Thursday, February 04, 2010

Peru, land of superlatives! (if you listen to the Peruvian Tourist Board)

Who put PU around PerU?

First impressions? dirty and smelly! sorry to generalise but after riding three days solid through the deserts of Northern Peru we are ready to be fumigated. To be fair to Peru the best part so far has been the road through it, literally, excellent highways and as we are now on a mission to join the rest of the group and get the new front tyre any chance to churn out the miles is gratefully accepted.

We can do straight roads, 70, 80 miles without a bend, no problem!
"Get back on the bike there's a car coming!"  where? "about thirty miles down the road"


The wind blows constantly and from now to Ushuaia 3,000 miles away it will be the biggest factor in determining how many miles a day we can cover. At times you ride leant against the wind to the point where if the wind dropped you'd fall over, we are using 25% more fuel for the same speed so the rule is fill up at every opportunity. The wind always blows off our right shoulder coming from the ocean, the closer to the shore the stronger the wind. I can maintain concentration just keeping the bike in a straight line but god knows what Sue does to cope with the monotony (apart from sleep!). Every now and again rubbish gets blown in your face, or even worse, sand drifts across the carriageway making things just that little bit more exciting.

In the desert they take their rubbish to the edge of town and let the wind blow it to the next town......
Where it piles up awaiting the Trash Fairy, who comes and takes it away!
Every other vehicle seems to be one of these Chinese built three wheel taxis.
Freshwater sellers.
In the more remote desert areas the buildings appear to be constructed out of palm leaf matting,

Every so often the mountains rise up out of the desert giving a welcome break to the flat landscape and with the change in landscape comes the change in wind currents which creates huge sand dunes, just up the road was Cerro Blanco reportedly the highest sand dune in the world at 2,070 metres which is nearly 700 metres higher than Ben Nevis!
300 metre windbreak.

As desolate as the desert was, we came across areas of sugar cane growing in the middle of nowhere, how or where they got the water from to irrigate miles and miles of cane is a mystery, (well, it's not actually, they use desalination plants).

Our target over the next few days was the capitol, Lima and by the time we reached Chimbote on the coast we decided to take a rest day We had to drive a good way out of town to find accommodation and escape the smell! Chimbote has to be the smelliest place in the world, it is the largest port in Peru but more importantly it is one of the largest fish canning cities in the world. Now, if they canned salmon or tuna then you could probably live with the smell but no, here they can anchovies! that vile smelling fish that serves no purpose other than to adorn pizzas and cripple your olfactory nerves. How do people live here?, God the women here must use some mighty strong perfume!!!
From Chimbote you can follow the PanAm along the coast but I wanted to ride the Canyon Del Pato a 35km dirt road that contains 35 tunnels carved out of the mountain side and runs along the Cordilera Blanco a range of mountains that contain 30 peaks over 5,000 meters. I did the usual trick of looking at the map and deciding on the shortest route, "Of course there's a road there Darling" said I optimistically, realistically the next twelve hours would be the hardest days riding of the trip so far.
The day started so well, we rode through fertile valleys following glacial rivers on surprisingly good roads and I was thinking this is easier than I'd hoped.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!

100 kilometers down the road we came to a junction, to the right was what looked like the entrance to a quarry and to the left the road continued over a bridge with tarmac disappearing round the mountains. It must be left then?. The bridge turned out to be a minor obstacle, it looked a bit dodgy but there was a car crossing so it must be safe!

One at a time please.
At this point Sue wanted to get off but I reassured her that the faster you go the more stable the bike is!
This was the first of two such bridges we would cross today, I didn't look down but concentrated on missing the gaps in the planks. And that night I washed my own underwear!

The next couple of hours were spent riding higher into the mountains through some beautiful scenery and we felt completely at ease enjoying the ride the views and the weather.

Landslides not a problem.
Or rockfalls for that matter.
Isn't she pretty?
BOB the Adventurer.
What a guy!
Top of the world (again).

Don't you just hate it when you get kicked in the nuts!
About 20k before our intended turn off we were flagged down by a roadwork crew and informed that the road we wanted to take was not passable, we couldn't make out why but they were adamant that we could not get through even on two wheels! what was even worse was that we were then told that the road we were looking to connect with could only be reached by taking the turnoff at the junction to what we had originally thought was the entrance to a quarry. Bugger! Bollocks! Aghhhh!
This meant returning back along the road we had just travelled for another two hours, I got the map out to see if there was an alternative route to our intended destination and it sure enough there was a faint red line through the mountains which eventually joined the main road about 50 kilometres past our original junction.
You just can't get a decent map these days, the thin red line slowly turned into a goat track and by the time we had got an hour into the detour it was too late to turn back...and it had started raining...and we were thoroughly pissed off.
The goat track starts just around the corner.

The track ran through the mountains weaving it's way through remote coal mining villages and to level out the potholes someone had decided to use a layer of coal dust, in dry conditions that's not a problem just a bit dusty, but in the wet we were sliding all over the place which slowed us down to a snail's pace. At some point we missed a turning and the next thing we knew we were back on the same road we came in on and still an hour away from the magic junction...but at least it had stopped raining! Of course we had to go back over the dodgy bridges once again but that was the least of our problems, if we couldn't make good time from here on in we would run the risk of riding in the dark. Once we reached the junction our hearts sank the road quickly deteriorated to rocks and rubble, at certain points the track was wide enough for one vehicle before the edge dropped a few hundred feet to the river running through the canyon. I had no alternative but to stand on the pegs to control the bike and Sue by this point had stopped taking photos and was hanging on for grim death.

Bits were bearable...
Other bits weren't. (the rocks embedded in the road surface are just the right shape for punching a hole in a tyre) I tried not to think about getting a puncture!
We would have dozens of these to negotiate before the day's end.
The track is the flat winding strip of dirt (bottom right in the photo)

We should have stopped to take more photos but we knew at this point we were well behind schedule. Canyon Del Pato translates into English as 'Duck canyon', we didn't see one bloody duck! just rocks.
The distance of the track from the junction to the main road was about 70 kilometres, it took us over 4 hours! by the time we reached the main road the light was fading fast and we needed to find somewhere to sleep, fast...oh, and it was raining again! We rolled into Caraz around 7 o'clock twelve hours after leaving Chimbote and booked into the the first available hotel, they had no secure parking but BOB found accommodation up the road in another hotel's reception.

BOB gets better digs than us.

We left the following morning for the ride to Lima, Peru's Capitol, as we left the hotel we caught a glimpse of Huascaran (6,740m) before the clouds rolled in. Huascaran is Peru's highest peak and according to the Peruvian Tourist Board is the most beautiful mountain in the world.

Huascaran Masiff

The ride from Caraz passes through Huaraz the regional capitol and alongside the Cordillera Blanca range, every so often the clouds would clear and we'd catch sight of snow capped mountains in the distance.

Yeah it's a roast pig on a bike, So what!
Does my bum look big in this? 'You bet it does!'
Another Whoops! moment.

From Huaraz the road runs across the altiplano before dropping down to the coast, we topped out at just over 4,000 metres which is not a problem when riding but if you've got to stop for a toilet break don't walk too far from the bike.

No I'm not cold, honest.

Once we reached the coast we stopped for lunch after seeing another traveller parked up outside a local restaurant. Richard from Australia was travelling on a Suzuki V-Strom from Los Angeles on his way around the world and was  in search of a front tyre like us, he reckoned he could possibly pick one up in Lima or struggle on to Santiago in Chile where there are plenty available. We gave him the option of having our old front tyre when we changed it in La Paz if he didn't find one in Lima, there was enough rubber left on our old  tyre to get him to Santiago but this of course meant he would have to make the detour to Bolivia to get it.

Richard, bald as a coot (just like his front tyre)
Richard, AKA 'Travellingstrom'
Good looking couple on a GS
More desert en route to Lima.
Bloody Bikers!

Lima came and went over night, everyone we had spoken to seemed totally underwhelmed by the place so we had no desire to spend time here. The traffic was chaotic, Richard couldn't find a tyre and the highlight for us was trying to park the bikes in the hotel lobby.

Rush hour in Lima. ('rush' being a very loose description)
'Mind the paintwork'.
Me and BOB had more chance of getting through the doorway than this guy!
What every mock renaissance hotel lobby needs, German and Japanese tourists!
Nighttime Lima.
At this point I should have been holed up in the hotel updating the blog........Yeah, whatever!
Bloody drunk tourists!
Next morning at breakfast these things were wandering round the rooftop restaurant, maybe they should have been on the menu. As it was they moved faster than the staff so in the end we got fed up (or not) and left with empty stomachs.

Time to leave.

The group ahead of us had emailed us to say that they were leaving Nazca after seeing 'the lines and were heading to Cusco so at best we were only two days behind. We had planned to ride from Lima to Nazca to try and get a flight to see the Nazca lines before heading into the mountains to Cusco and Machu Pichu. Richard was riding with us as we were now his only hope of picking up a tyre before Santiago, so we 'legged it' down the coast in double quick time and stopped just outside the town of Nazca where the PanAm crosses the site of the 'lines'.

Bloody tourists!
We thought we'd better climb the tower to see what all the fuss was about just in case we couldn't get a flight the next day.
If you look closely you can just make out the lines.......... (I'm in trouble again!)
Not as impressive as from the air but considerably cheaper!

We had the address of a place to stay in Nazca so didn't have to spend time looking for accommodation and when we got there we also managed to book a flight to see the lines the following morning.

Hostel don Agucho.

At the hostel we met Mike and Alanna Clear, a young English couple who had 'blagged' a free Ural sidecar outfit out of the manufacturers on the pretense of making a documentary. Mike and Alanna are putting their own new marriage to the test on the road from Alaska to Patagonia, to find out from couples and experts the secret of long-lasting love.

Mike and Alanna

Another night 'On the Pop'.
There are some things that have to be photographed on this trip because they are so bizarre, here's one. These were hanging up in a shop in Nazca....Scary!
And here's another....
Now I'm no marketing expert but I sure as hell could have found a better name for tinned fish!. The funniest thing was us in fits of laughter when Richard tried to explain to the shopkeeper in really bad Spanish what we were laughing at.

The flight over the lines should have been straightforward but as we have come to realise, there is no sense of urgency to anything in South America. The flight was supposed to take 35 minutes and we expected to be back in the hotel for 10 o'clock and on the road to Cusco shortly afterwards. Let's just say we ended up stopping another night due to circumstances beyond our control!


The flight was definitely worth the money, to see the lines from the air makes you appreciate the work involved in drawing hundreds of geoglyphs on the desert floor, most are just straight lines but there are also images of animals and birds created by scraping away the surface pebbles to reveal the light coloured earth underneath. Our pilot seemed to know what he was doing, and once in the air proceeded to steer with his knees whilst explaining what we were about to see by pointing out the sights with the help of an aerial map of the desert.

'Top Gun'  Maverick and Goose (I'm Goose by the way)

Lets Play Spot the Geoglyphs
Just lines.
Hummingbird.

Baby condor.
Parrot?
Here's an aerial view of the observation tower we climbed the day before.


OK, I admit they look a bit naff but from the seat of the plane they're pretty amazing. Nobody knows for sure why the ancients decided to spend their time and energy creating this desert artwork that can only be appreciated from above, but if you were in a spaceship......Now some people complain that the pilots deliberately try and induce air sickness by tilting the wings through 90 degrees in order to get a better look below, If that was the case why would you want your plane full of vomit five times a day! We all managed to keep the contents of breakfast in our stomachs throughout the flight, however I was close to filling the courtesy 'bag' on the way back to the airstrip.  

The Nazca lines have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are so famous anyone with half a brain knows about them. For those of you out there with less than half a brain, there's some interesting informative stuff on the lines here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines

We were now in danger of catching the rest of the group so decided to ride from Nazca to Cusco in one day, over 600 kilometers across the Altiplano and through the mountains on a mixture of nightmarish potholed roads and super tarmac highway at over 4,000 meters. Before we set off Richard wanted to take an alternative route until I pointed out that on my 'superior map' it didn't actually show a road! and on the dirt track it would take him 3 days, "so that's it we'll ride together then".

More high altitude riding (for most of the day we were at 4,000m and above)
Vicuna.
Alpaca.
The Altiplano.
Another altitude record for BOB.
This was the last we would see of Richard for a couple of hours.

About halfway through the ride we came to a shithole of a town and got separated, Sue and I ended up going round in circles trying to find our way through roadworks. In the end I shouted for directions from a bloke on a street corner and he pointed up the road through some excavated road which was about a foot lower than the surrounding pavement. The drop down onto the dirt looked easy enough and a couple of hundred yards away there looked to be a way onto the existing road, just to be on the safe side when we got to the far side I made Sue get off the bike so I could have a run at the makeshift dirt ramp. Halfway up the back wheel slid off and the bike went over and I ended up with my ankle trapped by the pannier, so with the best part of quarter of a ton of bike on my foot I was squealing like a baby! and had to rely on Sue to lift it enough to get my leg free. I was concerned with only one thing and that was to avoid injuring my ankle which would have really stuffed things up, as it was everything was fine and after another shot at the ramp we were back on track. Oh, how we laughed! We spent the next hour wondering if Richard was behind or ahead of us but in the end continued on as we would both end up in Cuzco at some point. An hour down the road we were passing through a town and there was Richard having lunch, we had something to eat and got back on the road with 450k still to go knowing that the lost time getting out of the 'shithole' meant we would probably arrive in Cuzco after dark.


The weather decided to turn nasty with rain and hail and with Richard riding on thin rubber on his front wheel we had no option but to leave him and press on, we waited for him in the dark on the outskirts of Cuzco and with the help of a taxi found the hotel where the group were staying. We got a nice reception from everyone and managed to book our tickets for Machu Pichu the next day with everybody else, we went for something to eat at the Norton Rat, a famous bike bar and then hit the sack after another marathon day on the road.

Machu Pichu
Machu Pichu has to be on everyone's list of places to see in South America, I know it's totally touristy and overpriced but there is something about looking down on the ruins knowing you're seeing it first hand. The easiest way for us was by train to the town of Aguas Calliente and then the bus up the mountain to the ruins, you can of course ride most of the way but after a 12 hour day the day before we were quite happy to go along with everybody else. Today was also special as it was December 21st, the summer equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, we just hoped the place wouldn't be full of hippy wierdos wanting to catch the first rays of the sun over the mountains.

Don't like the look of those clouds.
She's an Angel.
He's a Devil...well actually I look a twat! but you know when you see something and think "that's cool", well I did..but it wasn't.
Put the mask back on, Put the mask back on, Please!
 Ingo and Cecilia, it turned out that since last seeing Ingo in Banos, Ecuador, he had met the love of his life in a salsa bar in Cuzco and decided on a life together. Cecilia had given up her job, joined him on the road and they intend to get married after the trip and move back to Germany. How romantic! (for romantic read expensive!)

I make no apologies for the number of photos of Machu Pichu, it's as breathtaking in real life as it is in all the photographs you have seen. This was our day in a magic place!

The Inca trail to Machu Pichu, part of a network of trails stretching 23,000 kilometers.
Our first glimpse of the sacred....Fog. We bought the hats thinking it would be a nice idea to send folks a Christmas photo of us at the ruins.
Can you see it? Eh! Can you see it?
Well almost. (at this point we were wondering if we'd spent 200 bucks to look at mist!)

We spent the next hour wandering round the site hoping the fog would lift, all the time being accompanied by our English speaking guide, when I say 'English speaking' this meant he would make his own interpretation of the Spanish to English translation. For example, when he had explained some point of interest what he should have said was something to the effect of "Is that clear"? or "Do you understand"? instead he finished every sentence with his own version which was "Clear the idea"?
For some reason this caused the girls to go into a fit of the giggles and after about 10 minutes of "Clear the Idea"? I 'cleared off' and did my own thing.

At last, a look at the ruins!....trouble again!
You have no idea how difficult it is to get this shot without a busload of tourists in the way!
Bloody Tourists in the way!
I never thought I'd get this shot, Ingo is so scared of heights he gets dizzy climbing stairs and there was nothing below us for a couple of thousand feet. 

The only thing to spoil the day was the tortuous train ride back to Cuzco, 3 and a half hours and by the time we got back to the hotel it was well after dark. As you may know this area would suffer devastating floods a few weeks later, which is a stark reminder of  the consequences of being in the 'wrong place at the wrong time'. 




On a happier note, whilst we had been sightseeing Gert had been into town and bought everyone Xmas hats and left them on the bikes...how festive. 


We had another day off the bikes before heading down to Lake Titicaca, our last tourist stop in Peru before crossing the border into Bolivia. Sue went out shopping round town with Judy and I got the new rear tyre fitted after Richard spotted a couple of really worn areas around the sidewall, I was hoping to make it last until La Paz but dare not risk it in that condition.
We would have liked to have spent another day in Cuzco just to take in the sights but the lure of the new tyres was drawing us towards La Paz and we had still to decide where to spend Christmas.

Plaza De Armas, Cuzco.


Before we left for Lake Titicaca the next day we held a surprise birthday party for Jude, Gino had been out the night before and bought a cake and some ridiculous hats (we're talking ridiculous with a capital 'R') so we had a mad half hour with balloons and silly string before loading up and hitting the road.

What is it with us and daft hats?
Sadly, these people are all grown adults.
Looks too good to eat.
Jude fell for the old 'pie in the face' trick!

All packed and ready to go.
Look! I've paid for this damn thing so I'm gonna get my money's worth out of it!
On the road to Titicaca.

It wasn't long before we came across the all too familiar 'sleeping truck', this one was a really sad affair....the driver had lost control on a bend and tipped the contents all over the road....BEER! a scene of utter devastation, sadly there looked to be no survivors! I felt we should have stopped to offer assistance as our group is equipped with all the skills to deal with just this type of incident. Johannis is a doctor, Sue and Jude are nurses and I have a bottle opener on my bike keys!! 

Another Whoops! moment.
I can't believe how good the roads are.

At lunchtime we almost closed the street in the town of Ayaviri when we turned up looking for something to eat. 


It was nice to see the local 'Laurel and Hardy' Fan Club was still going strong.
Does my bum look......Ah! forget it.
One of the local 'taxis'. Notice the crash bars on the front! (how fast does he think he can go?)

More Altiplano.
This is Mark from Washington he joined us in Cuzco and decided on some company for a couple of weeks.
According to the map the Lake should be here, due to water shortage..it's not.
Since 2000 Lake Titicaca has experienced constantly receding water levels. Between April and November 2009 alone the water level has sunk by 81 cm and has now reached the the lowest level since 1949. This drop is caused by shortened raining seasons and the melting of glaciers feeding the tributaries of the lake.


Our first real view of Lake Titicaca with the town of Puno in the foreground.

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,812 m (12,500 ft) above sea level, making it one of the highest commercially navigable lakes in the world. By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America.
Titicaca is notable for a population of people who live on the Uros, a group of 42 or so artificial islands made of floating reeds (totora, a reed that abounds in the shallows of the lake). These islands have become a major tourist attraction for Peru, drawing excursions from the lakeside city of Puno. Their original purpose was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose. Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.
For more information go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca

We all knew it was going to be a touristy trip to the Lake and islands but nevertheless it was enjoyable, we bought souvenirs which put money directly into the island economy and not some 'Tat' shop on the High Street. The people continue to live on the islands as they have done for hundreds of years and exist by fishing and hunting birdlife on the lake but now take advantage of the tourist traffic to supplement their income.

A Morning on Lake Titicaca.

There are no shortage of tour boats waiting to take your money.

And some tired old 'kiddie cruisers'.
Touristy sales pitch.
A Puno Ibis 
(Some of the guys at Skipton fire Station may recognise this bird)
Primitive power source. (well you've got to power the PlayStation somehow)
I looked all round this thing and couldn't see an outboard motor.
Here's why...Looks easy.


It's all in the technique!
And Chris couldn't work out why we were going round in circles. It's cos' your'e not f"$%ing paddling!
Now he's just taking the piss!
The kids thought Richard's beard was some kind of pet.
Arriving back into Puno harbour.
The South American people love their uniforms.These two girls are Civil Police Officers.

We figured on getting out of Peru and into Bolivia the same day, so as soon as we got back to Puno it was onto the bikes and off to the Border.

This had to be the funniest thing we'd seen in a long time, we were following this car with a sheep sticking out of the window. We knew it was alive but couldn't work out why it wasn't trying to move, then as we overtook  we realised why...
It was underneath this lot!
The guy's wife was underneath the blanket on the roof rack! (only joking)
The Andes Mountains in the background.
"I'm not having sheep in my van"

At some point during our run to the Border the group split up, Sue and I and Chris and Melissa ended up at the Peruvian Border and the rest were nowhere to be seen. We breezed through the Peruvian side with everybody nice and friendly and that continued for Sue and I as we went through Immigration and Customs at the Bolivian border. 

Parked up at the Bolivian Border.

For Chris and Melissa the next couple of hours would prove to be the worst Christmas Eve ever, first of all, because they are from the States they had to pay US$135 each for a visa to enter the country (this is because the US similarly penalise Bolivians visiting the States, so it's a case of tit for tat) and secondly for some insane reason Chris was travelling with just a photocopy of his original registration document which the nice man in Customs took a dislike to. 

Our helpful Customs Official (depending on which country you're from)
For Chris and Mellisa he was the 'jobsworth' from hell!

When we came through Honduras, Phil from the States also had only photocopies of his documents and it cost him $100 in bribes to get into the country. Here however, there was a huge sign on the wall pointing out the penalties for trying to bribe officials! Melissa (who speaks perfect Spanish) tried every angle to get the guy to accept the copy, even to the point of telling him they were heading to Copacabana to distribute gifts to the local kids for Xmas. He was having none of it and told them the only option was to go back into Peru and have the original documents shipped down but then he also said they could try the other border an hour down the road as the officials there might accept a photocopied document!. During the conversation the issue of the border closing on Christmas day arose and the 'jobsworth' pointed out that the border was open but that he was having the day off to visit family and someone else would be on duty. Chris and Melissa decided to go back into Peru and stop overnight near the border and return in the morning in the hope that the next Customs Official was in more of a festive mood and less of a pain in the arse, we said our farewells, wished them 'Merry Christmas' and said we'd see them the next day or failing that in a few days time in La Paz.
And there was still worse to come...
When they returned to the Peruvian border they were informed that as they had signed out of Peru they were not allowed back into the country for 24 hours! Shit! this would involve them stopping in 'No Mans Land' that section of neutral land between the two borders, more pleading and weeping involved and finally the Peruvian guys relented and allowed Chris and Melissa to go back to the next town on the Peruvian side to spend the night. Because they couldn't officially process them back into Peru they held onto Chris's driving license to make sure he returned first thing in the morning. Whilst all this was taking place some of the others arrived and once everyone was into Bolivia we set off for Copacabana 10 minutes down the road with our plans for a group Christmas firmly on hold....Bah! Humbug!


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