Machu Picchu and Honda better

This evening we finally meet up withe guy from Norton Rats, Dave not well so goes to bed early and a few od us go for drinks ( Ausi, Swiss and UK guys on other bikes).Norton Rats bar closed for two months while he moves and does up the new place. The advice we recieve is it is much quicker to get the part we need from the UK via DHL and certianly not UPS. Food tonight is another Apacha burger.

10th Feb
Roly gets up hours before Dave so goes to breakfast on his own and looks around town and then finds the South America Explorers Club house (SAE). I am a member here so we can get local info and also use their address for DHL parcel. We decide finally on prices for our bikes if we can sell them when we finish the trip in San Diego. We hope to put the bikes details on the Horrizons Unlimited web site (with Tim´s help of course as we are both so useless on computers).

11th Feb
Dave and Mike get their bikes pressure washed for 5 Sols and then Dave services his Yamaha.
In the pub today we discover some web sites for the " road of death bolivia" and discover it is 65 kms long so our 16kms is very disapointing. We had thought we had done half.

12th Feb
We set off for Machu Picchu at 0620 hrs and have to queue at the train station to board the train. We have reserved seats and the return trip of about 100 kms cost US$ 96. By Peru standard this must be the most expensive train per Km in all of South America.The train sets off on time but twice has to return nearly to the station as the points appear to have been set wrong. On the third time he head off in the correct direction, ( it turns out that the points are set and reset by the train drivers assistant jumping out changing the points allowing the train to pass and then resetting before runing back to the engine ( all quite time consumming, but safe but then the train only travels at about 30 mph and has quite a narrow guage. The train follows the river with very nice scenery of high mountains terraces and good white water rafting. We arrive at the final train station below Machu Picchu 4 hours later. The town is another modern tourist dump full of markets selling the usual stuff ( hats , sweaters, dolls, silver, paintings etc.) Ther are loads of people pushing and shoving to get somewhere and we have to walk the gaunltet though the market to the hotel where we are told what is happening for the rest of the day. The trip is expensive train US$ 96,Guide 8, 15 min Bus trip 12 and entrance ticket 42, agent commission 11 Total US$ 170 each.This we are infoirmed is the cheapest way to see Machu Picture in one day.If you say up their for two nights in a hostal you can do the trip for US$155 plus food etc. In hind site we should have done this as gives you loads more time on the site and we are not short of time while we are in Cusco. I wonder how all these large buses get here as they are too big for the train and the tunnels. On the train there are loads of Japaninese tourists and some wrapped in space blankets wearing arm warmers and dust masks!It is not cold. Meals today are 100% ham and cheese rolls which taste of nothing.. The bus trip up the mountain is only 15 mins but up steep very twisty sandy and muddy roads.
Machu Picchu is about 1000 metres lower than Cusco. We join a group who are on a package holiday with Comos and we get a two and a half guided tour ofthe site which was very intresting. After the tour we have one and a half hours to ourselves, we climb up to the Inca gate in about 30 mins along a steep narrow cliff path and then Roly decides there is just time to go up to the sun gate which is a steep climb along a path, Dave decides to stay on site and we argree to meet back at the bus at 1630 hrs. Roly sets off and gets some good pictures but it is hot and a steep climb and then has to run back down and we board the bus at 1630. The bus then waits until it is full and finally sets off the end result is that it takes over 30 mins to get to the train station and we miss out return train which is also the last train to Cusco today. Roly gets mad and we have to buy a train ticket to Ollantaytambo where we can catch a bus or taxi to Cusco. In the end it was good as we got the front seats on a better train and Roly checked out the train line. We decided that if there was another demonstration and the railway line was closed with the aid of a 4 foot wooden plank ( to cross some water ducts and points in the railway line) it would be quite possible to drive to Machu Picchu by motor bike providing you could put up with some (lots) hassle. ( Greg you wanted to know).
Once we arrived at Ollantaytambo we got a Taxi for 50 Sols ( Dave didn´t want to go by bus for 5 Sols) back to Cusco in one and a quarter hours which was much quicker than the train and also cheaper had we not already bought the return ticket. In the end the whole extras between us costs us 120 Sols (GBP20).

In Peru and Bolivia motorbikes are the lowest life form on the roads. It is a matter of size, the bigger you are the more right of way you have. When it is dark you don´t use your lights, when it rains you don´t use your wipers, when the fron windscreen mists up you don´t use your fanand if you do then only for few secondsor better still wipe the glass with an old rag. Maybe this makes every thing last longer, but there are certainly plenty of accidents to suggest htere may be a better way forward. There is however one item that all car, bus, lorry and train drivers know how to use and that is the horn, at every corner, overtaking, sight of a hazzard, friend, bike, dog, animal or in fact just about anything you can think off. All this makes driving in any built up area quite stressfuland certianly not ast all peacefull.

Machu Picchu was very impressive even though a lot of it had been rebuilt since it was re discovered in 1911..The very top section is closed by 1300 hrse very day so we missed this bit.

All buildings and paths are granite and the reglious building have very finely cut stone work, the whole day was very enjoyable and not too crowed one we got up onto the site. The Inca trail is closed for all of Feb to allow for maintenance and cleaning and that means 500 people less a day on site. Feb is also the wettest month in the Andes so walking is usually a bit muddy going.
The River Urubamba flows though to the Amazon in the east and then the Atlantic and was considered by the Incas to be the most important river in the Andes. It is also considered to mirror the Milky way in shape.
We arrive back at Cusco by 2015 hrs which is at least 3/4 hour before the train and we left 25 mins after the train and had a 15 mins wait at Ollantaytambo.

13th Feb
Roly up 0550 hrs woken by noisy neighbours gettting ready for their Machu Picchu trip. It seems no one here is intrested in others and noise from every one what ever the time of day is normal. Roly goes on sight seeing walk around town and returns to the hostal at 0920 to collect Mike and Dave and we then go the motorbike shop to collect the new battery fro Roly´s bike plus a few other bits. It seems it is impossible to buy electrical connections in all Peru.
Dave and Roly have another non communication day and so we both do our own things. Roly goes to do the Blog and Dave tries to fix Roly´s bike. End result Blog is updated and Dave manages to fix Roly´s bike.. The problem was that the spare regulator/ rectifier we had, had an extra 8th wire and we had no wring diagram for this model and in the end Dave decided to connect this 8th wire to a positive feed from the ingition, this power supply then we think excites the electronics to function correctly. Dave also pressure washes Roly´s bike.

14th Feb
Roly up 0400 hrs, Dave snoring as had cold now for 4 days,Roly on walk about and breakfast again. Dave today services the Honda this morning and then at 1500 hrs Mike, Roly and Dave all go for a ride up into the mountains overlooking Cusco. We go the wrong way so come back to Cusco and start again.We visit three historical sites ( Qénqo, Saqsaywaman and Tambomachay)as we still have valid tickets from a previous trip and we then drive over the ridge into the next valley and down a rough farmers track over the hills and get good view of the other end of Cusco. The track then goes down steeply and becomes very loose and Roly´s the only one down there as he´s voluntered to check it out, with difficulity he turns around ( puffing a bit due to altitude maybe 4200 metres). We all drive back to Cusco ( we have done about 60 kms and we again test the output on the Honda batterry at 5000 rpm and we are still geting 13.8 volts which is great). We go for food at The Real Mc Coy where we are meet by about 8 Cupids in fairy wings. (its Valentine´s evening) The Pub is very much every thing English and of course full of the English.