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.

Day 59 - A Lazy Day in La Paz

For the very first time on this adventure, we determined to do as little as possible. 

So we slept in. Each of spent some time on our computers and we made coffee - the really simple stuff. We wanted to go for a short walk in La Paz as this city has certainly changes a great deal since 2009, and then go to lunch at one of the top restaurants in South America, Manq'a.

We did indeed go to lunch arriving early. We each had a Marguerita to drink then revelled in the amazing new tastes that they dished up, especially the items made from the myriad of different types of corn available here. 

We walked home to the best hotel we have stayed in, during the trip called the Mitru Sur which is genuinely five-star and prepared for the long lift session on the gondolas tomorrow morning to ride the top of the rim, and collect our bikes.

Day 58 Tour of Moon Valley and La Paz Centro

This was the first of two full days in La Paz and included  a city tour by mini-bus and also by cable car and some walking. It was ok, and went to some of the more interesting places.

We first went to Moon Valley which is down the river from the city centre and is effectively due south. It is like the "bad lands" in the USA and has a moonscape look and feel. It is a park with a set of paths and so we took the one which is about 40 minutes and has a number of nice lookouts, including one over the golf course. 

Second we drove into town and took a cable car to a lookout which was a lot of fun. The furnicular is built by Dopplemayer from Austria and is particularly professional. All the cars are colour coded for that route of 11, and include toilets and recreational areas. As they "fly" over the houses you get a wonderful view of each area. The local people love them a lot and so one is being extended to the airport and two more are under construction. They commenced around 2015 and are the "metro" for La Paz.

La Paz is actually not the official capital - that is Sucre. However, the Presidential Office is in the square and so effectively it is. There are guards outside that make a good sight. Men are conscripted to the army for three years and for women it is voluntary. Also in the Square are two brand new buildings that are very modern in design so the juxtaposition of new and old is quite striking and very spectacular.

Next we went to the Witches Market where locals are supposed to buy all their offerings to their local gods including Llama Feotus' which are not so endearing! Bolivia is a very catholic country but many indigenous people also believe in their local gods. However the market is very touristy and sells every type of nick nack and geegaw you can imagine including the merged stones being amethyst and citron which is frankly hard to believe! After that, hats and T shirts take the cake. 

Lastly we asked to be taken to the front gate of the men's prison at San Pedro known as the "White Powder Prison" after a famous book written by a black American who was incarcerated there. The book was called "Marching Powder" where he describes how the inmates ran the prison until 2009, and had their families living in with them!

On this day there was a huge protest in the city by workers asking for a pay rise. Typically they earn about US$360 per month, which is not much, even given the low cost of living in Bolivia.  The net impact to us was that it took hours to drive out of the city!

Lastly, sheryle and I walked down to the restaurant called Gusto, that is in the top twenty in Latin America where the food was to say the least un-usual and delightful with lots of vegetables and unusual tastes. We loved it as it was so different. We also tried a local Sauvignon Blanc which was equally different!

Day 57 Ride Uyuni to La Paz

This was a difficult day for a number of reasons.

Overall the riding was fine, and we left the hotel Tonito beside the large military base, without any issues. We loved and hated this hotel. The room was the worst we have stayed in being very small with only two powerpoints and a shower that never got above luke-warm. On the positive side the couple that owned and ran it, spoke perfect English as he was from Boston and had met her (a native of Uyuni) at Amherst when he was making pizzas. The other positive was that their internal restaurant was excellent and made the best pizzas that I have ever had I think, plus other super food from the west like Cowboy Biscuits and apple strudel, both a real change from normal Bolivian or Argentinian food. 

The second big challenge of the day was getting petrol. JC had asked us to fill up on the drive into the town two days before, which he and I did. The others did not. As a result we had great trouble finding petrol this morning. Bolivia has a system to sell petrol to "foreigners" that requires a computer and charges higher rates. You have to input your plate number, passport number and nationality. My rego plate would not work as it is only numbers, so I added the "ACT" which appears on the top, making my rego "ACT 91518" and it worked. The man even accepted it! However, we drove around four stations in Uyuni trying to find one that had the system, but could not. So Willy filled bikes from his 40 litre reserve from the truck, otherwise only to be used in emergencies. He was not happy! Nor was Paul.

Then we rode off, creating problem number two, where rebuilding an overpass where we had to turn right. Rahn, Jeff and Paul went ahead, and took the wrong turning as the rebuild had closed the official on-ramp. JC could see this was a problem and led me up an alternate ramp via a marketplace which did not look like a street at all, but did connect correctly to the freeway. Thirty kilometres further on, the others caught up and over took us at speed. They were clearly un-impressed.

Problem three came when we entered La Paz. The lower city streets are mayhem, so we had decided to leave our bikes on the outskirts at the top of a hill with a friend and take the new cable cars (called the Mi Furnicular) to the hotel. Despite this, we had to take some very packed streets with large potholes. At one point I was behind a truck with the others in a lane on the right, and I indicated I would move into their lane and did so. Paul thought I had done this too quickly and too close. We did not touch each other, but he gave me a punch on the arm 100m further on. After we entered the compound, Paul said nothing but Rahn really hooked into me, with threats. I told him that violence was not an answer and walked away. Overall it was a stressful day. 

We then travelled down the yellow and green cable ways and took a taxi to a fantastic hotel called the Mitru Sur which is about one year old and is the best we have stayed at. For three nights we will live in luxury and it is a good time to do this!

Day 56 - On the Salt Flats at Uyuni

This day was planned for a tour out onto the Salt Flats in a 4WD.

They came to collect us all with two Toyota Landcruisers of reasonable vintage and driven to a number of stops. The places we were to visit we listed to us, but changed at least four times during the tour which was great fun and very interesting but way too long. 

The first stop was at the train graveyard. Here there are many British built trains from the 19th Century that used to carry ore out to the coast and via Chile for the Bolivian Government, and bring general goods and supplies back to Bolivia. The trainline was built between about 1850 and 1879. We are told that there are modern trains that still do this but from another place, however we have never seen them. In addition, the two wars between Bolivia and neighbouring countries including Paraguay and Argentina.

The we drove about 10 km to the edge of the huge salt flats. At one point, I asked the driver how far away a very visible mountain was? I thought about 7km, he said 50km but google maps said 84km.

We then drove onto the flats and changed our locations multiple times, including the Dakar Memorial, a hotel, the reflection pools and a park with sculptures where we could take silly photographs which we did.

Day 55 - Potosi to Uyuni - Breathtaking

Mama told me there would be days like this! 

Perfect weather, incredible scenery around every corner, and no rush over 209 km to the Salt Flat town of Uyuni. Driving out of the high altitude Potosi and its dust, was not unduly difficult, given that every car and bus wants to cut you off, so we managed to head down the very narrow streets and take to the hills. 

And magnificent hills they are. We passed through a couple of small towns, one being around a mine for zinc called Porco, and others mere vestiges of villages. The mountains were spectacular with huge geological folds visible in every direction, and "miradors" (Spanish for Look Out) every mile or so. I was the last rider today and stopped regularly. I put the GoPro on my topbox facing backwards for some nice video. 

As it happened Jeff was in a much better physical state than over the last few days and would have ridden, but Willy had not yet changed his front tyre with the bubble in it. (I was very glad he had seen it in time, as a blow-out at speed could have been disastrous for Jeff). 

About eighty percent of the way to the hotel, there is a luscious green valley called the Llama Valley by locals, with thousands of llamas spread across the plain and managed by local co-operatives. I stopped to let a whole family of llamas cross the road at one point, then joined all the others at another point where we walked out onto the flat to take dozens of pictures of the llamas, the river in the valley and the hills surrounding it. They were very special, given great light and no wind. I just stood and looked around 360 degrees in awe. 

As we came to Uyuni, JC and I stopped on the hilltop overlooking the town and the saltflats beyond and marvelled at the scale and the pink. Apparently this is the only place on earth with a consistent flat surface that can be seen from space, with less than 1m of variance across the whole area. 

Day 54 - Potosi Mine Tour Bolivia

It was one adventurous day in Potosi Bolivia, with a half-day tour of the huge Silver mine here. They are now also mining tin, copper and zinc nowadays. 

The mine commenced on the surface for 100 years with the Spanish building the infrastructure and town. They went underground in 1749 and now there are 20,000 tunnels, lifts and other infrastructure. the mine employs 18,000 people who earn about 2000 Bolivianos per week (roughly US$400 per week). At one point the mine provided 90% of the worlds silver and over 500 years has supplied over 20% of the total for the planet. The cost was immense.

We were dressed in correct clothing, helmet, boots and light and proceeded to walk through increasing mud along the tracks about 1km into the mountain. We took gifts of drinks and Coca leaves for the miners and ended up helping them get a two-tonne steel trolley back onto the tracks. We also met the man who controls the air supply for compression tools and saw the mine god and shrine. In the early day millions of people (literally) lost their lives - today it is few but many have respiratory problems. 

In the photos below you will see Sheryle and I holding a (real) stick of dynamite, fuse and detonator - that are readily available in the local village for less than seven Australian dollars. 

Day 53 - Turpiza to Potosi

Day of the winding roads. But this turned into a grand adventure.

I enjoyed every minute of the riding today, up and down gorges and through small towns running market stalls. The video on YouTube is excellent for this. We rode over the final pass beside the huge Silver Mine at 4,300m and watched the wind blowing dust for miles. 

We are staying at the Coloso Hotel right in the heart of Potosi which looks ordinary from the outside and is actually very well laid out on the inside. Our room is the best yet, with a spectacular view over the the roof tops to the hills. 

Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4,090 metres so we felt a little lethargy from the altitude. Jeff was in real trouble here and later went into the "oxygen room" at the hotel to get some relief. 

The mine was built by the Spanish starting in 1549 and lasting over 300 years. The silver financed the entirety of their global expansion and made them the wealthiest country on earth for that time. Over all years this mine has produced over 20% of the total worlds silver for all time. At those early years, it produced 90% of all silver on the planet. About 5-8 million people died in the mine, mostly African slaves and local indigenous people. We visit today.

Yesterday we had a delayed group meal, at El Fogon where they took ages to feed us, but it became apparent that the lasagna was hand made for us, and as a result was fantastic - as good as any I have had. I also had tomato soup which was equally good. They could not find gin for a gin and tonic, but never mind.

Jeff took a real turn here, and needed to be transported back to the hotel by taxi. Prior to that, JC had found SIM cards for our phones, but I have been unable to talk to Ian or Dad yet.