Terranova Expedition: Road to Lima

Cusco had almost become our home, we'd been there so long.

It was hard to leave Loki, but after 3 weeks (!!), the road beckoned.

I started the bike up, turned it around in the foyer, and we packed up. We said our goodbyes to the staff (Kim, Celeste, Mitch, and all the other guys we'd become friends with on our three difference stays there)

We got out on the road by about 11:00 am, which always seems to be later than we want. We rode the first day about 300 km, not much, but about 6-7 hours on the twisting, turning winding roads.

The only problem was that by the time we needed to stop, we were at 4500 meters, and it was cold!

We stopped in a tiny town, and as we pulled up I realized it was the same tiny town that Troy and I had stopped at for gas on our way through. The reason I remember is it wasn't a gas station, just a lady in her shop with some 45 gallon drums of gas. I got another 10 litres.

We rode just down the street to a "hotel" which was literally 2 rooms. It was neck and neck for "worst hotel award" with our stay on the Bolivian border. The bed was concave in the middle, and the roof was a tarp, but at least my bike was safe behind a bolted steel door.

The bathroom was the worst we have seen. A stinking hole in the ground. Vanessa was so disgusted, she ended up going in the courtyard at 4:00 am, rather than go into the "bathroom".

We got up early (not hard, we didn't sleep much on the rock hard bed), and rode to Nazca. We stopped at the lookout again to see the famous lines and figures.

We approached the area where Troy and I had camped on the way through 4 months ago, and I decided that it would be nice to find our campsite and stay there with Vanessa. I remember wishing when we were here last how nice it would be to have her here, and this time, I did.

We set up camp in the same spot, and I built a fire. We stayed up for a couple hours, sitting by the fire, and enjoying the quiet and empty beauty of Nazca, Peru.