 Today we continue to stay at the awesome Costa Del Sol Hotel (part of the Wyndam Group) and get three dollar taxis to the Plaza da Armas in the Centro of town.

We had a nice breakfast in the hotel, and headed off, with a list of things to do, one of which was to get a Peruvian SIM card for my phone. I have a SIM card for every country so far, and they rarely cost more than ten dollars each, but allow us to navigate via our phones and look stuff up. I wanted a Claro one, but they were out of town and chose a Bitel branded one, that required them to photograph my passport and take a finger print! Still it had unlimited data and worked a treat. 

We then looked in a few shops and went for coffee on a roof top where we could see the three Andean Mountains immediately adjacent to the city. They are beautiful and about 6,700 m high with snow on the top. The coffee place was at the old Spanish cloisters and the stone carving was classic Spanish and particularly fine.

We had a high grade lunch at Cirqua which is a restaurant in a Relais and Chateau Hotel in the city centre, built in 1574 as a religous centre. Lunch was unusually good and quite different to what we would have in Australia, mostly built around Spanish food with lots of corn items, and some duck. 

We came back to the hotel for a bit, then Sheryle went back to town as my stomach was a little upset. Later I joined her, again on the roof top for late night cocktails. We had quite a day in Arequipa. 

Day 62 - Puno to Arequipa

On our second day in Peru and we were warned that the road was very poor "but still surfaced". It was worse than poor with a number of Devio's (diversions) most of them short on the gravel.

Until we came to a long section of road being replaced, with no obvious deviation signs. We tried a few roads out to the west and eventually found one that required a deviation of about a kilometre west, then north for three and east back to the main road. It was all gravel. And VERY dusty. To avoid risks with other riders I had chosen to go at my own pace at the rear which is rather enjoyable. The only challenge was that the dust was so heavy that I could neither see the road or the riders ahead.  I had to trust that when JC could not see me, he would stop and indicate the direction that he wanted to go. We did a few U-turns but I was able to follow comfortably. Once we came back onto the road, we were fine. 

Buying petrol here is much easier than in Bolivia with credit cards accepted in most places and no taxes for gringos. In the main, I can run a full day without a fill-up at over 500 km per tank, but the others are at their end at about 290 km, depending on how they ride. 

Coming into the wonderful town of Arequipa, we took a semi-circular route around the hills to avoid the worst of the traffic and arrived at the first class Wyndam Hotel.

I loved Arequipa. It is probably my favourite town on the whole trip, having been created by the Spanish in 1540, and the first major buildings built around a magnificent square in about 1570. We marvelled at the two-story arches and the huge Cathedral, then went to dinner at Indigo - fine food for the two of us. 

Day 61 - Border Crossing into Peru and Floating islands

The previous crew had spent nine hours crossing from Bolivia into Peru at the notorious Kasani Border Post, so we were prepared for anything. We are about to spend 16 days in Peru and wanted it to start well with the best possible documentation, especially for our bikes. So we arose early and reached the post about 30 minutes before it opened and the crowds descended. The previous Compass Expedition had taken nine hours to make this crossing.

As it happens, the buildings on the Peruvian side were burnt down by rioters a few years ago protesting about China's involvment in Peru. So now everything is done from rented shops and a caravan!

A key part of travelling by motorcycle is that you have to get yourself and passport through both immigration and customs on each side of the border AND get the bike approved and logged out of the old country and into the new one. It is like applying for a visa, using your bike registration as the "passport". While I have my original registration, I have been using a photocopy todate and it is now getting very dog-eared. 

One of my complications is that my registration is all numbers (91518) and this "does not compute" with many of the systems each country uses. At the top of my plate are the letters "ACT" so I managed to get into one by using the registration number ACT91518! They checked the "placa" the actual plate and approved it! In this case, we had to scan a Q Code and then fill in an online form with all our bike details (and my mothers maiden name - no idea what this is for) - a real challenge as the form is all in Spanish! So we look for the logical things - name, country, birthday, address, nationality, rego, VIN and engine numbers etc and complete it. We used the WIFI from the official customs office to do this and they kindly gave us the log-in and password. Overall we were done in two hours and very pleased. 

We were also warned that the road to Puno was terrible as they are doing a full refit on it. It was worse the terrible, with new bridges and gravel diversions quite regularly, plus one section of about 5km that was being re-surfaced and required about a 10 km diversion on particuarly gnarly gravel roads, full of rocks, potholes and billowing dust. We had had enough by the time we made Puno for a two course lunch which included tomato soup and rather nice local trout. 

We then took pedal rickshaws to the port and a simple boat out to one of the floating islands, where we had been before. They suffered during covid and are a little sad now. Our island buildings looked genuine, but under the thatch was sawn timber, floor boards and a corrugated iron roof, all lit with 12 v LED bulbs powered by new solar panels, well hidden from the tourist view. Mmmm.

Our hotel is grand and old, being right on the main plaza, which makes for a great view, but right now, at 21:26 in the evening, there is a large oompah oompah band playing and marching outside. Welcome to Peru!

Day 60 - Ride La Paz to Copacabana, Bolivia

In the previous year, this tour rode directly from La Paz to cross the border into Peru and then finished for two days at Puno in Peru. This program took them to 11pm, after a nine-hour border crossing at the infamour Kisani Border crossing point (where the buildings had been burnt down in the past by rioting locals objecting to the degree of Chinese investment and interest in Peru).

So we had determined to break it into two sections, with the first from La Paz stopping just 8km short of the border in a resort town called Copacabana. This was a short section of about 140km following the coast of Lake Titicaca first on the Bolivian side then on the other side heading to Peru. The riding was excellent with stupendous views from various LO's and also wonderful flowing curves in the road, perfect for motorcyclists. About half way we had to take a ferry boat across 500 metres of water. There were many ferries running all flat punts with a small outboard motor and random pieces of sawn timber for the deck, complete with gaps! Loading was interesting as we had to find a place to park the bikes so that the side stands would not collapse in the gaps and tip the bike over. We did it well, and JS filmed the whole thing using his new DJI Drone.

Our hotel was a little un-usual and was along a very dusty coast road. It looked smart enough but had no lifts so that lugging heavy bags up six flights of stairs and at altitude was no easy task. The rooms had a great view, but no heating or air conditioning. To make things more interesting, the owners never mowed the lawns around the building, but employed three Llamas to wander round and chew everything in all directions.

After a picnic lunch under a tree by the lake, Sheryle and I walked into town for some dessert and coffee which was excellent, but the altitude was getting to us and I did not sleep well.