If You Are A Tourist – Be A Tourist A few lovely days off in Cusco at the centre of the Valley of the Incas and a day trip by boringbus-twistytrain-scarybus to get to Machu Picchu, the former country retreat of the Inca kings. Cusco really is a beautiful city that has retained enough of …
Author Archives: colindotpdx
I Met This Lady and Immediately Made a Connection There are lots of perils to look out for on Peru’s roads – aggressive lunatic drivers in barely maintained cars, deep culverts off narrow bumpy twisty roads, rain channels that are invisibly deep and slippery, and tiny ladies in multiple frilly petticoats and big felt hats …
Women Are Less Corrupt Than Men At least that is what senior police officers believe in Peru. Drive anywhere in Peru and you will see the traffic at rush hour being directed by lovely young ladies on motorcycles in crisp green uniforms, Ray Bans, tan jodhpurs, and riding boots. Since 1998 these women have been …
We Had Terrorists Before Al Queda Every time a brown person with a name like Mohammed attacks someone, the American media swings into full hysteria and claims that the country faces an existential threat from Islamic terror. This is total nonsense; more people were killed in the US last year by armed toddlers than by …
Dear Abby – I am becoming an Adventure Tourism Snob. Please help. Over this last month, I have been traveling by motorbike along the Andes with a group of friends; starting in Cartagena, Colombia, passing through Ecuador, and now in Cusco, Peru. We have stayed in condos, hotels, hostels, and camped on farms, by lakes, and …
La Policia LatinoAmericana The police forces of Latin America do not have a very good reputation for honesty. They are rarely trusted by their citizens, they are underpaid, and often resort to creative ways to increase their compensation by taking a bite out of locals and tourists alike. Our experience so far in South America …
The Rio Tablachaca Valley – The Most Dangerous Road I’ve Ridden Riding in the Andes is breathtaking, electrifying, and completely terrifying. Leaving Pallasca we dropped 7000 feet onto the Rio Tablachaca on roads where there was absolutely zero room for error; one slip and there was the abyss. All of this road was paved once …
Angasmarca Knows How to Throw a Party Angasmarca is an unremarkable town. There are no pre-Incan ruins, no Spanish colonial buildings, no handicrafts markets. Just a concrete little farming town with a small concrete plaza separated from any passing tourists by difficult dirt roads over almost impenetrable mountains. But we rode into Angasmarca on the …
Fernando in Huamachuco We arrived in Huamachuco in the Northerm Highlands of Peru looking for lunch, a place to rest, and some time to plan where we could camp that night. There was a political rally blocking one side of the town plaza but on the other side we found a restaurant. Across the street …
Hospitality In Pallasca The plan for the day was to leave our camping near Huamachuco and ride the backroads of the Northern Highlands of Peru on the west slope of the Cordillera Central of the Andes, get lunch at the small hill town of Pallasca, and head south to find another place to camp. It …
Colin's Travel Journal 