Arquivo diários:dezembro 3, 2008

Day 63 – Abancay to Ollantaytanbo

So we are at the foot of Machu Picchu!
Tomorrow morning we take the train to go up there and back on the same day to then hop on the bikes to go to Cuzco 🙂
This morning I reajusted my chain and forgot to tighten the main rear wheel bolt!!! YIKES!! Thankfully I felt the wheel a little loose on the first few turns and I didn´t loose the bolt! I tightened it back up in a haste and didn´t look at the wheel alignment so had to stop again to realign the wheel – was feeling a little wobble in the turns.
In the meantime Jesee got a flat tire and Marc saw that the line from the rear shock pre-load adjuster is leaking – nothing to worry about since it is not the actual oir from the shock that is leacking… we hope.
In any case – the psychology of it all hit me – at every turn I was sure that my back wheel felt funny – and then on a tight turn a truck showed up and I locked my front wheel! Yikes! ABS kicked in well, I kicked the ground with the sole of my boot and regained control of the bike in no time. So for me it was a tense ride this morning in terms of taking the turns and all.
The scenery was AMAZING! Snow capped mountains and steep canyons!
As a reference – it took us almost 4 hours to do 80miles! That´s how winding the roads were!
Getting to Ollantaytanbo we had some very good lunch, went out of town on a dirt road to find the hotel we wanted closed, and then found the hotel we are staying in near the center of town. Very nice.
No videos or photos today since I´m using the hotel´s computer.
Also no replies to the comments – which I loved! There is a line of people looking at me wanting to use the computer!

Day 62 – Nazca to Abancay

Wow – for me it was a majestic day of riding! Finally the scenery changed into something more dramatic and interesting.
At the start of the day we ran into Jessie, a New Yorker riding a KLR who told us that Peru has been great so far for him – that’s because he did the mountain route, where we did the coastal/desert route.
There were a couple of points where the road was being repaved and the traffic was being held up. For some odd reason Marc asked how long it would take to let us through – odd because it was the first time that it has occurred to us to ever ask –
it usually is pretty fast. This time we were informed that it would take about 2 to 3 HOURS!! After some whining we convinced them to let us through! Uff!!
Up and down mountains, through valleys, amazing turns, lots of llamas and very little traffic.

Funnily enough I was noticing smells today – pleasant smells – the rain water vaporizing up from the asphalt, apple being baked in some hut, flowers, freshly cut grass, and some other smells I’d never encountered before… 
We didn’t make it all the way to Cuzco but got pretty close to a town called Abancay where we had some very good pizza while sharing travel stories with Jessie – very cool guy 🙂

From Motorcycle NY to SP