Last night one of the guides came by to get our deposit and preview the tour. He explained the ride would be mostly on paved roads with some dirt road riding and that the shuttle van would be behind us all the time in case it rained or we got tired. Sounded pretty mellow but a chance to get out and see the country side so we signed up.
Our guide, Aldo and our van driver met us the hotel. It was perfect, our van turned out to be a small station wagon and Knikki and I were the only one's on the tour.
Our guide Aldo
As we left town Aldo mention just a few things about Cuzco, local histories and customs the perfect balance of information and questions.
Concerned over the Choco sandals Knikki was going to ride in Aldo quizzed her heavilywondering if she had any other shoes for the ride. Knowing Knikki I laughed to myself thinking, "if you only knew this woman like I do". She smiled to Aldo saying "I'll be ok"
Bikes set up we rode about a quarter mile of pavement then hit the dirt roads. We road through some small villages the people were shy but friendly. Aldo would check in with us from time to time, answer questions and point out anything of interest.
It appears we were riding on a large bench area just above the Sacred Valley of the Inka's. The country side was lush and green, potatoes were the crop of choice in this area.
What do bike guides from Alaska do while on vacation.....?
After riding a couple of miles Aldo ask if we want to take a road around this valley or ride single track down and push our bikes up the other side. With no hesitation we headed down the single track. Following our guide we watched as he rode up a large berm and disappeared with "whoa". A new drainage canal in our path changed our tactics momentarily to "you pass the bikes to me and I'll pass them to Knikki" soon the ride continued.
The surprise ditch
The push up wasn't bad and soon we rode to the archaeological site of Moray. If there was any down side to the tour it was that no one told us that we would have to pay our own way into the two archaeological sites on the tour. Aldo explained what the site was and that it was pretty neat. (The archaeological speculation is that the Inka's used this site to acclimatize plants brought up from lower warmer areas of their empire so they could be grown in the local area) We hemmed and hawed and decided to save what little money we did bring for the Salt Mine site coming up. We had lunch in the town square of Maras provided by the tour company
I should mention was the first time we saw the van since we started off on the tour, perfect for us.
After lunch it was all single track down to the Salt Mine site. It was great riding however I was reminded how badly my depth perception is challenged without my glasses.
The Salt Mine site was pretty cool and is still in use today by locals gathering and selling salt.
Looking down into Salt Mine site
A comfortable van ride took us back to the hotel. Knikki and I chatted and laughed thinking they took us on the wrong tour today which was perfect for us.
Location:Cuzco, Peru
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