The rental includes a helmet and gloves but no gas. They tell me to go straight to the gas station down the block and fill up, which is surprisingly expensive, about $12 for just over 2 gallons.
After a little refresher course riding around the side streets I head off down the road to Pisaq. It's the same route we took on the bus trip yesterday but it's a lot more fun riding on my own.
It's very easy to ride on these roads as they are so twisty that nobody drives very fast. They also pass anybody anywhere, which means that nobody gets mad if you're driving too slowly for them, they just go around.
I drive though Pisaq, skipping the big market, and stop for lunch at this restaurant/hotel in Calca along the Urubamba river.
The special of the day is the chicken platter.
Streets of Calca
It was a little cloudy early on but the sun comes out and it's a great day for a ride. The road is somewhat straighter here along the river and I actually hit 80 km/h a few times.
One of my favorite pictures, typical Peruvian view.
Crossing over the Urubamba river into the town of Urubamba some kids on the way home from school.
Houses along the Urubamba river.
The town of Urubamba down in the valley with the road coming up on the right. I'm having a lot of fun riding here as there's not much traffic and the roads are full of curves. The only problem is where they are doing construction, their method of repaving is to spray asphalt on the road then spread loose gravel and let the cars tamp it down. Until it's completely flattened by cars there's about a half inch of loose gravel in between the tire tracks and an inch or two on the outside of the turns.
The clouds are back and it starts to rain a little so I skip the side trip to the ruins at Moray and head back towards Cusco.
Somewhere near Chinchero
Here they go. It must have been fun, there was a lot of yelling. I pulled in to see if I could try it but they only do bungee jumping by reservation. Maybe another day.
In the hills over Cusco looking down at the town.
I ride around Cusco for a short while, which is the hardest riding yet. There are very few stoplights and no stop signs. Nobody really stops at the intersections, they just go through while beeping their horn. It's not that bad until you have to turn left. I actually stop and put my turn signal on, which freaks everybody else out. The tank of gas worked out almost exactly, I ran out and switched to reserve about 5 minutes away from the rental place.
Down to Plaza de Armas for dinner. After spending about 7 hours on the motorcycle, especially since it's been at least 25 years since I last rode, I'm a little tired and stiff but not too bad.
This bakery has a window on the street where you can pick up a snack while walking by. It's right on the way from Plaza de Armas back to the hostel so I usually grab a chocolate chip cookie on the way back after dinner.
