Around the Block 2007

Somehow I imagined that from Cuzco (11,800 ft) to the jungle would be DOWN!  Well, it sort of was as we headed South until the pavement ran out (we like dirt!).  At Urcos we turned off to the left, hit dirt and began to climb (pix of Luke overlooking Urcos).  We had left Cuzco at noonish and decided we were only going to go as far as Tinka, about a 3 hour ride.....

The timing was about right and the altitude over the top was almost 14,000 (pix of Luke by sign of Inter-Oceanic project connecting Brazil to the Pacific coast).  Then down, down, down, (as it should be) 'til Tinka, a little Quechua town with simple acomadation.  In Tinka we asked how far it was yet to Puerto Maldonado and the answers ranged from 12 to 20 hours yet!

We asked how far to the next town of Marcapata and were told 3-4 hours, but on moto it would be somewhat faster (maybe).  It was now 4:30 pm and we were told: ¨By the way, it is a VERY high pass, and cold!¨  Another pass???  Well we decided we would not make it to Puerto Maldonado the next day if we did not get farther today, so we put on all the cold weather gear we had and filled up on gas and WENT FOR IT even tho it was beginning to get dark.

Up, up, up.  Try 15,993 ft above sea level (according to my GPS) and getting dark (2 pix).  The other side was dark, but we carefully made our way down.  Cold we were not, as no wind was blowing, but passing trucks in the dust and dark on a 8 ft wide rocky track was an adrenaline rush.  Luke happened to be ahead and rounded a corner.  As I came into the corner I could hear him blowing and blowing his horn (to warn me of something?).  Turns out we had literally ¨run-into¨ a herd of cows on the road in the dark.  Luckily they are not agresive!

On for another hour of pushing back against the handle bars to keep from sliding forward on the seat; so steep was the desent and finally into the little town of Marcapata.  We found a ¨hole-in-the-wall¨ room (literally with our bedroom door on the street) and a storage room 1/2 full of potatoes to park the motos in for the night.  Obviously. I am not writing from there as we did not even have a bathroom, much less an internet connection.  Before we turned out the light (there was electricity til 10pm) and put on a dozen blankets (no heat), I flicked a 1 inch spider out of my bed, then closed my eyes........

NEXT DAY:  day9marcapatatoaccident.htm

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