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WEEK 25 : 19th Apr - 25th Apr 2002 |
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| Trip Distance (km) | Quote of the Week | Country | ||
| 23,699 |
"I think it's time to go home, I'm sick of falling off. " - It had been a long day for Jamie.
"Quick, get on your bikes and go now. " - One of the 'friendly' construction workers seconds before the blast shook the side of the mountain. |
Peru Pisco - Huacachina - Nazca - Abancay - Cuzco  Map |
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Memorable Moment Various reports were given to us about the road from Nazca to Cuzco with bus times ranging from 15 to 22 hours. We set off early to complete the run to Abancay. Making good time for the day we came to the last town at about 3.30 leaving plenty of time and light for the 130km stretch to our destination. But on the way out of town the road was blocked, with a sign saying closed from 7am-12pm and 1pm-6pm due to construction. We decided to stay the night as riding after dark can be scarey(boogey men and that sort of thing) and left at 5.30am the next morning to get through before construction works began. As we rode workmen and loads of heavy earth moving equipment gradually joined us, riding a little slowly due to our interest in the whole project and the engineering we were running out of time. We snuck past a couple road blocks using our friendly smiles but then no go. After waiting for about an hour at one spot, the other vehicles started up ready to go, as we were about to zoom to the front the flagman frantically waved us down, 5 seconds later......boom, a section of the cliff around the corner was blasted away by the construction workers. Next stop, people playing football on the road....were these the workers or locals taking advantage of the closed road. People on the waiting bus were urged to approach the workers as a group and persuade them to let all of us through. It worked. Arriving in Abancay 26 hours after leaving Nazca we still had 200km to Cuzco.....but that's another story.
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Pictures of the Week |
Competition Sandboard Race: Jamie, Martin, Campbell, Lurch. All laying face first on their sandboards. Winners: all other people watching these clowns cover themselves in sand. |
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Highlight Not really knowing what to expect at Huacachina apart from a lagoon and some huge sand dunes we contemplated moving on after a quick viewing. As we looked through the entrance of a large white building we spotted some pale looking gringos...then a pool....then a bar next to the pool. We stayed for two fun nights, some sand boarding, and lots of cool people. |
Risk Activity Breakfast while waiting for the road to open. The only thing cooked was some whole potatoes and deep fried pieces of pork, complete with plenty of fat and lots of thick black hairs protruding from the skin. Not bad, and probably not too risky as the shelter being cooked under appeared to have been swept just moments earlier. Risk Factor 3/10 |
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Lowlight Our first view of the famous Nazca lines was from a small viewing platform on the side of the road, first impressions....some one had been here with a shovel, this could be piss weak world. We were later amazed by most of the lines when seen from the plane. Very spun out stuff. |
Road Tally Dozens of kids who are walking to and from school along the road normally wave and smile, seeing it is awesome. But our road tally this week are those more unfortunate people who we scare the crap out of when we go zooming past. |
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