In the heart of the Inca Empire.

A street in Abancay, Peru.

 Abancay makes Seattle's claim to be a city of hills appear to be absurd.  Crazy steep streets.  This only looks level because it happens to be one of the transverse streets.

Classic upland Peru on the way into Cusco from Nasca. 

Quick snapshot showing the twist rural road while we waited for roadwork to clear a landslide.

This snaking road is on the route between Nasca and Cusco, a major thorofare.  The buses are crazy! They are brave souls that will travel by bus in the mountains of Peru.

Roadside view on approach to Cusco, Peru.

Everywhere you look in the mountains of Peru there is amazing scenery.  It is like Wyoming only much more so!

The old iglesia in Sicuani Peru.  Even in this condition it looks better than the concrete beast that replaced it.

This beautiful church is the nicest thing about Sicuani, Peru.  The people were also friendly, but the town is suffering.  We finally found "the" hotel after a guy at a hostel that didn't have parking for the bikes walked Jim to it.  It was on the block and street we were told and we had ridden right past it.  The sign was broken and it didn't look much like a hotel.  It has the distinction of being the worst hotel I've ever stayed in.  We opted to sleep in our sleeping bags to keep warm and clean.  The cost for the room and to park the motorcycles...S/. 40, or about $13USD.  It wasn't worth that much!

Vendors at a construction backup.  

Despite what you many have heard, many police in Peru are honest.  

Best cab driver ever.

After getting to a hotel in Puna, Peru, we needed to go to town to get SOAT vehicle insurance.  After having been waved through scores of roadblocks we were finally stopped (see photo above)  we didn't have SOAT, it is a pretty big fine, but they let us go if we promised to buy insurance in the next town.  We called a cab because we'd already spent enough time lost in Puna.  The cab fare back to town was 10 Solers.  I told the cabby what we needed.  He was immediately on the phone and figured out where we needed to go.  We never would have found it.  Took us inside, explained our predicament (I would say he interpreted for us but he didn't speak English. His Spanish was just really easy for me to understand).  After getting us through that mess, he then drove us back to the hotel.  The fare was 30 Soles.  More than fair considering each way was 10 and he spent more time helping us than driving us.  We gave him 50 Soles.  He was thrilled and so were we.  20 Soles is about $7. (Carlos, I know you told us not to over-tip, but this guy went above and beyond)

As for the insurance, the insurance system will only accept license numbers that have letters in them. Mine plate doesn't have any numbers.  I had the same issue crossing the border into Peru but the Aduana Agents figured out I wasn't kidding and just entered the info.  The software at the insurance agency would NOT accept the plate without letters.  I suggested using WAXXXXXX, but she just gave me a signed, stamped note with her phone and cell and an explanation and said the police would likely accept it and to try to talk my way out of the fine.  I was already able to do that once without the note.  Keep your fingers crossed.