I think this all started when I was talking about wanting to see Machu Picchu someday, and Dan agreed that was a bucket list trip. Inevitably, the idea spiraled into our first trip to South America.
It was around this time that our idea to create 72 Adventures formed as a way to share our travels and stories. We initially discussed hiking the Inka Trail, but that looked very difficult and we found a company that does motorcycle tours instead. And so we decided that renting a motorcycle sounded way more fun, thus the idea for the trip was born.
Quick links:
- Pre-trip Planning
- Arrival to Cusco
- Cusco to Ollantaytambo
- About Going to Machu Picchu
- Our Machu Picchu Experience
- Continuing our moto trip to Quillabamba
- Onward to Lares: The Craziest Day Ever
- From Lares back to Cusco
- Conclusion
- Tips
Pre-Trip Details: Flights, Motorcycle Rental, and not much else …
Our initial idea was that we’d take a pre-set tour with Alejandro at Peru Moto Tours in Cusco, Peru. They had a pretty nice loop with a small group planned, but in the end, there wasn’t enough interest so the tour didn’t run. Oh well. We decided to rent a bike anyways and wing it. Alejandro assured us they’d help us plan out everything upon our arrival.
We had flights and a motorcycle rental planned before we left. I booked the Tierra Viva Cusco hotel for the first two nights and the last night in Cusco, but otherwise, we didn’t plan anything else. We didn’t even buy tickets for Machu Picchu, which made me pretty nervous but Alejandro assured us that they wouldn’t sell out.
Arrival to Cusco
Upon arrival in Cusco, we were shocked at the lack of cabs at the airport. What are the odds we arrived on the day of a transportation strike? Several guys were flashing “Official Taxi” badges at us assuring us they were licensed and could take us to our hotel, and after some haggling, we got into one guy’s personal vehicle to head into the city center. The strike prevented him from getting close to our hotel, so we got a pretty good tour of the city as we walked the last 5 blocks with our luggage. This trip wasted no time in being an adventure! We actually got to see the strike as we walked uphill. I was pretty shocked that I, the cardio junkie, was getting winded walking uphill. Cusco sits at 11k+ altitude, which is a shock to your body if you’ve never experienced such a thing before.
The most common advice about Cusco is that you should spend a few days there to adjust to the altitude before continuing on with your journey, so we did just that. While most stores were closed on our first day due to the strike, there were plenty of street vendors selling literally anything you can think of (we even saw a guy pushing a cart to make keys, I’m not exaggerating, you can buy everything on the street).
It was an interesting contrast to the next day when the streets were packed and Cusco felt like a regular city again.
Cusco is a place where you can easily wander for hours, taking breaks to try street food and people watch. We spent most of our time just taking everything in. One of our favorite places to check out was the San Pedro market, which had no shortage of things to try or buy.
Between wandering around Cusco, we also managed to buy our tickets to Machu Picchu from the official office in the city. That turned out to be pretty easy, and we were happy to have waited until a few days before when we were sure of the weather.
The First Half of the Trip: From Cusco to Ollantaytambo
After two nights of adjusting (we slept way more than we usually would due to the altitude, plus I had altitude sickness), we met up with Alejandro at Peru Moto Tours. Alejandro set us up with everything that we needed. We brought our own gear, but he had some straps to help set up the luggage on our motorcycle. He gave us a map with some tips on the general route and his phone number in case we ran into any troubles.
We always end up packing last minute …
We rented a Honda NX 400. It felt like a cross between a dirt bike and an adventure bike. Getting out of Cusco is an entire experience. Nobody follows any rules in Peru, so you have to be prepared for anything at any moment. Buses will randomly pull out, cars will do U-turns out of nowhere with no space, people will cross the street when they feel like it, and there will be a pothole you have to avoid just for good measure. Thankfully, it’s only about 15 minutes to get out of the insanity to get the highway.
Our initial plan was to ride to Ollantaytambo the first night, Santa Teresa the second night, then take the train from Santa Teresa to hit up Machu Picchu. The ride to Ollantaytambo was a good warmup for Peruvian riding. There is no end to the potholes or gravel in the corners, but the Honda is more than capable of handling all of that.
The weirdest thing to get used to was dogs. There are many wild dogs in Peru, and they love chasing motorcycles. Normally you’d roll on the throttle, but when you have loaded an NX 400 with two people and luggage … well, it’s not exactly your ideal getaway vehicle. It became downright comical that Dan could roll on the gas and a small dog actually still caught up to us initially. Here is one dog that I was able to shoot a few photos of as it caught up to us:
The ride to Ollantaytambo did not take very long, although I do regret not trying to explore in some of the towns on the way there. We booked a night at Ccpac Inka Ollanta, which advertises itself as a boutique hotel. It is actually this lovely family’s home that also doubles as a hotel. I can’t recommend this place enough! The people there were awesome, and they had a place inside the hotel gates to park our motorcycle. Our only challenge was finding the hotel, but that was partially due to not being used to Peruvian streets. We questioned times where Google told us to turn, but just about anything can double as a street in Peru.
Ollantaytambo goes by Ollanta to the locals, and I had trouble pronouncing the entirety of the town’s name so I stuck to Ollanta. The town itself is cute and quiet, and it clearly thrives off of tourism. The town sits within the Sacred Valley, which is now effectively a system of national parks dedicated to the Inka ruins. The site of the Ollantaytambo ruins is quite stunning. Dan and I felt like we’d be missing out if we skipped it. We decided to change our initial plan of riding the next day, and instead, we stayed in Ollantaytambo for another day to hike the park. There is a train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Caliente, so we decided to skip Santa Teresa all together and just take the train from there. You can sense from the photos that the town is a bit quieter than Cusco:
Hiking in Ollantaytambo was pretty great, but it turned out that I was severely allergic to something in those ruins. I was very happy that I had purchased some allergy medicine to get through the day, but I’d highly recommend bringing your own pharmacy instead of paying gringo prices in Peru. The town also had a religious festival going on, so there was no shortage of things to check out and enjoy.
The next day, we took the train to continue on to Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu: How to Get There, Costs, and Timing Notes
Getting to Machu Picchu is nothing short of an adventure. The only way to get there is thru the town of Aguas Caliente, and there are no public roads that actually go to Aguas Caliente. You have two options: take a train or hike. Trains run from Cusco, Ollantaytambo, or the hydroelectric station outside of Santa Teresa. The trains have various levels of luxury, and they aren’t cheap. We opted for last minute tickets that included a 360-degree view and an open train car on the way to Aguas Caliente, and the entire round trip cost us around $120 each. From Aguas Caliente, you can either take a bus or hike to Machu Picchu. The bus will cost $25 round trip each. There’s no other way around this – these are your only options to get to Machu Picchu. It’s advised to spend the night before at Aguas Caliente so that you can dedicate an entire day at Machu Picchu. This was our train adventure:
Tickets to Machu Picchu must be purchased in advance either online or in person in Cusco. You cannot buy them at the gate. We bought ours at the official office in Cusco only a few days before leaving, but I don’t think you have this option if you go during high tourist season. There are a few different ticketing options. The basic ticket allows you to only explore the major ruins, and there is a strict time window that you can enter (early morning or late morning). There are additional options to add on hikes to the day, which cost more. There’s a hike to Huayna Picchu or Montana Picchu. Each hike has a limit to the number of people who can do it in a day, and they also have their own timeframes where you must begin the hike. Huayna Picchu usually sells out early, but Montana Picchu was still open and we opted to add that on to the day. I think our tickets were $70, but I can’t remember entirely.
Here’s the thing to plan for: you need to know how much time your ticket “allows” you to be in the ruins and plan your breaks accordingly. For our tickets, we could enter the park at any time. We were also allowed to leave the park once within a six-hour period from when we entered. The bathrooms, water, and food are all outside of the ruins. If you leave the park after the allotted timeframe of the ticket, they won’t let you back in. So this is why I advise planning accordingly, as we did not time things quite as well as I hoped. I really needed to take a leak for half the day, but I didn’t want to leave so I just waited until we were done for the day and planned my water intake accordingly. If you do not leave the park, then you will be left alone to roam as much as you want. However, if you leave the park and try to re-enter when you are outside of the allotted time frame, then you will not be allowed back in.
Machu Picchu: Our Actual Experience
We arrived at Aguas Caliente by train. Aguas Caliente is an overpriced town that was literally set up as a holding pattern for tourists wanting to go to Machu Picchu, however its necessary to make the most of it and there’s no way to get around it. It is a bit of a surreal place in that there are no cars – only busses and pedestrians. It follows along a river so it’s easy enough to walk around and get a feel for the place. There are also hot springs there, but I heard they aren’t the best so we decided to skip them as we knew there’d be more hot springs on the trip.
We woke up at 4:30am the next day in hopes of beating the lines for the buses. Breakfast was served at 5:00am at our hotel, so we ate quickly and ran to the buses by 5:30am when the first one took off. The line was already down the street and we had to wait for 45 minutes to get on the bus! It was pretty impressive. The length of this line grew quickly, as Dan noted that at 5:00am it was still fairly short. The line only got longer as we stood there, so the earlier you can get up the better. From there, you get loaded on a bus for the wildest ride up a mountain.
Upon arrival, there’s a bathroom, restaurant, and small coffee stand. The water costs like $5 (USD), and the bathrooms cost 2 soles to use. We entered the park to find a fantastic fog on the site, which almost made it seem a little spooky. It was a great unveiling of the site, and a sense of awe came over me as I took it in for the first time. Pictures don’t really do it justice when you see how large it is – it truly is an incredible human achievement.
After the first rush of excitement hits you, the second rush comes: LLAMAS!!!! Oh my God, I did not think this was going to be a real thing that I would see so easily. Llamas are used as natural lawn mowers on the grass, and there are 35 of them on the ruins (we heard a tour guide saying that). They have free reign to go where they want, and they 100% do not care about humans. I saw a small child pet one of the llamas, and the llama was unphased. Later the llama laid down and the kid wrapped his hands around the neck of the llama, and the animal still did not flinch. After that, I decided I was in the clear to pet such a fluffy animal, which maybe was the highlight of my existence (I really like fluffy animals, what can I say).
After taking 3000 llama photos, we made our way to the hike. The hike up Montana Picchu says it takes 4 hours, however, ours took 5. The amount of time it took threw off our plans as I thought we’d have enough time to run to the restroom before our 6-hour timeframe was up. Alas, we were too late and I had to hold tough for the day (literally). The hike was entirely upstairs, on a path that eventually narrowed. When you couple the stairs with the high altitude, it really feels like an achievement when you make it to the top. The view at the top of mountain overlooks the ruins and the rest of the valley, and it makes for a great lunch stop.
Coming down was a bit terrifying for me, but I guess it was technically not so cardio intensive. We spent another hour or so just relaxing and enjoy the sight of the ruins before we continued to explore the rest of the site. We didn’t get a tour guide, but there are tour guides everywhere so we were able to pick up bits and pieces of the tour highlights along the way. Machu Picchu is one of those places where you can spend an entire day wandering and people watching while in a constant slight state of awe. These a few photos of the rest of the day:
Taking a trip like this made me nervous as to whether it would be worth it. I have skipped many tourist attractions before just due to the crowds or cost, so I wondered if this would be worth it. Final verdict: 100% absolutely worth it the moment you first see the ruins. It’s an adventure no matter how you decide to do it, and it’s a pretty great piece of history to witness. I’d absolutely recommend this trip anyone.
Back to the Motorcycle: Continuing on from Machu Picchu to Quillabamba
We returned to Ollantaytambo from Machu Picchu completely exhausted but ready to continue with our trip. The next 3 days would be dedicated to riding a loop that Alejandro showed up on a map.
Our first stop was Quillabamba. From Ollantaytambo to Quillabamba was very similar to our first day of riding, with dogs and gravel and trucks around any corner, but we also frequently saw tour groups of cyclists on the road as well just to shake things up. I was fairly nervous on the first day of the trip even as a passenger, but I started to relax more about the capabilities of the bike. Quillabama was significantly hotter than Ollantaytambo. We stopped in a town for a snack, but we mainly pressed forward with the trip. One highlight of the road is a view/road called “Abra Malaga,” which is the beginning of a very twisty mountain pass.
Quillabamba was a significant change from the tourist towns we had previously been in. There were no tourists here, no llama merchandise, and definitely no English. To my surprise, my Italian served me well here as the owner of our hotel was fluent in Italian but not English. We spent the rest of the day checking out another market, trying street food, and people watching.
A story of note in Quillabamba: after exploring the day away, we wanted to take a shower. Below is a photo of the shower head in our hostel, with the ground wire sticking out:
We felt a little shocked from this device that heats water … no, literally, sparks came out of it and almost shocked Dan while he had the water on!! Dan likes to dramatically reiterate that he almost died anytime this comes up (“it’s not dramatic, it’s true!”). I knew something was up when I was sitting on the bed and the lights in the room started to flicker … No worries though, all survived but we decided it was best to skip the shower for the day. (Side note: my friend who lives in Lima says this is actually a pretty normal sight, which completely blows my mind)
The Craziest Day of Riding I Have Ever Experienced: Quillabamba to Lares
The next day was the true rodeo of the trip. Our goal was to get to Lares, which Google stated should take about 3 hours. Hahahaha, no. We knew we were in for an adventure as Google did not show the same route that Alejandro had pointed out on the map. Upon further inspection, according to Google, there was no road in certain parts. We decided to trust the advice of the local who has done this route many times and set out to see what was out there.
On the first few days of riding, the road was comprised of mostly asphalt. On this day, the road turned to dirt and occasional pockets of gravel to start. As the day progressed, things got crazier and crazier. The roads rarely stayed straight, so we spent the majority of the day increasing or decreasing in elevation on a very narrow road. Dan frequently honked the horn as he came around each corner, in hopes that the friendly trucks would perhaps warn us back in the blind corners. This system works better than you’d think actually, which is good because there’s no railing to keep you from pummeling to your demise.
We didn’t encounter any angry dogs this day, but we did encounter basically every farm animal that Peru has to offer. Cows, horses, ducks, sheep, cats, goats, school children … you name it, it was probably on the road at some point that day.
The road conditions also varied greatly from just dirt. Gravel and potholes were common, but occasionally the road would turn into just straight up mud.
Even better, sometimes the road was actually … a river.
This was quite the phenomenon for us. At the beginning of the day when this occurred, we would realize that we had missed a bridge somewhere. But eventually, we reached one of these rivers and questioned if we actually needed to ford it. Moments later, a van flew passed us and forged thru the river without skipping a beat. Ah yes, this must be the place. And so I got off the motorcycle to go it alone while Dan figured out how to navigate this new situation. This must’ve happened 10 times throughout the day, I’d say we were pros by the end of it.
Here’s a video of Dan crossing one:
After a day of animals, river crossings, and endlessly honking the corners, we finally made it to Lares … It took us about 8 hours, as opposed to Google’s 3-hour projection. We had no problems with actually finding the road, as opposed to what Google thought. I realize this might sound naive, but I don’t think it actually occurred to me there were areas of the world Google had not properly mapped out yet. Overall, the internet was not helpful for this part of the trip. We were unsure how Lares would be since we didn’t see any hotels on Booking.com for it, but it turned out that there were 5 in the town alone … just none of the hotels were actually listed online. The real draw for Lares was the hot springs though, so we stopped in the town for a bite to eat and continued to the hot springs which also had a hostel. There are 6 medicinal pools, which are filled with natural mineral water of various temperatures. They also have a series of public showers with hot water, which was a pretty welcome sight after not showering the night before. I love good hot springs, and it was particularly glorious after such a wild day of riding.
There are actually 2 hostels there: one right outside the hot springs and one in the hot springs. We didn’t realize this at the time, so we stayed at the first hostel and walked next door to the hot springs. The hostel that we stayed in suggested that we bring our motorcycle down the stairs into the lodging area. We were pretty skeptical about this, but the old couple insisted it was possible. So … we followed the advice of the locals. You know what they say though, what goes down must come back up (no wait, whatever, you get the idea). It turned out that shoving this thing back up the stairs was no small task. It was a four-man job, plus some rope!
The Peruvians didn’t really bat an eye at this either. Culturally, everyone has an attitude to just “get shit done,” which is an attitude I really love.
Next door to this hostel was the most amazing shop of weaved items I have ever seen in my entire life. In the town of Lares, there’s a group of women who make and dye their own yarns, and then they create amazing items from them. I’m a crochet nerd, so I absolutely had to support this business. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. If we hadn’t been on a motorcycle, I would have absolutely purchased one of the handmade blankets. And once again, this business is not listed online. There is something so refreshing and amazing about finding a truly hidden gem in another part of the world.
Return to quick links
Easy Riding: Lares to Cusco
The next morning we took off from Lares for a short and sweet ride back to Cusco (3 hours ish?). The road turned back to asphalt. It was even 2-lane asphalt, which felt like the widest most luxurious experience after the previous day. The views got pretty spectacular too.
We even encountered llamas, which was truly the greatest way to end the ride. They crossed the road, but unlike deer, they are smart enough to get out of the road if you honk. Also, we saw them climb up the sides of rocks, which was crazy!
The last day was pretty easy comparatively, and going back to Cusco felt like nothing as compared to when we left. It was quite the journey to say the least, and we were happy to exchange stories with Alejandro when we got back.
For our last night in Cusco, we hit up Morena Peruvian Kitchen for our nice final meal and followed up with some delicious pisco cocktails at the bar Museo Del Pisco. The meal at Morena Kitchen was the best restaurant meal we had during the entire trip. I’d recommend the lomo saltado, it was to die for there. Museo Del Pisco had a fantastic several-page menu of pisco cocktails along with live music, which was a perfect way to end the trip.
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Conclusion
This was a hell of an adventure. I researched as little as possible for this trip, and yet we pulled something pretty nice together. The riding in Peru is definitely not for the faint of heart and can pull you out of your comfort zone, but that can be half the adventure of riding. I started out unsure of what we were doing, but eventually, I felt like I embraced the culture, the country, and the chaos.
This was easily the roughest trip on my body in ways I did not predict. Altitude sickness had a bigger impact on me than I expected, but there’s no way to know if that will impact a person. I think it’s best to plan a few days to adjust. Dan did not get sick at all, though he felt winded during the first few days. My allergies went crazy on this trip, which I was not anticipating at all. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such horrendous allergies. It’s apparently pretty common for tourists to feel allergic to everything, so I’d highly recommend bringing your own arsenal of allergy meds just in case.
But all that being said, these conditions were not enough to deter me from doing something like this again, though I’m not sure I’d go back to Peru. I would like to hit up some other countries in South America! Sometimes getting yourself out of your comfort zone is the best medicine for personal growth.
Tips for Peru
For the Cusco area in general…
- Bring every possible allergy medicine you might need for your trip. It’s possible to buy this stuff at the pharmacies, but it’s unlikely you’ll know the name for it and they won’t help you find generic alternatives.
- Plan a few days to adjust to the altitude. I didn’t take any altitude medicine, I just adjusted naturally and was fine after 3 days.
- Bring a variety of clothing as the weather conditions can be all over the board.
For Cusco…
- We definitely recommend the Tierra Viva Cusco Centro as a place to stay. Great breakfast, perfect location, clean, great staff, and free tea. We left our stuff with them for the week for free when we left for our moto trip.
- Definitely hit up the San Pedro market.
- Don’t be afraid to try the street food – there are plenty of unique things to try!
- Definitely hit up Morena Kitchen for some cocktails and lomo saltado.
- Definitely hit up Museo Del Pisco for some fantastic cocktails.
For Machu Picchu…
- Arrive at the bus station at least a half an hour earlier than you think you need to.
- Pack more water than you think you need. It is incredibly expensive at the actual site so it would be better to have more than you need than to run out.
- Plan your bathroom break accordingly. In general, you can only exit the park once within the timeframe of your ticket.
- Make sure you understand your ticket timeframe.
- Pack sunscreen and bug spray.
- Bring a sweatshirt, compression shirt, and wear a short sleeve t-shirt. It was cold in the morning but got very hot in the afternoon, so I was happy I wore a variety of options for the day.
- Bring good shoes to walk in. I’d recommend hiking shoes, but plenty of people were getting by without them.
- Return buses from Machu Picchu are easier to catch if you leave closer to the when the park closes. We did not have to wait at all to catch a bus.
For a motorcycle trip…
- Bring your own luggage setup and ensure it will be sufficient before you go on the trip. Per usual, we packed at the last minute but our lives probably would’ve been a little easier if we’d figured this out in advance.
- Rent from Peru Moto Tours and let Alejandro advise you on your trip. He knows all!
- Be ready for anything, but that’s half the fun.
- If you are going to ride from Quillabamba to Lares, LEAVE EARLY and be ready for an adventure!!
72 Adventures 
Great pictures depicting a nice story. Many thanks for sharing
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