Day 1, Friday, August 23, 2019
I did not have a hard day at work, I wished I would have given the intern better requirements before leaving on vacation. I cycled 24 miles before getting home by 5:00 PM. We did some last-minute trip preparation. Marty and I walked the half mile carrying our suitcases to the Max (commuter train) stop at about 5:45 PM and took the next train to the airport. We arrived at the airport around 7:00 PM. We checked in for our flight and made it through customs by 8:00 PM. We had clam chowder for dinner and boarded the plan around 10:00 PM. I did not sleep great on our first flight. Marty had taken a ½ a sleeping pill and she slept great.

Day 2, Saturday, August 24, 2019
We arrived at Boston international airport around 6:45 AM and walked around. Then we left for Fort Lauderdale at about 9:20 AM and arrived there around 1:00 PM. I sent messages to my sister in-law Karen using Facebook so she could track our progress as we traveled to Quito, Ecuador (My brother Jay, sister in-law Karen, niece Natalie and niece Caleigh were already in Ecuador). Marty and I walked all the halls in the Fort Lauderdale airport, ate lunch and I worked on my Web site preparation document updates at the airport. Our flight arrived in Quito about 35 minutes late, then we walked to the hotel. My brother Dave and sister in-law Ellen arrived in Quito slightly after we arrived (they were due to arrive before we arrived). They took the shuttle to the hotel, but did not arrive as soon as we did. Once at the hotel we repacked stuff for the Galapagos (we needed to leave our hiking and biking stuff at our Quito hotel while we traveled to the Galapagos Islands), we took showers and went to sleep a little after 1:00 AM. (Total Trip miles 0.63 (walk from airport to Hotel) – I do not include air miles)

Day 3, Sunday, August 25, 2019
We woke up around 5:30 AM and had breakfast at about 6:30 AM. We missed the 7:00 AM shuttle to the airport, the hotel gave us a complementary taxi ride to the airport. We were a little behind the rest and cut into line to join them. The flight to Guayaquil was quick and I went to get off the plane in Guayaquil, my niece Natalie asked what I was doing and told me I was supposed to stay on the plane (The plane from Quito was to continue to the Galapagos). My niece Kate boarded the plane in Guayaquil and we all flew to the Galapagos. Once at the Galapagos airport we were flagged down by our tour company and took a bus to the boat dock. At the dock while waiting for our shuttle to the cruise boat, we saw sea lions and blue-footed booby birds. From the dock, they provided a zodiac shuttle boat to our Galapagos cruise boat. Once on the boat we had to wait for the other people that were on the cruise, there were two other couple from New Zealand. The boat departed to a Las Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island. We left the main boat on the zodiac for Las Bachas Beach and did not know where to hide our money, I left mine on the boat in my money belt and Marty took her money. We ended up leaving our packs with Marty’s money on the beach unattended while we went on a hike starting from the beach. On our short hike near the beach, we saw marine iguanas, flamingo birds and several other cool birds. When we returned to the beach where we left our packs, it appeared nothing was touched. Back on the boat, we both still had our money. They had cleaned our room and none of our personal stuff on the top bunk appeared to be touched (just the beds made and basic cleaning), for the remainder of the trip we left our money belts on the boat when we took walks and swimming trips. Then the boat served us a great dinner and we departed for Genovesa island. It was a long bumpy ride that night to the northern Galapagos Island, Genovesa Island. No one slept great that night. The following nights I tool a sleeping pill and slept fine. (Total Trip miles =72.45 miles; Daily Boat miles = 71.82 miles; Total boat miles = 71.82)

Day 4, Monday, August 26, 2019
We had an early breakfast and then we went to a beach in Darwin Day on Genovesa Island. We saw red-footed boobies, fluffy new born birds and several other birds. When we waded through the water a sealion pushed by us to get through the channel. The sealion nearly ran into my legs. We went snorkeling from the beach; the fish on this day were not that exciting. We returned to the boat for lunch. Then we took the zodiac to Prince Philip steps and climbed the rickety wooden steps to the top of the island. We saw lots of nesting birds, Galapagos short-eared owls, Red-billed tropic-bird and more. (Total Trip miles =135.1 miles; Daily Boat miles = 62.65 miles; Total boat miles = 134.5 miles)

Day 5, Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Before breakfast, we did a quick Zodiac ride along the island shore. Near the Pinnacle Rock, we saw penguins on the rocks, I could not get a good photo of them. We also saw other neat birds, and then we returned to the boat for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed back to Bartolome Island and hiked the boardwalk to the viewpoint on the top of the island. I thought we were going on a short walk and only had my sandals. The hike was OK with sandals, but I would have probably rather had my hiking shoes. The only wildlife we saw on this island hike was small lizards and iguanas. Then we returned to the boat for lunch. After lunch, we took a trip to Sullivan Bay and hiked on the lava flows. We went snorkeling there and saw stingrays, turtles and several fish. We also saw a penguin darting through the water. My sister-in law was able to get photos of the penguin with my nieces when the penguin got out of the water. That night the boat traveled to Daphne Island. (Total Trip miles =159.4 miles; Daily Boat miles = 24.3 miles; Total boat miles = 158.77 miles)

Day 6, Wednesday, August 28, 2019
I do not recall going to Daphne Island (it is in the itinerary – I have no photos from there). After breakfast, we took the Zodiac boats to Black Turtle Cove where we saw several stingrays and large sea turtles in the water. We went back to the boat for lunch. The boat then took us to a trail where we hiked up Cerro Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz, Island. The hike started at a beach where we saw marine iguanas. We then hiked away from the beach and uphill until we saw a few land iguanas. After the hike we took the Zodiacs back to the main boat and we had dinner. After dinner we were taken to the town of Puerto Ayora which is on the other side of Santa Cruz island. The crew anchored the boat in the harbor and we took the Zodiac into the town for a short stroll. Then we took the Zodiac back to the main boat, packed up our stuff for the following day. We spent our final night on the boat in the harbor of Puerto Ayora of Santa Cruz Island. (Total Trip miles =221.52 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Boat miles = 62.12 miles)

Day 7, Thursday, August 29, 2019
We departed our Galapagos tour boat for the last time after breakfast and went as a group to the Charles Darwin Station. We left our luggage on the boat. Our luggage was transported to the Charles Darwin Station before our taxi took to us to the airport. We walked around the Charles Darwin Station and saw all the exhibits. A little boring to me. We had to catch a shuttle to the airport ferry (the other side of the island), so we could catch our flight back to the mainland (Quito). As we headed across the island, our taxi driver saw some land turtles on a farm. We stopped to take photos; the woman that owned the farm saw us and allowed us to check out the land tortoises up close, then we continued to the airport shuttle boat. My brother Dave’s taxi did not see the tortoises. Dave decided to take his family back to look for the land tortoise. The rest of us went to the airport. Dave was able to make it back in time for our flight, on his adventures they went to a tortoise farm and seemed to see a lot more than we had seen with respect to land tortoises. The flight back to Quito went smooth, once back we checked into our hotel and repacked for the next part of our journey (Machu Picchu). (Total Trip miles =248.88 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 27.36 miles)

Day 8, Friday, August 30, 2019
We woke up around 7:00 AM and ate breakfast. We left the hotel around 8:30 AM after saying bye to Jay and Karen. We took a tour to a volcano crater and equator (center of the earth). The crater was closed due to fires, so we took photos from the nearby hotel on the hill. On the way back we stopped at museum Tempo Del Sol with sculptures, nice for a museum (art of Ortega Maila – they claimed his art sells for $5,000,000 USD/ painting. Looking on-line it appears they sell for more like $40,000 to $80,000). Then we went to the Mitad Del Mundo (Equator - center of the earth). It was fun, I had been there a few years ago, this time they had a new tower open that we checked out. From there we had our guide extend our tour to the historic center in Quito. We climbed the stairs up the Basilica del Voto Nacional church steeple and checked out the church. Then we went back to the airport, it turns out I got charged 2 times for my bike to get to Cusco (once in Quito and another time in Lima). We had to wait 3 hours at the airport for our flight to Lima, Peru. Once in Lima, we had to gather our bags and recheck them on the domestic flight to Cusco (The luggage fee this time was higher than in Quito). We exchanged money; the ATM would only allow 400 SOL/ withdrawal. We ate at McDonalds and had to wait until 1:30 AM to get into the domestic terminal. (Total Trip miles =299.79 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 50.91 miles)

Day 9, Saturday, August 31, 2019
We slept on benches at the airport in Lima. Not a great night of sleep, but worked. When we arrived in Cusco, we took a taxi to the hotel and walked around the historic area while they prepared our room. We also went to Action Peru trek for our pre-trip briefing (they lent us duffle bags to use for the gear we wanted them to carry) . Then we walked to the bus station and I bought a bus ticket to Puquio. We walked around the historic center and checked out all the historic building. We also found the market and bought several souvenirs. We got back to our hotel around 6:00 PM. We watched TV for a while and went to sleep by about 10:00 PM. It was nice to be in a bed after sleeping on benches the previous night, we both slept very solid that night. (Total Trip miles =310.66 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 10.87 miles)

Day 10, Sunday, September 1, 2019
We woke up at around 7:00 AM and had the hotel-included breakfast. We walked up to Cristo Blanco in the morning, great view. On the way up the mountain, we stopped at this church and found that someone had tied their Alpaca up outside the church and we got some great photos of us and their Alpaca. We continued the hike to Cristo Blanco and found a woman dressed in Peru clothing with a llama and a goat. We paid her to get photos with her and her animals, then we hiked down the mounting using the stairways through the town to the City of Cusco. Back at the hotel, we met up with my brother Dave and his family for a Cusco City tour. We went to several archeological sites ( Saqsawaman, Qenqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay ) and then visited the Church of Santo Domingo in Cusco. We all went out to dinner and checked out the historic square in town. I worked on my journal notes until about 12:30 AM. (walked 5.1 miles; Total Trip miles =333.66 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 22.7 miles)

Day 11, Monday, September 2, 2019
We woke up around 6:30 AM, had breakfast and joined my brother’s (Dave) extended Sacred Valley tour. We started by going to an alpaca/ llama farm. At the farm we could hand feed the animals and they had a section with natives weaving. Here I had a llama eating out of my mouth. We went to the Sacred Valley lookout point where we got a great view of the valley. Next stop was Pisaq archeological park where Dave, Caleigh, Natalie and I hike to the building ruin at the highest point of the main park. Then we went to a shop where they showed us how they created fine jewelry. At that place, a woman showed us a fake piece of jewelry (made in China) to compare to a real piece of jewelry that was hand made in Peru. We all guessed that the fake jewelry was the real piece of jewelry. In that town, Dave paid women to get photos with them and their llamas. I walked around, saw the ladies with their llama again, and paid them for a photo of them without any of us. (a lady with a child was also with the other lady this time). Next, we hiked upstairs at the archeological park in Ollantaytambo, Peru. This is where the train would leave us after we complete the Inca trial, it is also the last sizable town we went through before starting our Inca trail hike from KM 82. Next stop was Salineras De Maras salt mine. It was interesting. Next, we went to Moray Archeological Park. It was very neat, the guide said in 1946 the place was first excavated with help from the USA (I could not find this information on-line). Our guide said at that time they thought there might be Aliens landing in this spot with a connection to New Mexico (I could not find this information on-line). This spot had circles with some soil from the amazon and other places between. The guide said that when the top of the park was 17 C, the bottom was 22 C (the depth appeared well below 1000 vertical feet deep). The last stop on the tour was to a place where they demonstrated how families weaved alpaca/ llama wool. They showed us a bone they used as a tool and told us jokingly that it was a bone from a tourist that did not buy anything from their shop. Ellen (table runner), Natalie (hat), Caleigh (hat) and Marty (table runner) bought things. Dave and I did not buy anything. They did not take any of our bones and our tour then headed back to Cusco. Once in town we went in our rooms briefly and then went to the historic Cusco to have dinner at Kentucky Fried Chicken. We returned to the hotel and prepared for out Inca trail hike. We did not get to sleep until about midnight. (Total Trip miles =474.77 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 141.41 miles)

Day 12, Tuesday, September 3, 2019
We had to wake up around 4:30 AM, store our extra luggage at the hotel, eat a quick hotel included breakfast and check out of our hotel room. When I went to check out of the hotel, they asked if we used any of the room supplies and I told them the water. The water had a price tag on it stating 0.1 SOL/ Liter (very cheap) so we drank it. When I checked out, they charged be 10 SOL/ liter, it was a little expensive, but not too bad. We had everything checked out and sat down to breakfast at about 5:10 AM. We started eating and our guide showed up a little early (about 5:25 AM and was not supposed to show up until 5:30 AM). He let us finish our breakfast and then we loaded into a minivan and headed towards the Inca Trail head. After picking up our porters (the people that carried our gear and food), we stopped at a store, where I bought a hiking pole and sun hat. Marty also bought some stuff (including a nearly matching hat). Our porters went somewhere for breakfast. After about 45 minutes, we continued the drive to the trailhead. Once at the trailhead our hike started. I believe we started hiking at about 8:00 AM. The hike was slow and little rainy. Luckily, the hardest rain was right after we went under cover for lunch. The hike was very easy to me. We had plenty of time and that helped me maintain my mountain goat reputation. Marty had told the guide that I hiked like a Billy goat and he said we would see. I think I maintained my hiking reputation. Once at camp, our chief created a great multi course meal and we relaxed into the evening. We probably went to sleep around 10:00 PM. (Total Trip miles =525.19 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 50.42 miles)

Day 13, Wednesday, September 4, 2019
The day started with a fair uphill grade after 2 hours. At that point we arrived at Lluchapampa (3,800 m / 12,460 ft) camp. This place had people selling light snacks and drink. All the stuff they had for sale was taken up the mountain, I think mostly by women carrying heavy packs. This is the absolute last location on the trail to buy supplies. After a short break, we continued uphill to Dead Women’s Pass. I was expecting to have an opportunity to explore ruins about half way up the pass. After a couple hours of hiking, I saw a sign that looked like it indicated ruins. When I got to that point, people told me it was the top of Dead Women’s pass. The pass is 13,825 feet above sea level and I was expecting the hike to be a lot longer and harder. When I looked down the trail for Marty and our guide, I noticed the guide was carrying Marty’s pack. Apparently, the last bit of the hike was challenging to Marty due to the altitude, but she made it to the top and the rest of the trip was a breeze. When I told our guide that I was not expecting to be at the top of Dead Women’s pass yet, he informed me that we still had another hour to the top. Therefore, I figured everyone at the top was wrong and our guide was correct. I noticed as people left, they headed downhill and did not continue in the upward direction. We also started downhill, then I quickly realized that we really had reached the top of Dead Women’s Pass and was headed down. We went downhill for a long way and reached another camp where we had lunch. Our porter’s setup a sitting tent and table for us to eat the lunch in that they carried and prepared for us. Marty and our guide Herbert took naps while waiting for the porters to make our lunch. I walked around the camp area and checked out the other hikers and the canyon view while the napped. After lunch we started hiking uphill to the Inca site of Runcuraccay. We toured these ruins and then continue uphill to Runcuraccay pass (3,950 m/ 12,959 ft). Then we went downhill for a while and found more ruins at the Inca site of Sayacmarca (3,657 m /12,000 ft). We checked out the ruins and continued hiking to out night’s camp at Chaquicocha (3,600 m/11,800 ft). It was a good day or hiking, Marty thought it was a tough day due to the height of the stairs. There were lots of llamas walking around our night’s campsite. We did have a lot of vertical gain and hiked about 10 miles. Our porters cooked us another great dinner and we went to sleep around 10:00 PM. (Total Trip miles =535.19 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 10 miles)

Day 14, Thursday, September 5, 2019
In the morning, we woke to hot tea served at our tent (They did this every morning). Then we got ready for the day and had our excellent served breakfast. Then we started the easy hike until we reached the Phuyupatamarca (3,680 m/ 12,073 ft) ruins area. Our guide showed us the ruins and then we continued our hiking. We had great views of Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu Mountain, and Huayna Picchu mountain. At one point, our guide pointed to the step downhill trail to the camp and asked if we wanted to hike directly down to the camp or first go and check out the ruins that we could see (intipata ruins). Marty wanted to see the intipata ruins and asked if we would have to come back up to the Porter trail and our guide said yes. I figured he was joking since you could see that the camp was below the intipata ruins and our guide originally calling the upper trail the Porter shortcut trail. Well Marty decide to go the intipata ruins and she kept insisting that we would need to hike back up to the porter trial the guide showed us. I noticed people walking to the bottom of the intipata ruins where you could see a trail to our final camp. Marty was convinced that since the guide said we would need to hike back up to the porter trail that we would need to go back up there. It turned out the guide was joking, after we checked out the intipata ruins we made our way down to the trial I had seen from the top of the intipata ruins that lead to our campsite. When we arrived at our campsite, we took a break for a while and then they served us lunch. Then we went to explored the Wiñay Wayna ruins on our own. I hiked down to the nearby falls (I followed a group of people to the falls). Wiñay Wayna is the largest and most beautiful archeological site on the Inca trail and means forever young in Quechua. We tried walking the trial back towards Aguas Calientes, but it was close to sundown and before getting to far we decided to head back to camp. I felt we were not supposed to be on that trail without a guide. We had dinner and prepacked for the next morning. Since we would need to get up at about 4:00 AM the next day, we went to sleep around 8:00 PM. (Total Trip miles =541.39 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 6.2 miles)

Day 15, Friday, September 6, 2019
We ended up having to wake up at around 3:30 AM and get our stuff ready so the porters could leave for the train station. They needed to be at the Aguas Calientes train station with all the gear by 5:00 AM. If my memory is correct, we had to the get in the line-up for the Wiñay Wayna checkpoint a little after 4:00 AM. By the time we got in the line, there were no more benches available. We laid on the ground and napped until they opened the checkpoint. I think it opened at 5:00 AM. They started letting people on the Inca trail after checking the guides permits with our passports. We had no breakfast and everyone was in a hurry on the trail. At first, the guide led us, then he let Marty lead. Marty must have been feeling very good, this was by far the fastest hiking pace she had on the entire Inca trail hike. She seemed to be going even faster than I wanted to go. Since there were several people in the line up and it was a bit of a bottleneck at the checkpoint, that day we had several groups come up the trail from behind us wanting to pass us. It was not quite as crowded as I was expecting. We made it to the Sun gate early and then continued down towards Machu Picchu. At that point, Marty and I had completed the popular Inca trail to Machu Picchu. It was a 4 Days, about 28 miles, hike with the highest elevation at Dead Women Pass (over 13,800 Ft above sea level). Once out of the Machu Picchu Park we had to reenter with our guide, so he could provide us with a two-hour private tour of Machu Picchu. We had a hike start time for Huayna Picchu mountain of 10:00 AM. We had tried to meet up with my brother Dave for the Machu Picchu tour, but they were already done with their guided tour by the time ours started. Since they also had a start time of 10:00 AM for the Huayna Picchu mountain hike, we found them at the checkpoint for the hike. Natalie and I did the hike to the top of Huayna Picchu mountain, the trail was very steep at the top with narrow steps. It was a bit scary to me and it turned out I never took any pictures to represent the steepness of the trail. Dave, Marty and Ellen did the shorter Huayna Picchu trail. From the top of our mountain hike, we could see Dave, Ellen and Marty on their way down the mountain. When we got to the check point to leave the hike area, we (Natalie and I) noticed that Dave, Ellen and Marty had not checked out of the trail. We really did not think we could have beat them down (they had a much shorter way to go down when we could see them before we reached the top of our higher mountain.) I figured there was no way they would have let them leave the trail area without signing out. I ended up insisting we took our time and check out more on our way back to the gate out of the park and to the line to wait for the bus. When we did get to the bus line, we found Dave, Ellen, Caleigh and Marty were well into the line and waiting for us. We cut in front of several people to be with Dave, Marty, Ellen and Caleigh . We all took the bus to Aguas Calientes and we said our good byes there. Dave and his family caught their train to Ollantaytambo . We had a later train to Ollantaytambo, so we walked around the town of Aguas Calientes and caught our 2:55 PM train to Ollantaytambo . Marty and my train seats were on different train cars, our guide found someone to trade seats so we could be on the same train car. Once on the train the car host was able to talk the man next to me into trading seats with Marty so we could sit together. The man that switch train cars with me said he would help us find our ride back to Cusco when we arrived in Ollantaytambo. We decided to figure it out on our own when we reached Ollantaytambo, it was very easy. Once we left the train, we quickly found someone with my last name on a sign. We went to the restroom and then the man with the sign gave us a ride back to our hotel in Cusco. Once back in Cusco I withdrew more money in SOL and then repacked my stuff. I put away my hike stuff, got my bike ready to travel and put everything I would not be taking on the biking portion of my trip into the bike suitcase so Marty could take on her bus journey. It was our first night in a bed since before the Inca trail hike, we both slept very solid that night. We went to sleep around midnight. (Total Trip miles =617.39 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 76 miles)

Day 16, Saturday, September 7, 2019
I woke up around 5:00 AM and was not feeling great. I had my hotel-included breakfast and finished packing. I biked to the bus station around 6:30 AM. I was at the bus station and ready to go by 6:50 AM. The bus left Cusco at 8:00 AM, they said I should be at the bus station by 7:00 AM. It would not have been a problem to show up and be ready by 7:50 AM. My bike odometer time was wrong and when I went to reset the time, I pressed the wrong button (Oops, not again I pressed the reset instead of the set button, I did this same mistakes on other trips) and reset all the odometer data (This set my total miles to zero and reset the wheel size). I used the default wheel size and for the remainder of the trip I noticed the odometer miles were reading high compared to my GPS. Thus, for this portion of my trip I used my GPS miles for my American Journey miles. I boarded a 12-hour bus intended to travel from Cusco to Puquio. The bus ended out breaking down 10 hours into the trip (in the mountains about 67 miles before it arrived in Puquio). Some people were able to get on another bus after 4 hours, lots of us did not get on another bus until about 15 hours later (the bus broke down around 6:00 PM, another bus picked the last of us up at 9:19 AM the next day. Somehow, my bike odometer was reading 1.37 miles, the next day without moving it was reading 2.2 miles). It was a long cold night. At one point, a person from our bus set a truck tire on fire in the highway to keep us warm. The tire was burning in the middle of the downhill lane and had very big flames. There was very little traffic, but when vehicles came down hill, they needed to avoid our fire and broke down bus in the middle of the lane by going to the far side of the uphill lane. Vehicles coming up the mountain needed to hug the road shoulder to avoid our tire fire. One person had taken a dump near the fire, I nearly stepped in it a few times, he stepped in it later one time. Every laughed when he stepped in his own poo. Latter I accidently stepped in his poo and the others just told me (but did not laugh at me). Yuck. I guess I did not learn I stepped in the poo a second time, double yuck! The night seemed long, but we did survive. One guy was very friendly to me, since I do not speak Spanish and he was the only one that spoke a small amount of English he tried to help me understand the situation. This man was on his way to Lima to catch a flight to France for vacation. Since the bus died, he was going to miss his flight to France. He also said he was not able to get cell phone coverage from the location that the bus died and therefore he could not contact the airlines to reschedule his flight. The man had a good attitude and did not seem too concerned he said he should be able to catch a flight to France on Tuesday. It seemed like he was enjoying the bus break down adventure. (Total Trip miles =870.44 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 253.05 miles; Daily American Journey Miles = 249.24 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 249.24 miles)

Day 17, Sunday, September 8, 2019
It was an interesting night, since I was cold and uncomfortable, I was glad when the night was over. The experience gave me the opportunity to bond with the people on the bus, since I do not speak Spanish it was a challenge trying to understand what was going on. The plus for the night was that I was able to get free lodging on the bus (I did not need to spend money on a hotel) and an extended bus ride to Nazca the next day (without additional charge, original bus ticket only took me to Puquio). There was snow on the road and it was snowing when the bus first broke down, I believe we were stranded at above 14,000 ft in elevation. My original plan was to end the bus ride in Puquio and cycled to Nazca, however due to the loss in time and my tight schedule I needed to change my plan to take the bus all the way to Nazca. When I was getting on the replacement bus, I asked about going all the way to Nazca. The guy simple changed the destination on my luggage before putting it in the bus and I was then on my way to Nazca, no extra change, cool! Some people provided bread and cheese while we were stranded and coffee was given to us when the mechanic that was fixing the bus showed up. We did not have to wait for them to fix the bus, we were able to get on a replacement (a bus that was headed to Lima with open seats). I wanted to bike the section from Puquio to Nazca, but seeing the road from the bus I was glad I did not bike that section. The first 70 miles was up and down mountain. The last 30 miles was a step downhill with lots of sharp corners and not much of a shoulder. At one point, we saw a bus turned on its side in the middle of the uphill lane of traffic. Once at the bus station in Nazca I quickly found a taxi and he lined up an immediate Nazca lines flight. He did not change me for the taxi ride, but charged a lot for the flight. He pocketed the money and got me on the flight. I feel he probably charged me an extra 50% and pocketed that money. He said he would return to pick me up and help me find a hotel when the flight was done. Opps I forgot to log my GPS miles before by Nazca flight, I think it was about 970 miles. I did the Nazca lines scenic flight, it did not seem that interesting to me. After the flight I waited for the taxi to return, was not exactly sure I would be able to recognize the taxi driver or taxi car. I could not find him, so I assembled my bike and cycled into the town of Nazca. I never paid him for the taxi ride to the airport, but I think he may not have returned since I think he overcharged me for the flight (maybe the taxi ride to the airport was included in the flight price). I found a hotel that looked nice and got a room for the night. I thought I picked a decent hotel, but no towels, the TV did not work and I found chicken feathers in the bed (I think it had a down comforters on the bed, may have been duck feathers). I found that I had forgotten my 3-prong to 2-pronged adapter so I could not change my PC (I used the PC sparingly to maintain the battery power until I arrived in Paracas – the change was enough for me to make quick trip log notes). I tried cycling to the Nazca viewing tower (I saw if from my plane flight), but could not find it. I stayed up working on stuff until about 10:00 PM and then went to sleep for the night. I had to lock my bike in the garage of the hotel, it was fine there. (Total Trip miles =1102.15 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 231.71 miles; Daily American Journey Miles = 181.72 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 430.96 miles; Daily bike American Journey miles 4.99 miles)

Day 18, Monday, September 9, 2019
I woke up a little before 6:00 AM and got ready for the day. The first 30 miles of the day was an easy flat ride with tailwinds. About 15 miles into the ride I found the Nazca lines viewing tower, I looked for it the previous day to the south, but to my surprised it was to the North (The previous day I could see the tower from the Nazca airplane tour). The second 30 miles was hard with head winds and a big hill. I had less than 3 hours until sunset and more than 30 miles to go. I figured I would never get to Ica before sunset. Close to Palpa, I went to buy water and the man questioned my 20 SOL bill (worth about 7 USD, the bill was brand new looking and came directly from an ATM machine in Cusco). He finally took the bill and let me buy water. Well the last 30 miles to Ica the riding started getting easier, flat ride with tailwinds again. I ended up making it to Ica right about sunset. I was not sure where to go for a hotel and asked one of the 3-wheeled motorcycle operators, he pointed out a great cheap hotel. When I tried spending my 100 SOL for the hotel (About 33 USD). They questioned the bill, it was a little wet from sweat. They finally took it and gave me a room. That night I had a leg cramp for about 5 minutes, I do not know if I have ever had one of them (Marty seems to periodically get them). The hotel was a great deal and even had hot water, towels, a working TV and everything I needed. I ended up watching an English-speaking movie (one of the only channels in English) until a little after midnight. (Total Trip miles =1193.13 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 90.98 miles; Daily American Journey Miles = 90.98 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 521.94 miles)

Day 19, Tuesday, September 10, 2019
I left my hotel at about 6:30 AM and found my tire was flat. I could not see anything in the tire, so I tried filling it up and was able to cycle on the tire for about 37 miles before refilling the tire. At that point, I noticed a piece of wire on the tire sidewall, I left the wire in the tire to prevent a quick loss of air. I had been biking hard all day and slowed down. I was only able to go about another 10 miles before I decided it was time to fix the flat tire. I was planning on just taking the piece of wire out of the tire and replacing the tube with my new tube. I took off the tire and when I put the new tube on, I found it was bigger around than the original tube. They were both marked as 20-inch tubes, I think the new tub was mismarked by inches. Then I decided to patch the tube. After sanding the tire, I found the unopened tube of glue I had was mostly dried up. I was able to get some very thick glue out of the tube and it worked to fix the puncture (the repair held for the rest of my Peru trip). I then continued north until I reached the town of Chincha and found what looked like a great hotel. The outside of the hotel looked clean and freshly painted. The rooms where not so nice, mold in the bathroom, cracked walls, chipped paint and the TV had no English channels (lots of static in the channels). I did stay there and it was fine, I just decided not to take a shower (did not like the mold on the walls). The rest of the room was pretty beat up, but clean. This was the first hotel where they allowed me to put my bike in the room. That was cool! I walked around town for over an hour. Interesting town with lots of 3-wheel motorcycle-based taxi. I went to sleep around 10:00 PM. (Total Trip miles = 1267.2 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Ground miles = 74.07 miles; Daily American Journey bike miles = 68.16 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 590.09 miles)

Day 20, Wednesday, September 11, 2019
The hotel where I stayed had either loud music or TV most of the night. I believe the hotel tenants where at the desk all night, it looked like only a couple other people stayed at the hotel, the hotel appeared to have several empty rooms that night. I checked out of the hotel and was cycling by 6:22 AM. My rear had blistered for the previous day of biking, it was not comfortable sitting on the bike seat that day. I was still able to continue and the first 10 miles I cycled fairly fast, the next 10 miles I kept a good pace. I was in Pisco a little before 11:00 AM. My Paracas hotel check-in time was not until 2:00 PM. I ended up spending time checking out the ocean waterfront in Pisco. They had a military tank, missile and decommissioned military planes on display in the waterfront park. There was nothing to keep you off the displayed vehicles. Surprisingly there was only a little graffiti and broken windows. While I was there a truck with security guards pulled up near the planes and parked. I think if these military vehicles were on display in the USA without continuous security, the decommissioned military vehicles would have looked much worse. The ocean front houses in Pisco where just shacks and fair homes, not a wealthy looking waterfront. There was an area in Paracas with ocean front mansions, from what I could see no mansions in Pisco. In Pisco I spent time walking my bike on a pier that was half collapsed. At one point there was a break in the pier and I could not continue. From the break there was about 100 feet of ocean and then another section of pier. That other section of pier had no people (could only get there by swimming or a boat) and hundreds of birds (mostly pelicans). After thoroughly checking out the Pisco waterfront I slowly made my way to Paracas, I checked out the ocean and even saw a flamingo fly by (I tracked it down and got a photo). Once I arrive in Paracas I took photos by the sign and then went up to a monument. A person wanted to get a photo of himself on my bike, so I let him do it and I took his photo on my bike. Then I finished going to the hotel and they let me in my room a little early (I arrived at about 1:30 PM and they let me check-in). I walked around town and wasted a little time. I wanted to bike out to the reserve a little before sunset, I thought it was 4 KM from town. I ended up biking to the reserve at about 4:00 PM. When I arrived at the entrance to the national reserve (about 4 KM from town), there were signs showing 2.2 KM and 10 KM to places to check out. I saw lots of cyclist coming back from the reserve. I went to pay the entrance fee to the reserve and they would not let me in, they said the reserve closed to people on bikes at 3:00 PM. I wish I would have researched this and knew the time constraint before. I could have easily made it there by 3:00 PM if I would have gone right after I checked into the hotel. Oh well, I biked back to Paracas and tried going to the waterfront road near Paracas. I think the road was only open to resident of the mansions and expensive hotels in that area. I noticed a guard shack with someone watching people enter the road, so I turned back. I went in another direction and came up on another guard shack, but the guy was not paying attention so I continued to the residential area. I went to the end of the road where they had signs indicating no bikes or walking (red circles with lines through the picture, since I do not understand Spanish, these picture signs are the only signs I understand). I biked back towards town and found a park in the residential area and biked along the oceanfront sidewalk. There had some very nice waterfront mansion connected to the sidewalk without fences. I do not think I should have been on that sidewalk. I ended out finding a path back to the road and then cycled back into town to watch the sunset. I bought liquid to drink and went back to the hotel to eat tuna sandwiches, then I worked on my journal. My room was facing the road, so I worked on my journal and watched the street for Marty’s Peru Hop bus. When I saw her bus, I went to greet her and help her with her bags. We reorganized, packed my bike in its suitcase, watched TV and went to sleep around 11:00 PM. (Total Trip miles = 1319.09 miles; Total boat miles = 220.89 miles; Daily Bike miles = 57.08 miles)

Day 21, Thursday, September 12, 2019
We woke at 7:00 AM and had the breakfast-included meal at the hotel and then we went on a waterfront walk, then we went to confirm our spot on the Ballestas Island boat tour. Well Marty did not sign up yet for the tour and they thought since I showed up the previous day, that I would have taken the tour the previous day. I did not think they had any way to determine when I showed up and the only correspondence, I had was an e-mail that confirmed that me and Marty would both be on that day’s 10:00 AM tour. The Peru Hop tour guide was able to get Marty and me the last two seats on the Ballestas Island tour. It was a very cool trip and I got some great penguin photos (better than the ones I took on the Galapagos Islands). Then we had lunch with people Marty had met on the Peru Hop bus. Lunch took longer than expected and we just barely made the bus to Paracas National Reserve(actually the last person on the bus was a minutes after we boarded). The tour had three stops and was not that exciting, not many bird (which I expected) and no vegetation (only sand). I was unhappy the previous day that I had not made it to the reserve in time to bike around the National Reserve. We stopped on the tour to look for red rocks on the beach and Marty dropped her phone. The phone took several photos, either on the beach or when Marty dropped it (some were solid black pictures and some of the photos looked like someone sneezing – there were about 50 of these nonsense photos taken when Marty lost her phone on the beach). She could not display any of her valid photos on her phone, she wanted to start deleting the photos, but I told her not to. I was concerned she might delete photos she wanted to keep and I wanted to make sure her pictures were backed up before she started deleting stuff. Therefore, she turned off her phone and quit using it. After doing the bus tour, I felt I did not miss anything by not biking around the park the previous day. The bus took us back to the hotel where we got our stored luggage and loaded it into the bus for the trip back to Lima. On the way back to Lima we stopped at the slave tunnels in Chichna, it was a very nice estate, the tunnels where used to discipline the slaves. Marty felt it was dreary seeing the way they treated the slaves (locking them in total dark room for days as punishment). To me it seemed bad, but not as bad as the German concentration camp I had once visited. After that, we finished the bus ride to Lima. The bus trip went very smoothly, they first dropped us off and had us get in a minivan to bring us to our hotel. When we got to our hotel, I realized that I had forgotten one of my bags on the bus. I have never done anything like that before. I might have just been annoyed by the comfort of the bus. The person in the seat in front of me reclined his seat all the way onto my knees and I kept taking (loud enough so I thought he heard me) about how un-person like he was being. I am sure he heard me, maybe he did not understand English. Well, the people that had shuttled us to our hotel, got on the phone and reached Peru Hop. Then they chased down the bus and were able to get the bag back that I had left on the bus. They were very helpful and had no plan on charging me for retrieving my luggage. I gave them a good tip for helping us retrieve my bags. I worked on Facebook and my journal and backup up photos until about 3:00 AM that night. (Total Trip miles = 1543.45 miles; Total boat miles = 246 miles; Daily Ground miles = 199.25 miles; Daily American Journey Miles = 122.55 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 712.65 miles)

Day 22, Friday, September 13, 2019
I thought we were waking up at 7:00 AM, but no alarm went off. Marty had her phone off, due to her almost losing her photos. I noticed it was 8:30 AM, so we woke up and got ready for the day. Then we went to get our hotel-included breakfast. After breakfast, we went to catch the bus to the Historic Lima district. We had to get someone to use their bus card so we could buy our own bus tickets. Our first stop in the historic district was at Plaza De Arms, were they were changing the guards. The next stop was the San Francisco Cathedral. I had been there before and was not allowed to take photos. This time our guide let us take photos (I do not think he was supposed to let us take photos), at one point I was taking a photo and a lady said no photos anywhere. I quit taking photos, next we walked to the park de La Muralla, not that exciting. We walked to Plaza Bolivar, the cool thing there was an old Mercedes riot Police transfer vehicle. We walked to the Palace of Justice. It was nice, from there we walked to Plaza San Martin and then took the bus back to our hotel. We took a break at the hotel and then walked to the markets near Kennedy Park. I bought a lot of stuff. This park has over 100 feral cats wandering around freely. We went looking for the hotel where I stayed in last time I was in Lima (in 2014). It was 1.2 miles from the hotel we stayed in on this trip. We walked back to our hotel. That evening, I backup up all Marty’s photos and confirmed that nothing was lost. She deleted the bad photos that were taken when her phone was dropped and the phone started working correctly without her losing any of her photos. She was then able to see all her previously taken photos on her phone. I repacked, worked on my journal and watched TV until about midnight. (Total Trip miles = 1562.24 miles; Total boat miles = 246 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 712.64 miles; Daily Ground miles = 20.79 miles)

Day 23, Saturday, September 14, 2019
We woke up around 7:00 AM and got ready for the day.  We had our hotel-included breakfast and packed for our return flight to Portland.  We checked out of the hotel and put our luggage in the hotel storage area, then we walked to the bike shop at Kennedy Park and rented a bike for Marty.  They looked at my passport and did not take my credit card number.  When we got a little way from the bike shop, I realized I did not have my passport.  I figured I left it at the bike shop, it was there at the end of the day and they handed it to me when we returned Marty’s rental bike.  I guess instead of a credit card they hold onto your passport as collateral.  The bike ride to the beach started with a big downhill traffic filled road.  Too much traffic, we had to wait about 5 minutes before there was a big enough gap in the highway traffic to cross to the beach side of the road.  We biked south to the Christ statue on the hill (Cristo del Pacífico) , then we bike north along the beach until we could not easily go any further (the sidewalk ended).  As we went north, we saw a bridge with a ramp to the main part of Lima.  We cycled south back to that bridge and took that ramp back towards Miraflores. Once on top of the hill we followed the road and bike paths back towards the bike shop.  We ended up returning Marty’s rental bike at about 5:00 PM.  We still had a lot of time before our flight home so we walked around on our way back to the hotel and had dinner at a sandwich shop.  We got back to the hotel a little after 6:00 PM and got our luggage out of storage.  I disassembled my bike and put it in its suitcase.  We changed our cloths in the restrooms at the hotel.   Then we took a taxi to the airport.  Our flight home was delayed and we were not leaving Lima until 12:55 AM (It was supposed to leave about an hour earlier, at 11:57 PM).  Due to the delay, we would miss our connecting flight in Dallas, they easily found us a slightly later flight out of Dallas and we were on our way.   We walked around the unsecure part of the Lima airport, then went through the secure part of the airport.  We decided to go to TGIF for dinner and got a table.  When we looked at the time, it was already after 11:00 PM (our boarding time was 11:50 pm).  We ended up deciding that we did not have time to eat, so we left the restaurant and found a sandwich shop to get a quick bite to eat.  We boarded the plane around midnight. (Total Trip miles = 1606.88 miles; Total boat miles = 246 miles; Total American Journey Miles = 712.64 miles; Daily Ground miles = 42.64 miles; Daily bike miles = 28.73 miles)

Day 24, Sunday, September 15, 2019
I was not feeling great for the flight home and slept for most of the flight.  Our connection went smooth in Dallas.  Once in Portland we picked up our luggage and took the max back towards my house.  I think we were home by about 3:00 PM.  I was still not feeling good and slept a lot.  We got take home Thai food and watched movies until about 11:00 PM.  I slept solid all night.

Day 25, Monday, September 16, 2019
I woke up and got ready for work, then I went back to work.