Coming back down. I was looking almost straight up to get this picture!
And of course, the post card shots
Taken in a cave of sorts in the middle of the ruins
By the time we had come back down Wynapicchu and walked around the ruins, my right knee was killing me and Ustadza's poor legs were about shot (many of the stairs were waist high on her!), so we took the bus down while James and Heidi hiked down. Train back to Ollantaytambo and late buss to Cusco didn't get us back to the hostel until 1130 at night, so we all crashed hard. The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and some more shopping for the girls. We all picked up llama tasteless (mine are now on Porky's handlebars and I have since been told they are worn in traditional dress, not by llamas).
James and Heidi had had enough of each other...
That's not entirely true, they were trying to show off their new tasteless, but it looks like they are trying to avoid talking. We then loaded up the rental and beet some serious feet straight back to Lima. No pictures as everyone was tired and we were anxious to just get back to Lima, get rid of the rental, put our feet up, and do NOTHING. We succeeded and made it by early afternoon the next day, giving us two days to just hang out and not go anywhere. It was fantastic! Sadly, Saturday came entirely too fast and everyone had to leave. Ustadza and I said our tearful goodbyes and I hung out in Lima for a few more days. Some St. Patty's day drinking with some new friends that I had met when Heidi first arrived, and then I had work to do on the bike, this ride report, and just plain resting.
One of the guy's I had met in Bogota, Colombia was coming down to Ica and needed a new riding partner. His had had the misfortune to have appendicitis and Meckel, and after two surgeries in tiny towns in Peru, he had to take an emergency flight back to the US due to complications. We agreed to meet in Huancachina, which is a beautiful desert oasis surrounded by sand dunes towering many hundreds of feet into the skyline.
We staid a full day there so that Alex could do some sand boarding and I could get the last three updates on here finished and posted. We then rode down the coast for Arequipa, making it as far as Majes. The next morning we decided to ride the loop for Canon del Colca (second deepest canyon in the world) thinking this would put us into Arequipa early afternoon the next day. What we didn't know was that the half day trip the tourists take is a wait and return from Arequipa, NOT the loop we were taking. Thinking we would lunch in Arequipa we set out. In the back of our minds we knew there was a serious lack of traffic for a popular tourist route, but happy to not be run over by busses we thought nothing of it...eleven hours later we finally pulled into Arequipa, beat, sore, dusty, sore, and beat. Sporting 30mph battle scars on Porky (Porky 0, road 1) and meager attempts at smiles through our shivers and exhaustion we were pretty damn happy to see hostel Flying Dog! I will tell much more in a front page article that I shall write, probably while sitting in my lounge chair (sitting backwards on Porky using the tank as a recliner) staring at the rarely visited Reserva Nacional las Vicunas, in Chile. We shall see!
Departing tomorrow for Arica, Chile and Wednesday will be our grand attempt at las Vicunas, which as best as I can tell no one has ever tried to ride into on fully loaded adventure bikes. Should be quite the grand adventure!
Clark
P.S. If anyone is interested in any of my photos, I would love to sell some to help pay for gas (it is much more expensive down here then I would have thought!). I don't really have a price system worked out, but if you e-mail me (midknightc3 at gmail dot com) and let me know what pictures and what size, I'm sure we can easily work something out!