Feb. 22 – Puquio to Abancay
Woke up in a cold and damp room. Walked about this tiny town till we found a place that would cook us a couple of eggs for breakfast. Then we went in search of a hardware store, and after a couple of false leads we found a tiny store that had a bolt that looked like it would work to re-attached Levi’s tail-truck rack. We got the bikes out of the parquedero (mud-lot) that we had paid to put them in, and moved them to the central square, where it looked like we could park on pavement and get the tools we needed out. When we tried to use the new bolt we had bought, we discovered that we had bought a SAE bolt, not a metric one, so it would not work. We got on the bikes and road around the town, looking for an auto parts store, but we stumbled on a mechanic just opening his shop, and when we asked about a bolt, he offered to walk with Levi to a supply store he knew of. This time we scored, getting the exact piece of hardware we needed! We went back to the central square, and quickly re-attached the rack.
We then walked to our hotel, leaving the bikes at the central plaza, as that was the only level paved place in town! We backed up our still wet stuff, and checked out, then walked uphill to the square to get the bikes and load them up. But just a that exact time, the locals were having a parade and celebration for Carnival, and the central square was filled with costumed dancers and old timers doing there best to celebrate the season. So we had to wait a while, till the festivities died down before we could start up the bikes and drive back to the hotel. It was fun to see the locals kicking yup their heels!
Leaving town meant again navigating these mud streets, but once out of town the road improved, and we started climbing again on very good two-lane. We climbed incredibly high, 12,000 ft and more, till the road leveled out on a high plain, through grassland with snow-capped peaks and lakes. Lamas and sheep and other livestock roamed free, with traditionally dressed shepards watching over their flocks. Very cold ride.
After many miles of very high-altitude driving, during which the bikes did not run well, we came to the end of the plain, and descended through miles of switchbacks into an incredible river gorge, between very steep volcanic mountains. The road now followed this river, through some very beautiful scenic country. WE stopped at at roadside ‘restaurant’ (really just some one’s house) where they advertised cuy – guinea pig, fro lunch. there we talked a joked with some folks form Abancay, while we waited for our food. The cuy was kind of disappointing, I thought, stringy, tough and greasy.
It was getting dark and threatening rain when we finally got to the town of Abancay. We found a hotel that said they had a garage, but after we had registered and unloaded, they opened up a store in the front of the hotel, and had us park our bikes inside the store! They had real hot water for showers, though, so we were very pleased.
We used the internet to buy our train tickets for machu-picchu, because the train fills up every day and you need to book in advance. The train leaves from Cusco, and we are now only 100 miles from there.