Best 12 days ever

My girlfriend flew in for 12 days and we had a great time traveling from Cusco to LaPaz while visiting great places along the way, including Machu Picchu. This trip is just as much hers as is mine so having her here to experience all first hand was a best thing ever, going through historic sites, observing local life and meeting other travelers. Today she is flying back home and I will continue on with this great ride.

Few tips / points.

Like I mentioned before if you coming to see Machu Picchu don't hire and travel agency to get you tickets, you can do it all your self from Cusco or online. If you decide to climb Huayna Picchu bring some gloves, lots of steel cables and rock walls along the way. Also bring some kind of water carrier so your hands are free, its a steep climb.
If you are planning to roll on a tight budget and coming this way, set some cash aside to do Machu Picchu the cost is 150soles to enter (with Huayna Picchu) 39 dollars each way for train (from Ollanta) and 16 dollars for the bus. We meet some travelers that skipped the whole thing because of the price but I still say that this was totally worth it.

RT3s from Cusco to Puno is a good road but it has a 20k section with tons of sand on the road, no problem though you can make it just fine in one day. If you going to Chile from Puno the Interoceanica sur to Moquegua is a very nice a scenic road, just watch out as there wil be no gas for first 170 miles of it.

And finally if you going to spend some time in LaPaz and go for a walk to local markets, keep your wallet in the neck hanging pouch behind your shirt, I got caught in a fake "people squeeze" today and at one point I felt something vibrating on my left shoulder, so I turned my head to check what was it and at the the same time I hear ladies screaming something. It was a trick to tun my attention away as other guy was picking my pockets, the ladies saved my ass and the guy run away with nothing.

OK few pictures.

Ewelina made some pictures from the plane

We had a great walk in Cusco

Had some great lemonade

and mate de coca

its one way to travel

You can get Polish vodka everywhere

Night wedding at Plaza de Armas

Dinner with a view

2 Soles picture

They had a parade happening here

And small demonstration for educational rights

Visiting local market

In the morning we took off for Ollanta

more pictures coming soon

Cusco

 Marcos e-mailed me that they coming to Cusco so we went for a walk to meet them at the main square and sure enough there was the familiar vee parked next to one of the agencies, it was so good to see Marina again but Marcos was gone to deal with the tourist police. This is a warning for everyone that is coming here to visit Machu Picchu" Do not use any traveler agency to buy any tickets, they got totally screwed by one (as well as few other people) the tickets were wrong and they had to buy all of them again. Good thing that the police were able to help them out and they received most money back and the rest they should get send to them by wire.
Once I told them that rt3S is fine and they will make it to Puno in one day, they decided to stay here for the night so we had a great time walking around Cusco and sharing all needed info.
So when my girl gets here this Saturday, we will spend weekend here and than Monday morning we will take off on bike to Ollantaytambo where we will leave the bike at on of the hotels and catch a train to Aguas Scalientes where we will stay for the night. Tuesday morning we'll go up to Machu Picchu including the walk to Huayna Pichu than get back on evening train to Ollanta to stay for the night and Wednesday ride back to Cusco while stopping in few spots along the way.
I got all the tickets here today and it was very easy to do so if you coming here you can do it yourself as well.

They running a campaign for people to use crosswalks

And they get slap with the rope if they
try to cross through busy street

Marina was waiting alone by the agency

preparations for some festivities, but the rain stopped all later

This one did not like to dress up

So good to see those guys again :)

umm ok?

Few evening shots

Till next time, Cheers :)

Peru Puno to Cusco

I wasn't sure if I make it to Cusco in one day, even though the rt3S looked good on the map I've been proven wrong before. So after a nice breakfast and cup of mate de coca at the hotel I hit the road.

The road turn out to be ok and just for about 20k or so the tarmac was covered in sand and few short sections were all send, but with tkc80's on I was flying through it just fine

Got to watch for the tourist buses as they will get right on your tail and beep the to make you let them get by

One of the things that I like about Peru is that this county is investing allot into road repairs, there is tons of stops because of that but I don't mind that

Mostly it was fast ride so I was catching up on km's quickly

Passing through few small towns along the way, there is few hostels if you want to take your time

This poor guy got forced off the road by a big truck, Naturally I had to stop and help him get the bike back on the road, (its good karma you know)

 

The battery in my camera died so I don't have pictures of coming into the city, but I made it to Cusco in 7 hours.

As I was riding around the town checking out the hotels I noticed  a KLR parked inside the hotel so I stopped to talk to the guy, Karl from Virginia was staying here for a while as he is waiting for a parts that his parents are sending from home. The hotel people gave me a nice deal so I'm staying here for few days and its always more fun to be around other travelers.

Our bikes parked inside the hotel

Cheers