On The Way To Machu Picchu

On the way out of Lima and down the Peruvian coast we stopped at a little seaside village recommended to us by Nestor. There we enjoy our last bit of fresh seafood for a while.

Our next big destination was Machu Picchu, the famous Inca ruins. It took us several days to get there. Our first stop, on the way, was Nasca Peru, home of the Inca Nasca Lines out in the desert. The tower is the cheap and ineffective way to see the lines. In order to really appreciate the Nasca lines you need to take a tiny single engine airplane trip to fly over the lines. We took a pass on doing something so risky…not in our nature to let others be in control.

On the road leaving Nasca we ran into two guys from Brazil making a tour around South America. I can tell you several towns are probable not the same after these two blow through. They were really having a good time. We rode with them for a while.

Another overnite stop was in this hotel fashioned after a Peruvian Ranch, complete with a cowboy greeter. It was a nice place and if you are in to fishing a nice place to spend some time at the river next to the property.

This truck belongs to a Swiss couple that are taking a year to explore the Americas. They were north bound so they provided a lot of information. They skipped Bolivia because they heard they would have trouble getting gas. Fortunately we didn't take their advice on that.

These decorate a lot of the building roofs in rural Peru. I could not understand the explaination whether they were religious or simple decorative.

They had a number of Llamas and deer in pens on the grounds. I was not sure if these were decorative or had some connection to the restaurant on the grounds. Seriously, they do serve Alpaca in the restaurants in Peru. I don't think they eat their Llamas.

The next city on the way to Machu Picchu is Cusco, the capital of the Inca Nation. We arrived in Cusco around 4PM in heavy traffic. Normally it is fairly obvious to find the center of town. That was not the case here. To compound our difficulties some of the streets just stop and turn into narrow walkways. One hostel assured us they had a space to park the motorcycles. When we asked to look at the space it was up 7 fairly steep steps. We finally found our way to the historic center of Cusco and found a hotel, Casa Grande, a block from the main plaza. It had two other important aspects. It had an easy to access court yard for the motorcycles and it was one block from the famous, at least among Norton owners, the Norton Rats Bar. Cusco is one of Peru’s show pieces and next to Machu Picchu probably it largest tourist draw. Much of the well maintained historic section of the city is highlighted by famous Inca walls. These are carefully cut stone walls that make interesting patterns. Cusco is a nice town but the constant intrusion of people wanting to sell you things you don't want is tiring. These ladies carry around their baby goats, llamas and their own children trying to get money for letting you take their picture. I don't have a problem with their industy but they can get a little to pushy.

Here is where we stayed.

We never saw the owners of these KLRs but latter met them in Bolivia.

Of course we had to stop by the world famous Norton Rat Bar on the main plaza to enjoy a burger and beer. The following evening we met Jeffery, the owner. Jeffery rode to Peru on a BMW GS 20 years ago, found Cusco and decided to stay. He actually has a Norton and about 4 years ago rode it to Ushuaia and back. Jeffery, not satisfied to just have a famous bar, is opening a hostel next to the bar and retreat on some remote property he owns in Northern Peru. If you are ever in Peru stop by and say hi to Jeffery. He is a gracious host and full of good local information but does not do disco.