Self Rescue the long (slow) way round

The bus travels a maxium speed of 30 mph and I get a front seat which has a little more leg room and is below the roof vent. It gets dark at about 1930 hrs and then every one closes their windows and the driver replaces the roof vent which had fallen off earlier. Now the bus is more like a prision, I think I now suffer from Claustraphobia, must be getting old! After what seems a life time of hell we arrive at Cusco bus station at 2345 hrs. We stopped once during the trip for a loo and drinks break and this was in the jungle by the side of the road. Not sure this experiance needs repeating. I catch a Taxi to the hostal and wake Dave to let me into the room as he has locked himself in and closed all the windows.
18th Feb
We manage to get the wheel bearings replaced with some help from our friendly local bike shop, and then arrange for a taxi to take me, my ruck sack, bike jacket and wheel to Ollantaytambo. The starting price is US$60 but we end up on agreeing to 60 Sols (GBP10). The Taxi picks me up at 1030 hrs and we arrive at Ollantaytambo by 1135 hrs. I have an early lunch on the Plaza and then arrange for another Taxi which costs 150 Sols (GBP25) or US$70 ( I opt for the 150 Sols) to take me to Chaullay. We leave by 1230 hrs. The driver goes like a mad think and is certainly in a hurry and we make good time up the tarmac switch backs, half way up he buys some flowers for 1 Sol from a stall outside a house and further up he tells me his Inca farther was killed in an accident in this pass. We then pick up a local Inca who is walking up the pass with a heavy load and we give him alift to his house further up, he is dressed in very colourfull clothes ( more like you would expect to assume the tourist in Cusco). His children welcome him home and are also dressed well and also in bright colourful clothes made by the family. The Adobe hut however is anoher thing. I wonder how they keep their clothes so clean. At the top of the pass at 4300 metres is a little church where we stop for the driver to light a candle and place his flowers and say a little pray. We then move on down the other side (after the driver gives the 3 hail mary´s sign of the cross) where it is raining hard and also very misty. The river crossings in the road are higher than before and theland slides seem worse. In a little time we come across a huge front loader JCB trying to clear a huge land slide which nearly fills the whole road, lorries and buses are waiting to pass from the other side but the width is too narrow. We are waved though with much concern from the work man ( still looking up at the moving land slip) and my driver who gives another 3 hail mary´s. The taxi driver then puts his foot down and speeds though the narrow gap and give a big sigh of releif having got though. The rain is heavy now and there are more smaller land slides all along the route. On the roads in South America there are generally three ways to cross rivers: 1. a bridge 2. a concrete slab laid in a dip to channel the water over the road and 3. nothing at all but the river bed which moves depending on the the amount of water in the river.

Most of todays rivers/roads have concrete slabs which my driver seems to think are best attacked in 3rd gear at speed regardless of the water depth. We finally arrive at Chaullay after a fast journey across gravel, mud, pot holes etc ( last 60 kms is not tarmac) and how his car remained in one piece is amazing. I expect we wanted to get back to the pass before it got dark.
I am dropped off at the bridge just below the town heading up into the jungle and we say out goodbyes.
I walk about 500 metres to the next road juntion ( I have my ruck sack as I may need to sleep at the side of the road tonight). Within 5 minutes a minibus arrives and picks me up, I load my rear wheel and ruck sack onto the roof and tie them down next to loads of other luggage including live chickens.
I climb into the Nissan minibus ( in Europe we may call this a 9 seater) and luckly get the seat next to the sliding door with a open window. I count the number of passengers as they all stare at me, we have 17 adults and 5 children aboard! At each village along the way we stop and drop of pasengers and bags and each time I get out to make sure I am the last one back on to get my window seat.
We finally arrive at Paltaybamba which was about 16 kms from Chaullay and 220 kms from Cusco. My bike had been blessed overnight and it was now 1705 hrs ( the journey to Cusco had been 11 hrs and my return 7 and 1/2). I go to the shop and find little old lady is away but todays shopkeeper is her daughter, she gives me the keys to the little church and by 1805 hrs I have the wheel back on and luggage tied down. I give the shop keeper 50 Sols (GBP8) and thank her very much for looking after my bike. The Daughter tries to refuse the money but I insist and then I leave with much waving from the whole village. In the next village I am also waved at by those who I helped with their logs and also those who gave me some Chicha. I feel like a local celebrity. My plan was to check out the road to Santa Teresa (south of Chaullay) and the Hydroelectric power station and hope fully find the road to Macchu Picchu but it was getting late and I reckoned I had 1 and half hours of day light left. I drove though the muddy and gravel jungle tracks as quickly as possible as I would like to get back to the tarmac before it got dark. In the end this was not possible, but as the head lights on the Africa Twin are so good I had no problem seeing my way so decided to keep going and had little problems seeing all the pot holes ahead. In the dark ( by 1930 hrs) there were many new strange noises but I finally reached the tarmac road by 2030 hrs.