PERU - MACHUPICCHU - NEW FRIENDS

Farewell dad, the last 7 weeks together had been absolutely unreal. But the reality was that he had a job to return to and I still had a little more time before work catches up with me. Before leaving Santiago I got my boots refurbished for $36 which was amazing, they were borderline unusable and now like new... that's probably more interesting for me than anyone else! Ah well I was stoked.

Leaving Chile I crossed Paso Libertadores and actually forgot to stop and take a photo of South Americas highest peak... oops! The scenery was beautiful but it was a weekend and therefore the border crossing took 4 hours. As usual I made many friends whilst waiting for the queue to die down and received many invites, it was seriously wonderful. After entering Argentina I rode down the scenic route towards Mendoza and set up camp in the boonies.

End of the holidays, everyone returning home!

Well well well, now that is a nice landscape!

It's camp sites like these where I really relax, knowing I'm the only one around.

I spent 3 days in Mendoza living with Leandro and Fernanda in their beautiful house. I got to see a little snippet of what life was like for them here and I’ve gotta say, it’s pretty sweet! We met in Mynamar whilst they were riding around the world and it was so good to see them again, thanks again for having me guys!

The scenic route was completely washed away...

Back on the main highway, ah this isn't too bad!

The only photos I got of us, sorry Fernanda! But would ya look at that Milanesa, mmmmm.

Leaving Mendoza I covered 830 km to Belen, after failing to find an area that wasn’t fenced off I resigned to asking a farmer if it was OK to camp. For $3 they let me set up my tent, they were super friendly though.

2 months earlier it was bone dry, now I was crossing rivers every 5 minutes! Ruta 40, Argentina.

Camping on the farm...

Another 600 km the following day took me into The Andes again. A storm was brewing and it was so bloody cold I decided to grab some accommodation for the night, well as usual that didn’t work out... the entire town (San Martin de Los Andes) was booked out. With no other options I continued on-wards and off-roaded up into the mountains. Above 4000 m I quickly set up camp and put on all my layers, it was going to be a long cold night. Surprisingly it wasn’t as cold as I had expected, although my water was frozen in the morning... I guess no cornflakes for me.

There's a truck coming in the distance... um how do I get out of the way?

More sexy mountains!

Aaaand we're back in cactus country!

I was tempted to camp here but it was only 3 pm...

Oh that looks cold, can we go down now please?

Above 3500 m and there is still some small shrubs.

So beautiful, but so cold!

Another isolated camp site, absolute bliss!

As the storm clouds disappeared the view at sunset was sublime!

Oh yeh, did I mention the cold?

360 km of mainly offroad was all I managed, yep I’d done it again... arrived at Paso Jama (the border with Chile) on a Friday. You guessed it, another 4 hour wait. The people here are so friendly though, I’m still coming to terms with it. I was fed lunch, given apple juice, you name it whilst waiting... pampered! Now San Pedro de Atacama v2.0, I camped at a hostel with other overlanders from Switzerland and Germany. It was a laugh.

There's something about these roads that a highway just can't give you.

Oh hey there mate, you look cozy!

Meanwhile I'm still trying to keep some body warmth.

Salt or snow? I didn't want to find out...

Alright getting close to the border now, let's go back to Chile!

Oh yeh, more weekend traffic!

Laguna Tara if I remember correctly.

More overlanders and this cheeky fellow that woke me up that morning!

695 km through the desert and I was in Arica, the coastal town in Chile near the border with Peru. It was hot and I was sunburnt, but happy to be at the beach again!

No photos of the desert until this valley appeared, wow!

A couple of hours later and this was near the exit...

Back at the beach, feels so good!

I spent 3 days in Arica taking care of some maintenance, relaxing and catching up with friends. The owner of the hostel I was at, Franklin, was definitely an interesting character. He had many stories to tell, my favourite being about the Egyptians using electricity to build the pyramids. Note to self: did another oil change at 58,000 km.

You don't see signs like this everyday...

The Peruvian border. It was hot, yep it’s still the desert. OK so after 2 hours I had Spanglished my way through the border formalities. On the other side I was preparing to head to Arequipa when a friendly man interested in my trip introduced himself, his name is Juan. “A dónde vas?” (Where are you going?)... I shrugged and said “Arequipa” with some uncertainty. His response was “follow me” ... “food”. And I did.

Where are you taking me Juan?

We visited his motorbike club and I was invited into his home. His 2 beautiful daughters spoke English and helped translate during lunch (spaghetti) wow, unreal! I was adopted haha. That night at dinner I met two other travellers from Argentina and Venezuela and we decided to ride together the following day... What a welcome to Peru!

In Juan's living room, what a great day!

Alex's place with his dog and 12 cats!

What a nice way to be woken up in the morning!

Tacna to Arequipa was 360 km through the high desert ~ 2000 m altitude. This was the day the 3 of us will most likely never forget, ever. It was the day we saw a man having sexual intercourse with a dog. It was in plain sight on the side of the highway. Like one of those porn stars that wear t-shirts (you know what I mean) and he was going like a rabbit. That should paint a picture more vivid than necessary... Anyway we arrived in Arequipa around sunset, which is a beautiful city by the way.

Back in a land with tuk-tuks... I think I'm having India flashbacks!

Seeing the police pull over we were all pretty worried, the stories about Peru aren't necessarily comforting. But then he was so friendly and just wanted to give us tourist brochures and info, nice!

3 amigos stopping for a pose..

Outskirts of Arequipa.

Enrique, Mayco and myself spent the day fixing the bikes and enjoying the city. 3 hours of labour only cost $7 at the mechanic, another great day! Mayco is heading to Alaska, so I might bump into him again along the way!

Ceviche, local sea food. like sushi-mi!

11 hours of riding and Enrique and I made it the 580 km to Cusco. It was a very, very long day at altitude with most of it above 4000 m. Freezing cold after the rains in the afternoon we were physically and mentally drained having dodging the insane bus drivers that seemed to be out to kill us. It was getting dark when we arrived and the only way to finish off a hard day like this was with some pub grub. A huge burger and a couple pisco sours later and we were passed out in bed, it had been a tough but amazing ride!

Show-boating for the camera!

Finally something other than desert!

Strutting his stuff in the rain gear.

A typical rest stop for us, petrol stations...

Enrique quoting GOT "Winter is coming"... oh and it did!

Outskirts of Cusco, wooooo!

Entering the hostel for the night.

Cusco plaza is extremely beautiful. It’s where we spent most of the following day checking out the market, eating trout for $1 and just enjoying some time off the bikes.

Motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes... it's not an obsession I swear!

At 58,803 km I replaced the front sprocket of the bike... with this little guy watching.

Plaza de Armas, Cusco.

Alright now to see that thing that everyone sees when they are in Cusco... yep let’s go see Machupicchu. But we didn’t want to spend the ridiculous amount of money on the train so we rode the 230 km from Cusco through the Sacred Valley and in to Santa Teresa, from here it was another 10 km to the hydroelectric plant. Parked the bikes at a local's house and paid him to look after them for 24 hours. Then a casual 11 km hike along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes. Bought our tickets and crashed for the night.

The road through The Sacred valley was pretty spectacular.

Whatcha doing Enrique? What a great day!

Incredible scenery around every corner.

And on the other side of the mountain we had hours of fog!

But lower down the fun began!

Lots of shallow water crossings!

And then the road turned to gravel and became properly adventurous.

The excitement of crossing water on the bike never gets old...

Similar to death road in Bolivia, just less famous!

Now to find some safe parking for the bike!

Hiking along the train tracks it's impossible to get lost, there's plenty of people doing it.

Contemplating jumping onboard for a free ride...

First glimpse of Aguas Calientes, a surprisingly nice town considering I'm not usually into "tourist traps"

We decided to fork out the $12 for the bus ride up the mountain and in the afternoon hiked down again... and the 11 km back to the bikes. Rode into Santa Teresa and got ourselves some beers! The following day I was heading towards the coast and Enrique is riding into Bolivia to do Death Road. Buen Viaje mate!

Less people in the rainy season made exploring the ruins slightly easier...

The architecture was pretty amazing for the time period, especially being on top of this mountain!

Machupicchu...

Cheeky smile since we only did the 1 hour hike down, apparently it's 3 hours up.

As close as the bikes got to the Inca ruins!

Next up it's Ecuador and Colombia!

And lastly the typical postcard shot!

Machupicchu is full of girlfriends getting mad at their boyfriends for not getting the perfect photo for their instagram, selfie sticks galore and tourists/travellers from all walks of life. I ignored those things and managed to appreciate the site for what it is, a pretty cool bunch of rocks placed nicely on top of a mountain! Seriously though I think it was worth it. Would I fly in to Peru and take the train to see it? Probably not. But that's mainly because I love riding. Alright bye now!