We arrived into Ollantaytambo after about a 2 hour drive. The city is much smaller than Cusco and has more of a "local" feeling. The view from our KB Tambo Hostal was great!
We began with a drive up a fire road about 5 miles and then riding the mountain bikes back down. Of course, cameras were snapping like crazy at the scenery, the group was slow to pick bikes and figure out seat height, how to shift, etc... Ughhh my patience was already being tested. My brothers, much like me, asked Sal for a real mountain bike ride. Sal, who loves to mountain bike, was excited to have people in the group who could mountain bike well and took us 3 on the Inca Avalanche trail. The race is every year in May/June and from the videos, is pretty gnarly race! We only had a few hours of sunlight so we only went half way up. The trail was super rocky and wet and the DH bikes were nice... 5+ years ago when they were bought. I was on a Kona which worked well, but the brakes were a bit weak and the shocks needed some TLC. Where are my Mike's Bikes mechanics when I need them?? We made it to the bottom with no falls, except for Sal who lead and missed a steep sharp turn, alerting us to not do the same! The trail had many turns, rocks, steep sections and road crossings that freaked me out because cars have crazy drivers behind the wheels. When we got to the bottom we had convinced Sal we were above the road ride slated for tomorrow and he set it up for us to do the full Inca Avalanche trail instead,while the rest of the group took the road.
In the afternoon we headed to Moray, the site of the benched, circular systems of terraces built to test the microclimates for different crops. Those Incans were so smart! From there, we rode our bikes on a Peruvian flat (uphill) at first and then downhill. The path was wide but there were some berms and little jumps off to the side that made it more fun. We reached a huge gap jump that my brothers inspected before deciding that getting hurt here, means a helicopter ride to the nearest hospital that is 2 hours away.
We took a short ride over to the hot springs where relaxed for two hours until all pruned out. The scenery was beautiful with the Andes surrounding and the Urubamba River roaring full of water. On our way back to the Eco Lodge the rain began to pour. There was a rock slide and our van couldn't make it through. However, Danika, in a hurry as usual, jumped out of the car and in the dark and rain started moving the big rocks from the road. This was very dangerous as more rocks were falling. She cleared enough road and were quickly raced through arriving safe back at the Eco Lodge.
Dinner that night meant goodbye to our guide Sal. We had a great Peruvian dinner and then headed to bed early because we wanted to get an early start to see Machu Picchu, one of the 7 wonders of the world. We all had pre-bought the necessary and limited to only 200 people tickets to Huayna Picchu (the smaller mountain looking over the Machu Picchu site). Leslie and I wanted to be the first to the top and for good reason--we don't like tourists. We had an advantage over people because the climb was straight up and strenuous. We passed the few people who managed to get ahead in the line to enter and reached the top to enjoy the amazing views to ourselves!!
Our trip was not yet done, but the consensus from the group was that it would be nice if we could just teleport back home to the US at this point. The adventure and experience had been awesome, but we were tired, with a suitcase full of stinky clothes, and feeling like we just had the best 6-7 days we could have here Peru.
We spent the whole day in the Cusco airport Saturday when our 11:30 am flight to Lima had been delayed to 6pm. Word of caution, this happens often, so allow for a day to get back to Lima before headed back home from Lima. I had my standard Peruvian 2 egg breakfast at the hotel that morning and continued to have bacon and eggs with rice for lunch and dinner. I had escaped any stomach issues thus far in the trip and didn't want to jeopardize my luck with Cusco airport food.
Only Leslie, my Dad and brother Chris came with me for the ride, the rest were not in for the adventure of heat and having to pedal yourself uphill. At first, we were all tired and agitated from the trip and the heat and uphill fire road was less than impressive. Chris and I went off onto some more advanced terrain that turned into single track. This made the ride more fun and the views became better as we were up higher and could see the sand dunes and further out to the ocean. We traversed up and down and took a skinny trail which had a water canal drop off to one side and then a sand cliff drop off. Our guides advice: do not fall. We thankfully stopped in a tiny town and pounded a Sportade and grabbed an extra water. Chris and I decided that we were in Egypt. After all, Lima is the seconds at driest Capitol city after Caro. At the 2 hour mark I could feel my face full of heat and water low again. I told our guide in basic English and hand signals I knew he would understand. "Take us back. We are done". He did and that made me happy. All in all, it was a good ride and I would choose it any day over sitting around a busy city like Lima! Strava Link.
Salvattorecarlotto.com
http://kbperu.com
By Amy Morrison