The day promises to be easy, we've 70 kilometers and a hotel waiting for us in Cusco. In the morning, as often these days, we are doing very well. The scenery isn't beautiful but pretty enough to make this road a pleasant one. The afternoon is a different kettle of fish. We arrive in the city quite early but we still have 20 kilometers. And let's go for an hour and a half of honking horns, stops... Fortunately the road is straight. We climb progressively on a false flat amount, except at the end where it's accentuated in the center.
Our hotel is in San Blas district. What we didn't know is that our hotel booked in advance is at the top of stairs, in a pedestrian street. In short, François practises bodybuilding with bikes and we arrived well, but tired. The hotel is fine, although at first we were changed room twice.
The next day, Saturday, we visit the center of Cusco with a free city tour. It's very pretty, and there are still many ruins and Inca "remains". We book our Machu Picchu tour for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We also buy bike parts, chains and cassettes, in order to refurbish our bicycles before the big hills that await us. A good restaurant and a craft beer make us really happy at night.
Sunday is more rest oriented, we go to the handicraft center, then to the market in the San Pedro district.
