Nascar to Cusco

Tues 6th to Wed 7th December

Tuesday - the alarm went off at 5.30am so the we could have another early start in the forlorn hope that we could cover the 400 plus miles to Cusco in one day.

Getting ready to leave our hotel in Nascar.

After leaving Nascar it was almost immediately up into the mountains and starting to cross the Andes from West to East.

We climbed to 15000ft before reaching the plains ........

........ where alpaca and llama were roaming free.

The road was like this for the best part of 400 miles, all uphill and down dale.

A couple of indian ladies enjoying the view.

Roger enjoying the ride.

One that didn't quite make it.

A herd of llamas (if that's the collective noun) grazing by the roadside..........

..... looked after by these ladies.

I thought my trip was going to come to a premature end when a llama ran across the road from behind a lorry going in the opposite direction. There was no time to react and at 50 mph we missed each other by a hairs breath.

A house up on the high plains. It gets extremely cold at these elevations and there's no central heating. Life’s very basic and pretty harsh up here.

More mountain scenery.

If you're reading this blog before going to bed, don’t look any further (of course that means you will). Fortunately this baby was spotted crossing the road and not in my hotel room!

It was about the size of my hand, I'm not an expert but it looked like a tarantula and I wasn’t going to get too close.

With lots of sore and aching bits we gave up with still a hundred miles to go to Cusco and stopped at Abancay for the night.

Wednesday and it was more of the same, up and down the mountains on winding roads.

Bob enjoying the view

After a while you start wishing for a straight bit of road.

The Gods are smiling at the moment and lets hope I don’t upset them. After yesterdays incident with the llama today it was a fuel can. I’m carrying two spare cans of fuel on the back and today one of them slipped out of its straps, rested on the exhaust which promptly melted a hole in it so fuel was squirting out all over the back of the bike including the hot exhaust. Fortunately it didn’t catch fire but my bags still stink of petrol.

Apart from llamas, dogs are a perennial nuisance. There are literally thousands of them all running loose and they either run across the road in front of you, just sit in it or chase you barking and trying to bite you as you pass.

Another canyon .........

........ and finally we drop into Cusco.