Bike-packing Peru: The Path to Machu Picchu

Left Ollantaytambo after a wonderful couple of days making new friends, exploring trails and ancient ruins and seeking out o-rings to repair my fork. Climbed a 14,000′ pass before descending on the road 71kms to the tiny town of Santa Maria. Fittingly we stayed the night on the floor of a very rustic Catholic Church run by two young Italian missionaries. The next day-Oct 30-we climbed a tough 12 km dirt road to Santa Teresa where we were treated to spectacular hot springs on the river. Another uphill 10kms before setting camp. We were up and riding at 2:30am to make our way along a section of trail that follows rail tracks but closed to cyclists and pedestrians. We successfully negotiated armed guards, packs of barking wild dogs, wet rail crossings, raging rivers, bugs, rain and even a train! But we made it to the base of the ancient city of Machu Picchu which we’ll explore early tomorrow morning. Stomach problems, bug bites, failing suspension forks and myriad other challengesake this an adventure like no other. Loving it!

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