8643 km Cuzco

It's been a while already since the last blog and a lot has happened in the last two weeks. Leaving La Paz was as chaotic as entering it. Apart from the crazy traffic, I also faced a lot of roadblocks. People were protesting against the government. Apparently this is done by throwing lots of large boulders and rocks on the roadsurface to prevent any traffic from travelling on the road. I saw quite a few sad backpacker faces in the busses on the road, luckily for me this was just an entertaining slalom....

I rode to the Titicaca lake where I had my first of many "trutcha" a.k.a. trout. It's cheap and delicious and I had quite a few of them here over the last two weeks. After two days I reached Copacabana in Bolivia. A nice little beachtown near the border with Peru. After having some nice comfort food and my last panqueque a.k.a pancakes it was time to head into Peru. The first destination was Puno which I managed to reach within a single day. In Puno I made a daytrip to Uros, the floating islands where many indiginous people still live. It was nice to see how the people are living on the Islands made completely out of straw. they have  to get buy with very little, mainly trying to get some income by selling some handcrafted products to the tourists that visit. In the evening I found a pub in Puno which aired the Connor vs Mayweather fight. Peruvians sure enjoy a good fight on the tele. I had a blast and probably stayed up a little longer than I should have considering I was leaving for Cuzco the next day. 

The trip from Puno to Cuzco has been a nice one. It was less mountainess than I expected but I did get a nice 4000+ meter mountain to climb. I better get used to this because Peru will throw a good few more of those in my way. I reached Cuzco after 4 days. One of the first things I did on arrival was starting to do some research on how best to get to Machu Pichu. One can of course take a train or bus, but the coolest way to go is definately by hiking. I chose to do the Salkantay trek. A five day journey high in the mountains as well as in the jungle. The bike was parked in Cuzco for the week so not to much mileage in the last two weeks. 

The hike has been a ton of fun. We had a real nice group of people. All quite social and able to walk in a nice pace. It was also a nice training for the walk up to Machu Pichu. Of course you can take the bus from Aguas Calientes to the entrance, but walking up 400 altimeters on stairs is way more fun and rewarding. It turned out the cycling has been a pretty good preparation for this, since the way up was easy for me. After a tour around Machu Pichu by our trekking guide, it was unfortunatly time to say goodbye to our trekking group. A great bunch of people that I'll miss. But such is the life of a traveller, the show must go on. I had booked an extra day in Aguas Caliente, since I wanted to climb up mount Machu Pichu on 3000m. After 1050 more steps and another 600 altimeters I was finally on top. The view of Machu Pichu is amazing from up high and I'm very glad I made the effort to go up the mountain. 

Meanwhile a bus has taken me back to Cuzco. Initially I planned just one more day here, but I had a bit of a nasty surprise upon my return. The hostel I left my bicycle at has closed. Apperantly the owner has 'legal' issues. They moved my bike  to another hostel. It got slightly damaged in the process. The staff also went through my paniers. They denied it when I mentioned it, but a cyclist knows what gear is in which bag. Luckily nothing was stolen, but probably only because all valuable stuff like pasport, wallet and camera were with me on the Salkantay trek. Needless to say I left the next day and I am staying elsewhere for my last two days here.

Tomorrow I head of on the bike again. It's time to explore the rest of Peru. Erik vs. Bigass Peruvian mountains: game on!