It is Tuesday morning and I write from The Point hostel in downtown Cuzco.  Cuzco is medium sized city and the major gateway hub to Machu Pichu.  It should also be about a days ride from Lake Titicaca which is were I will pass the border to Bolivia.  I Our bikes are house inside, along with a V-Strom from Chile.  I had to ride the KLRs up a small flight of stairs from the street using a ramp and a couple guys pushing, but we got them in.

Leo and I left Pichan at about 6:45am yesterday and stopped briefly in a small town for breakfast.  Taking a few rest and photo breaks, we estimate that we rode for 12 hours — 2/3 – 1/4 being Andre twisties.  It was a very long day with temperatures ranging between 5 and 30 degrees.  I saw quite a few llamas and almost hit a quite a few dogs.  I was commenting recently that dog strikes have been very limited in Peru.  I spoke to soon.

I saw plenty of beautiful mountain landscapes and had to give Leo some pointers in how to traverse these — it was unknown to me that this was the first real time that he had ridden any mountain roads.  Actually, Leo scared the shit out of me at one point as he lost control on a curve and almost plowed into the guttered edge of the road on the opposing lane.  As I told Leo, these are the technically difficult rodes that people train for — and that one doesn’t usually learn on such roads — but a hell of a lot better now, than not at all.

In the cold and pitch black, we pressed on to Cuzco.   It felt like it would lever come.  One phenomenon down here is that trucks and buses kill there high beems for cars and other large vehicles but often leave them on, or turn them back on, having passed the large vehicle ignoring motorcycles.  Its a real pain in the ass and quite dangerous.

Earlier that day we met one traveler on a BMW R1200GS from England who had been traveling one year as of this day. It is always nice to speak with other motorcycle travelers and exchange advice and so forth.

As for today, I plan on getting my Machu Pichu train tickets sorted out, as well as other required details — getting me to and from the train station (in another town).   Leo and I will spend the remainder of the time in the morning discussing Bolivia and Argentina.  I may well through on that new tire.  It sounds like I am going to need it for Bolivia.  I should also start shopping for return plane tickets shortly as the end of the trip is nigh.