We left Chalhuanca for Ollantaytambo after yet another breakfast of fruit and scrambled eggs. There’s no imagination in these hotels.

It was another day of motorcycling through the Andes – 194 miles and 20,000 feet of ascent and descent. The weather was great and the scenery was greater.

Here’s the road to Ollantaytambo with only 20 miles to go 👇

The bike is parked whilst Susan and Mr Google conspire to send us down a backwater dirt road. That was an unhappy 10 miles.

On this backwater dirt road we motorcycled past a woman in traditional country clothing with a flock consisting of goats, sheep, llamas, dogs, chickens and pigs. All one big happy flock family walking down the road. She looked at us on the motorcycle on the backwater dirt road as if we were mad! I looked at her as if she was mad. We all know who was right, of course!

The approach to this ancient Inca town is by ancient Inca road. The tarmac disappeared, like it does so often in South America, and was replaced by a steep hill of old Inca cobbles.

I careered up with a modicum of control. Half way up Susan must have sensed this trip was now in the hands of the Inca Gods and suggested it may be a good idea for her to get off.

Thankfully, before the tight bend at the top I spotted a few feet of flat dirt at the side of the road and managed to come to a halt. Susan was off as fast as she could before I changed my mind. We then travelled on independently to the hotel. Susan got the best deal as it was only a 10 minute walk whilst I had to negotiate treacherous cobbles and an Inca one way system through the town square.

That night we dined in a local restaurant like Incas.

There’s all sorts of stuff going on in this meal including corn the size of marbles, roast yam, roast chicken, roast lamb and roast alpaca. Yup, I decided to eat one of those cute furry Alpaca things.

Can you see the sideways look it’s giving me. I’m absolutely sure it knows I ate one of its pals the night before.

Alpaca is common in restaurants in Peru and it’s actually very nice. Tastes like chicken! No I’m only kidding, it tastes like beef. I had the opportunity to pair it with roast guinea pig but chose the lamb. Sometimes it’s difficult to choose which cute furry thing you will eat in an evening.

Here’s more Alpacas we saw the following day.

The problem I now have is when I look at this photo of this ancient Ollantaytambo Inca fortress all I can think of is … mmmm that’s tasty!

Apologies for anyone reading that’s not a meat eater. There were lots of veggies on these platters. The yam was beautifully roasted and tasted like an earthy potato. Talking of potatoes, did you know, Peru has over 4,000 varieties of potato. They all have a very earthy potato taste and bear little resemblance to the white fluffy potatoes we have in the UK.

Here’s another photo of the Inca fortress without the tasty additions.

That’s me at the entrance to the Templo del Sol. Certainly not tasty, more like an earthy potato.

Here’s Susan contemplating why she ever agreed to go on a motorcycle.

Ollantaytambu stone streets preserve the Inca architecture. Whilst many of the original buildings were destroyed by the dastardly Spanish invaders, many survive to this day. It really is a splendid, small, tasty town to visit.

Our next task was to visit Machu Pichuu. Well actually, that was the main reason we travelled over the Andes to Ollantaytambo. From here there’s a 90 minute train journey to a legitimate ‘wonder of the world’.

However, we had a major problem – we didn’t have tickets to get in. Now before you smack your forehead and mutter ‘Oh, that’s a bit silly’, please let me explain.

Six weeks travelling through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru on a bike with a plan doesn’t guarantee we will actually arrive anywhere on a specific day. There’s a multitude of issues that can happen between our plane landing in Bogota and us arriving in this tasty town.

Tickets to Machu Picchu are limited and sold out months in advance but there was still an opportunity to buy tickets so this is what we had to do.

Bought rail tickets for train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes at the bottom of Machu Picchu. Next day, get up at 04:30 to get the train at 06:10. Arrive AG at 07:45hrs. Get a numbered queue ticket from a government cultural building. Wait until 14:30 hrs to join a manic queue with a woman and a loudspeaker trying to control tourist mayhem. After another hour queuing, successfully get tickets for Machu Picchu for the following day. Wait another two hours to catch the train back to Ollabtaytambo. No time to eat another tasty cute animal so it was pizza and beer. Bed at 20:30. Up at 05:00 and train back to Machu Picchu the following day. Exhausting.

At least the train to Machu Picchu the following day had some entertainment.

I’ve actually got a video of Susan dancing with this guy below but I’ve been told in no uncertain terms it’s NOT being posted. Sorry!

As you can see we were in tourist heaven. It was awesome.

So we arrived at Machu Picchu and hired a guide. Here he is with Susan.

He was a lovely guy. I knew he was the one for us when I saw the bag of coca leaves hanging from his arm. ‘Mellow man’ was a cross between Bob Marley and Snoop Dog and the more coca leaves he stuck in his gob the more mellow ‘Mellow Man’ he became. He certainly knew his Inca history though as he was once a researcher on the site.

‘Mellow Man’ was also a good photographer for our selfies – well you can hardly fail when you’ve got subjects like us, I mean this.

Finally, name the Inca bird 👇

It’s a Condor of course. Use your imagination. The Incas believed the Condor had a close connection with their sun god because they could fly so high and carried the dead to the afterlife on its wings.

So that was our trip to Machu Picchu. It is a wonderful place to visit and whilst I admit I did have some misgivings about whether I wanted to see it, I’m pleased that Susan persuaded me. Well actually I had to go – there’s no way I was letting her go herself and fall into the clutches of ‘Mellow Man’.

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