Cusco con Madre - click here for map!

After the Barbeque and dance, we stayed at Jeff’s house for two more days. While I explored the town and did some reading, Jeroen and Adam took off for a ride in the countryside. They were visibly excited at the prospect of riding their machines completely unladen. They intended to go and see the ancient Inca salt mining area, down a rough dirt road. They ended up getting separated, but they each enjoyed themselves immensely. Jeroen managed to find the salt flats, and took some great pictures. Adam managed to find some great dirt roads leading through cornfields, and rode the piss out of bee, remarking upon his return that “the BMW handles like a dirt bike, only faster, when she’s light… God that was fun!” He also revisited a lake (UFO lake) we had passed earlier in the pre-dawn dark.

After two days of relaxing and soaking in the hot-tub, we returned to Cusco to await the arrival of Adam’s mom. We had a few days so we took Bee to Jeff’s mechanics shop, where they made us an insanely well-crafted new skid plate. The skid plate is 1/4 inch aluminum sheet metal. We paid 30 dollars for the sheet of aluminum and they handcrafted it into a piece of art. The total cost for materials and labor, including oil change, air filter, and the crafting of the skid plate was 30 dollars. We are stoked. Screw you Touratech!

Adam’s mom arrived at 7:15 Sunday morning, bearing more gifts than Santa Claus. Among the gifts was a new tire (quite timely since the old one went flat on the way to the mechanics shop), 5 quarts of BMW oil, an air filter and an oil filter. We took this stuff straight from the airport to the shop after a brief stop at our hotel. Bee will be serviced and Bee-bee-sat until next Sunday, the day after Stephanie leaves.

Machu Picchu was great. We woke up early, and managed to be among the first people at the site. We took some photos and spent a few hours wandering around. By around 10 am, the crowds had got so thick that we high-tailed it for town down the old staircase (about 2,000 granite steps heading straight down the mountain).