lil old lady, Ayacucho
Ayacucho
Camp Corral at a frosty sunrise, near Abra Tocto 4200m
Anna pushing back uphill to the road from our freezing cold 'corral camp' high on the puna at 4200m, Abra Tocto
Our 'corral camp in the distance on the bare golden puna the day out of Ayacucho
Ali posing high on the puna after Abra Tocto..."must be all downhill from here?"...well it wasn't!
Anna high on the puna - pointing downhill now...2000m down that is! Cordillera Vilcabamba in the distance
Well a little more up still...on the undulating high puna, very little traffic and only a handful of indigenous campesinos
Silhouettes of the desert, descending steeply to the Rio Pampa
Early morning descent from Chumbes to the Rio Pampa...into a valley of cactus
the Rio Pampa at about 2000m
Fuzzy alpacas y prickly puna cactus (on Abra Soracocha 4200m)...usually our only company above 4000m in Peru!
'Siga!' yeah, roadworks mean smooth descent to Andahuaylas and little traffic but a bit 'stop' and 'go'
riding through the land of the 'papa', bagged potatoes ready to be picked up for market...later on we would be targets for a 'papa chucker', a potato disintegrated on impact between our bikes, thrown from a bored potato farmer high above the road at us. In my best spanish i told him what i thought...!
High andean landscape, the glaciated peaks of the Cordillera Vilcabamba in the distance
another high mountain pass over 4000m, some more (yawn) average views of the Cordillera Vilcabamba...it's a tough life!
'Vale la pena!', rewarded for the effort of another 4000m pass, fantastic mountain views
potatoes growing well above 4000m and the Cordillera Vilcabamba in the background...
our 'rustic' but 'bike friendly' budget hospedaje in Kishuara, 10 soles but the beds were hurridly made up for us (with the same dirty sheets of course!), no shower and freezing cold plyboard-thin walls
all the way down to 1900m again and into the dry, hot cactus country of the river valley below and Puente Arhacacha, Abancay is in the distance in the valley back up 600m
the final kms of descent to Puente Arhacacha and the hot, windy, cactus and mesquite filled valley at 1900m...then it's back up again to Abancay!
Roadside memorial on the climb out of Abancay, 38 passengers from a bus that plummeted of the edge here...another reminder of the craziness of Peruvian drivers
Just a minor landslide...! "Wait til she clears up, lift a few rocks off the road and we're good to go!", landslide on the descent from Carahuasi to Rio Apurimac. "Sounds worse than it is!"
Rio Apurimac at 2000m for the final time in the hot dry zancudo valley. Note the stone foundation for an Incan Bridge on the right hand side of the river in the foreground surrounded by green vegetation
Ali on two-stove cooking duties in the freezing cold morning before Cusco...Nevado Salkantay ctching the first rays of sun in the background. It would be a little longer before we caught the sun to warm up
the last big climb up to 3800m on the way to Cusco, Nevado Salkantay at 6271m, and our campspot far left above the road in the distance high above the valley
Nevado Salkantay
cresting the final pass and rolling into the valley of Cusco or 'Q'osqo', 'the centre of the Americas'...Nevado Ausangate in the far distance
Anna hanging out with the 'footstrap weaving club', Loreto
Inti Raymi at Qorikancha
'El Inca'...got to love the golden corn cob!
'El Inca'makes his arrival into the Plaza de Armas
"bring in the Inca!"
Agricultural terracing, Pisaq
Watchtowers over the Sacred Valley of the Rio Vilcanota/Rio Urubamba, Pisaq
Pisaq
the religious centre of temples, Pisaq
Intihuatana or 'the hitching post of the sun', Pisaq
Anna on the quena (flute), Ali working the 'air Churango' at Pisaq ruinas
Agricultural terracing at Pisaq and the Inca tunnel carved in the rock (left)
Prickly Pisaq!
the fortress of Ollantaytambo, the Sacred Valley
impressive double stone walled doorway, Ollantaytambo
Precise stonework on the fortress walls splashed with orange lichens. Those notches...? maybe for lifting and carrying the stones..?
Anna checking out the latest 'Incan recliner'...the verdict: "very comfortable, fine craftsmanship...does it come in anything wider or maybe in black?"
the fortress walls of Ollantaytambo
the impressive agricultural terracing and fortress of Ollantaytambo, guarding the narrowing Urubamba river valley
Amazing carved steps, seats, thrones or maybe just a quarry at the base of the ruins at Ollantaytambo...a mystery as to what all these carved structures were used for
'Papa rellena' literally 'stuffed potato' at 1 sol and vegetarian too!
Machu PIcchu in the morning mist
Anna and the misty climb through cloud forest to Wayna Picchu
An atmospheric Machu PIcchu in it's cloud forest domain
the steep western agricultural terraces, Machu Picchu
the main gate to the city with its 'trapezoidal' design and double stone walling
Machu Picchu...not quite the classic postcard shot, but pretty dramatic in the mist!
Putucusi mountain on the descent back to the valley floor from Machu Picchu
Bromelias flowering
Q'enqo (meaning zig-zag for the zig zag carved passageways) - carved altars and steps in the heart of a huge limestone rock used for preparing or embalming the 'mummies' of dead Incan nobility
Saqsaywaman
Ali checking out the carftsmanship of the biggest retaining wall he has ever seen...incredible the size of these stones and how they precisely fit together, Saqsaywaman
Anna spots an 'Inca carrying the stone' among the amazing huge stonework of Saqsaywaman
Saqsaywaman with the city of Cusco in the valley below...the three tiered 'zig zag' fortress formation is clear from this viewpoint
Hungry cyclists and giant sandwiches, Monika (Swiss), Christian (also Swiss) and Anna of course
Indigenous street saleswoman pushing her woolen wares on Calle Hatunrumiyoc, Cusco
Calle Hatunrumiyoc and Incan stone walling in Cusco
