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Wood has gotten some time to give us a story or two, here's an update for now, the story of the great mountain climb by KTM and rockslide should be up tonight...after I try not to fall in the big drink during sailing.

"made it to cusco this afternoon, after two days riding from the coast, which was, without a doubt, the most beautiful ride to date. starting in the desert at 6:30 a.m yesterday, climbing the foothills. by 10 a.m i was freezing and had to stop to strip down and put on my long johns. at 11 am i was back down in a valley and sweating over cold lomo saltado and lukewarm instant coffee. some people get it, some people don´t. after disappointing breakfast, we climbed up again, just under 15,000ft. we rode on like this for hours, as it is high plains. moonscape. cold but good road and no traffic. some lakes, llamas, vicunas, and a few hearty folks walking from nowhere to somewhere. ran out of gas once up there, but found some low octane to prevent me from having to unpack to get at the reserve tank. descended, on empty once again, and landed in a warm, green valley with a big healthy river. found fuel and continued on down the valley. the road went on for 120 km, beautiful tarmac, crisscrossing the river. such a great ride. finished up by climbing back to 10,000 ft and sleeping for the night. slept in a bit today and then finished the ride to cuzco, climbing back up to 14,000 and back down, and back up, and back down a bit. and here i am. so many ¨fancy¨ (by this i mean ¨western¨) restaurants, cafes, and shops. gringos and gringas everywhere. after being brought to a $13 a night hotel and turning it down on the grounds that it was too nice and too expensive and more than i needed, i found a $5 hostal that is empty, with a garage for the bike. almost tipped her over, as the street up to the hostal is very steep, cobblestone, and narrow. all was fine except that the old girl struggles up steep grade with the load i make her carry, and without speed we get into trouble. had to unpack at the hostal to finish the climb to the garage, and at that point, she shifted and started to tip. lucky i saw it and stiff-armed her from the downslope side and saved us some scratches and embrassment. planning on spending tomorrow investigating this old city, then on tuesday head for macchu picchu. sure are a lot of white folks around here."

Ah Woody...the large Norwegian Viking that he is...now noticing the skin color of the tourists and wayward journeyers.

"there is a biker bar here in cusco, i went there today but the biker owner wasn´t around. apparently he is from the states. i hope to find him tomorrow to talk. maybe he has got some knowledge. i imagine that i will be out of peru by the end of the week, and into bolivia. i have got a route worked out, (which included the town where butch cassidy and the sundance kid met their ends.) sounds like bolivia is a bit crazy, with a lot of protests and such, and roadblocks--could get held up, hopefully not at gunpoint. plus the roads are all bad, from what i hear."

This might sound a little scary to the readers, but believe or not I was held up at gunpoint. In Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I lived through it. And I'm not nearly as charmed as my little brother. This habit of his may be nervewracking for the parents out there, but he's a smart kid and this is the dream he wants to be pursuing.

One little reminder for everyone, Wood says:
i am not here because it is easy, nor for it to be easy. ¨if it were easy (bulldog football) every swingin´ dick on campus would be out here.¨

Nothing like a Steger quote to end a post...don't let the bastards grind you down, man.

-- luludilly