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.
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