Paul returned from England after 10 hours in Lima Airport. He didn’t feel like having a nap as it could upset his rhythm here in Peru so I took him to the local market that I had visited a few days before. Whilst there we bought fresh cucumber, tomato, avocado, red onion, olives, limes, cheese, bread to enable us to knock up a relatively healthy lunch. These were relatively few and far between whilst on the road so a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. That evening I introduced Paul and a Scottish cyclist Kiere to the Khama Sutra Indian restaurant. Having visited previously I straight away ordered the same as I had the first time, curried Alpaca, rice and garlic nan. Sensational!
15th May
Alarm woke us at 6am and we both got up!! By the time we had showered, had breakfast and we're ready to go it was 9.00. Maps.me got us out of the city and on our way to Abancay. Paul and I entered a Piaje in the usual way, lining up behind the other vehicles. The attendant in the booth poked his head out and appeared to wave us through, as they always did as motorbikes don’t pay. So off I moved around the stationary car and through. Paul was doing the same and the attendant came out of his office and began yelling at the both of us and brought the boom down on Paul’s head, lucky he had a helmet on. After a lot of ugly behaviour from the attendant and a policeman coming out it appears we were supposed to ride through the lane that was partially blocked by large orange barrels. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that this is the procedure, so through some sort of subliminal messaging we are supposed to know that this particular Piaje requires this. None other in Peru had any such procedure so you just do what you did before! !
At a view point over looking a valley Paul and I pulled over to take a photo. There was a Touring cyclist there taking some photos as well. We stopped the bikes and the cyclist walked straight past and off to take a photo or two, he didn’t even acknowledge our presence. Paul and I looked at each other in bewildered wonderment! When I returned from taking a photo the guy was looking at the rear of my bike and said “did you bring your bikes through China”? “No” was my astonished reply. “Well you can’t ride your own bikes through China”! A little confused as to where this came from or where it was going I replied “yes you can”. “ No you can’t” was the come back. Still not sure where this was going I replied “Yes you can”! “ No you can’t” he quickly retorted. This needed to end so I merely said “If you say so”. With that he turned, mounted his bike and disappeared down the hill. I merely stood there a little dumbfounded and wondered what that was all about. I don’t think cycling for extended periods of time on your own is mentally healthy!
The lunch stop was before Abancay at a roadside restaurant. A couple of young lads were busy helping a woman and man get things ready over an open fire. A couple of very colourful large domesticated parrots were hanging around making a nuisance of themselves. They took a particular liking to Paul and one of them gave him a loving nip! Paul loves birds and fondly remembers Angie’s cockatoo that used to attack him each time he came too close. We let the lady running the restaurant order for us, it turned out to be a great decision. Tagliatelle with a large stuffed chilli, what looked like bolognese, potatoes and a piece of chicken. It tasted fantastic. After the meal she brought out a home brewed digestive drink, I had a sip but it was about 40 % proof or more so didn’t do the skull that she suggested was necessary. As we got ready to depart a minibus full of middle aged guys rolled up. They asked lots of questions about our trip and at that time grandma came out with a model of a famous artefact with a very large penis. It was a jug full of the home brew and all were sucking on the penis with great merriment. Paul just had to pose for a photo when granny pushed the jug his way. Having a drink wasn’t an option on these mountain roads even sober they required all of your concentration.
The ride ended in Andahuaylas after riding through Abancay, three hundred and fifty kilometres and eight hours, absolutely exhausted. Maps.me got us lost down a dirt road in Abancay so we turned around took a guess and went through the city. The entire road that we travelled consisted of hairpin bends either going up hill or down hill. The height gain and loss was always massive. We travelled eighty kilometres up hill and could still see Abancay. My left hands fingers ached from using the clutch to change up and down gear so often and my right hands thumb ached from having to continually rotate the hand grip to accelerate and decelerate.
Once again we Managed to find a hotel using IOverland and Maps.me. Bit of mucking around to get the promised agua caliente, we ended up having to shower in the room next door.
16th May
Another big day riding high up into the mountains then over the alto plano at speed. As usual the road was awesome with lots of twisties finally ending in Huanta.
17th May
Started the day with Maps.me leading us down a very steep dirt road out of town. It was very cut up and loose, Paul was cursing the fact he had to ride down hill on the dirt as he feels quite unsteady in this situation. Huanta to Huancayo was the order of the day, we are trying to churn out the kilometres as we are starting to worry that we will run out of time, riding the roads of South America are taking a lot longer than we have anticipated. Another great road through a valley, reminiscent of the Death Road in Bolivia. It was single lane, part asphalt, part rippio potholed road winding it’s way up and down the hill sides in the valley. Although a fun days riding it took us eight hours to ride a mere two hundred kilometres.
18th May
Today we rode from Huancayo to Huanuco, it was the worst days ride we have had to date. The road was very good asphalt but we battled all day with mental drivers. They drive with no regard for other road users, especially two Australians on motorcycles. We were tailgates, passed within millimetres, cut off, forced off the road by oncoming vehicles etc. etc. At one time two cars overtook me at slightly different times but both cut me off because they were within metres of having head on collisions with on coming traffic. As we came up to a Piaje (toll gate) the two cars full of families were waiting in line, I lost the plot at them gesticulating that they were totally crazy, they looked at me and shrugged their shoulders as if to say, “well what exactly is the problem".
19th May
The first section of the road to Huaraz was amazing, once again like the Death Road. Slow going again as we rolled into Huaraz after ten hours riding, in the dark. Rueben and Michael from Cuzco saw us by chance they had just rolled in. We tried a couple of places for accommodation and finally ended up at Hostal Dulce Amanecer thanks to IOverlander and Maps.me.
20th May
Rest day today. After the ten hour day yesterday both Paul and I were incredibly tired.
Organised with Rueben and Michael to do Canon del Pato.
21st May
Today was work on the bikes day in the garage across the road to get them ready for the next leg of the journey. The rear tyres would be changed as they were both pretty low on rubber having done over fourteen thousand kilometres. We were really happy with this, we may have been able to squeeze another five hundred out of them but reports of the Canon del Pato indicated we should have good tyres on the bikes. We both agreed that if we were in Australia we wouldn’t be riding with tyres in this condition so why do it here where conditions are worse! I also needed to change my rear brake pads as they were almost non existent.
We started with my tyre and it wasn’t long before we encountered the first problem, we couldn’t break the bead even with the super duper Motion Pro Bead Breaker tools I had especially bought for the purpose. I tried for so long I gave myself a massive blister in the palm of my hand, not great on the throttle hand! In the end we used a combination of the Bead Breaker tools and the side stand of Pauls bike. We managed to get the tyre off the rim but could not get the new tyre Pirelli MT60 on. We had never done this before so were making the process up as we went, how hard could it be. Very hard when you have no idea. The options were to Google it or go to a Gomeria and pay to get it done. The second option won as we had had enough and wanted to watch an “specialist” in action. The owner of the hostal helped out and got tuk tuk to take us to a specialist. We got dropped off very close to the hostal and not where we were suppose to go, the specialist wasn’t a specialist and the tuk tuk driver headed off with a tasty profit for going a very short distance as the hostal owner had prepaid him. We then had to find another “specialist” which we did not too far away with the concerned help of shop owners that came to our aid when we were standing looking forlorn with rims and tyres in hand. The tyres were done in no time and for seven dollars, we gave the guy a tip and he gave us one, let the experts do it! The wheels went back on, in went the brake pads, did a quick overall check of the bike and oiled the chain.
Went to Café Andino for a dinner of steak, chips and veg . We were going to stay for the Bob Dylan night but in the end opted for a good nights sleep. Pauls old tyre was given to Michael as his was atrocious. Paul’s had done about six hundred kilometres less than mine so still had a tiny bit of tread left, enough to make Michael happy.
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