Doubling back.

Breakfast left a bit to be desired in Sta. Teresa so when we caught up to our German couple in Sta. Maria and they told us of some Empanadas with a whole boiled egg inside we decided to try them out. Very tasty for $2sol each.

There is a road paved to somewhere with best intentions, and our intention was to complete a loop back to the Cusco area, well Pisac to be precise. We fill up in Quillambamba as we are not sure what lies ahead for fuel stops. The first part of the journey takes us on a 40km route through the bush on a little dirt road, we join back up with the pavement shortly after crossing a footbridge, the GPS showed this as a secondary highway.

After that however, mother nature had a different plan and with her heavy rains the road was washed out at Quello Ono, they had only started to repair the damage so it must have happened recently.

The dumptruck is parked where the road used to be.

There was a bypass available through the bush on a little mountain road, but again the rains made it too much adventure to overcome. That red soil mud is  something else, this is the first surface that our tires have had basically no traction at all, a proper knobby mud tire would be required for this stuff. So regrettably we turn around and backtrack to Quillamba and call it a day, tired and sore after wrestling the mud and bikes for 7hrs, and are only 50km from where we started the day. Quillamba turns out to be a nice little town, but one more wrestling match is required to get the bikes into the inner courtyard of the Hotel for safe keeping. Over the sidewalk, down the hall, up two stairs, across a small landing, down two stairs, around two corners, and down one step to the courtyard. I am still a little confused why the two stairs are there, it just creates a hump in the middle of the otherwise straight flat hallway.

They have a well stocked market with all the usual produce and household goods, they also had fresh cut Aloe Vera which we needed for the sunburn we acquired at Machu Pichu.

We were a little worried about how noisy the city would be but were pleasantly surprised that there were very few firecrackers and even less horns honking throughout the night. This provided us with a good rest for the days travel back over the pass towards Pisac, our first stop of the day was back at Sta Maria for some fruit and a couple of Empanadas or Papa Rellenos depending on who you ask. These Empanadas are made with a mashed potato shell stuffed with mixed veggies and a whole boiled egg, a great breakfast for $2soles (0.80CDN) each. That and four bananas plus two mangos for another $2soles. I tell ya the fruit alone is worth the trip. The trip over the pass was much nicer this time as it was not raining and we only had to deal with a bit of moisture as we rode through the clouds, by the time we get to Ollantaytambo though it is raining pretty good and we seek some shelter under the canopy at a gas station. Well actually I had to tighten the chain guide and the chain on Brenda’s bike as it had vibrated loose at some point.

The Sacred Valley is so named because Wikipedia says so.
 The Sacred Valley of the Incas or the Urubamba Valley is a valley in the Andes of Peru, close to the Inca capital of Cusco and the ancient city of Machu Picchu. It is located in the present-day Peruvian region of Cusco. In colonial documents it is referred to as the "Valley of Yucay." According to recent researches it encompasses the heartland of the Inca Empire.^[1] The valley is generally understood to include everything between Calca and Lamay, Písac, and Ollantaytambo. The valley was formed by the Urubamba River, also known as Willkanuta River (Aymara, "house of the sun") or Willkamayu (Quechua). The latter, in Quechua, the still spoken lingua franca of the Inca Empire, means the sacred river. It is fed by numerous rivers which descend through adjoining valleys and gorges, and contains numerous archaeological remains and villages. The valley was appreciated by the Incas due to its special geographical and climatic qualities. It was one of the empire's main points for the extraction of natural wealth, and one of the most important areas for maize production in Peru northwards from Pisac. The early Incas may have come from Wimpillay, as their mummies had been discovered there.^[2] Large scale maize production started around 1400 as Inca urban agriculture^[3] based on varieties bred in Moray, either a governmental crop lab^[4] or a seedling nursery of the Incas.^[5]

We stop in Pisac for a coffee and to look at our maps to see how far we figure we can get in conjunction with finding a town down the road with services. Sicuani seems to fit the description so we hit the road South along the valley floor and enjoy the scenery and long radius curves. The farmland is always interesting to see and the livestock tied up along the road provides some entertainment; horses, donkeys, cows, pigs, even sheep. The only thing not tied up is dogs, some of which still think they can chase down a car at 50mph. The time vs distance calculation was a little bit off today and as the sun starts to set we are still about half an hour away from Sicuani, and it is starting to rain again, so as we arrive into town at dusk finding a hotel is a bit tricky. The town leaves alot to be desired, it feels like a frontier city full of commerce and no maintenance. There are also train tracks cutting the town in half which if done properly can be very attractive, this town did not do it properly and the tracks look abandoned. After riding most of the town we decide on a nice looking Hostal next to the pedestrian bridge which goes over the double lane street and the two sets of tracks.

The Hostal does not have any parking but the lady has connections with the stationary store next door and before we know it we have three little women laying cardboard on the glistening white tile floor so we can park our filthy motorcycles securely for the night. Our hostess also has connections with a nice restaurant around the corner and escorts us there to make sure we find it, at first we thought it was a rough neighborhood but that thought soon disappeared as very few people even look at us as we scurry along under the eve of the buildings to avoid the rain.

Parking in the stationary store next to the Hostal.