Peru

Monday 12th October
Macara to Chiclayo


Today we cross the boarder into Peru, it seems the trip is going too fast as we enter another country, a short 2 mile ride to the boarder and the now familiar procedure to cross, book ourselves out then the bike, book ourselves in then the bike. As usual the procedure to book the bike in (temporary import) takes the longest, but as there are n computers involved and this is a quiet boarder crossing it only took a couple of hours. Once out of the boarder town the scenery changed after 120 miles there was a very long straight road, almost 100 miles through a desert area, the scenery of a desert is not that spectacular, but I have never ridden or been to a desert and it is still an interesting experience.

As the ride continued in a small group of 5 of us, with no petrol stations in sight two of the bikes got very low, I slowed to 40 mph to reduce the fuel consumption and had only 15 miles of fuel left when we found a petrol station. There had, un-usually been no money changers at the boarder and the station did not accept US dollars, so most of us could not pay for fuel, luckily Julia had 10 Sols local currency, just enough to top up the other bikes, I then used my increasingly useful spare fuel can this got me the 30 miles to the city, but it was close for some of us.


Miles
Today : 269
Total : 13666
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Tuesday 13th October
Chiclayo to Huanchaco


Before riding on a number of the group took the morning to visit Lord of Sipan Museum, lots of the gold artefacts on display from the tombs of this pre-Inca civilisation, which had escaped the grave robbers and been properly excavated. From here a shorter run continued in the deserts of north west Peru despite 10 miles out the city’s rubbish was being dumped here and burned, it still was a new experience riding in the desert with very long straight runs of road surrounded by a military firing range then out of the blue suddenly cultivated fields of sugar cane and other crops appeared. The desert continued all the way to the coastal fishing town of Huanchaco, with it’s reed boat fishing fleet.

Miles
Today : 133
Total : 13799
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Wednesday 14th October
Huanchaco to Caraz

I got up early to see the fishing boats come in but they hadn’t gone out this day. Desert runs 100 miles straight roads. Tuned off some more tarmac before Canyon del Pato 60 miles of dirt road, supposed to be easy. Turned out to be very stony bouncing the bike around had to watch out for stones sticking out of the ground , spectacular scenery, very few places like this, had 34 tunnels, with trucks careering through very difficult, some places sand and deep gravel 5 bikes fell no serious damage, Richard fell for the first time on trip. This was a real test of the bikes and some had bolts and other bits fall off, one bike had a severe buckle in the wheel rim requiring the judicious use of the hammer to stop the tyre coming off! He ride took us through the small mountain villages only giving us an impression of how hard people’s lives must be.

Miles
Today : 190
Total : 13989
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Thursday 15th October
Caraz to Barranca

Started about 8.30 riding easy though the tarmac was not good mid morning, lots of deep pot holes. Road through the Andes we got to 13000 foot at places with a back-drop of snow capped mountains, it got very cold and put warm gear on. Later the road turned into an amazing series of switch backs taking us back down to sea level very quickly, a short run to join the pan-am. I went to visit the chimu fortress a pre-Inca civilisation, and then back down the pan-am to the town, which was a very basic working town with little to remark on, except the continuous use of the horns from cars and taxis. This continued through the night without rest.

Miles
Today : 181
Total : 14170
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Frday 16th October
Barranca to Nazca

Started very early with no breakfast to get past Lima, 9.30 before we got to Lima 90 or so miles down the road. The traffic was very heavy despite them having built a fly over through the central part of the city, it took us almost an hour to negotiate our ay out of this big city. The run took us to lunch at a road side café then I was riding alone using the simple compass to navigate the sometime complicated road system with little in the way of signs. Another 150 miles down the road another ride came alongside and pointed to a garage, turned out this was Peter a German riding another F800GS joining us in Nasca. He then joined me for the rest of the ride, stopping at the viewing tower for the Nasca lines and then made our way to the hotel in the town some 15 miles on

Miles
Today : 403
Total : 14573
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Saturday 17th October
Nazcar
Day Off

Went on a flying trip around the Nasca lines in the morning and did some essential bike maintenance. In the afternoon went to visit the ancient mummies of the desert here. These had been well preserved by the lack of rainfall (30mm per 2 years) and the mummification process of covering the bodies with salt and wrapping them in cotton. We all stopped taking photos as this site was very macabre.

Miles
Today : 0
Total : 14573
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Sunday 18th October
Nascar to Abancay
A very nice run up and over the Andes, we reached 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) and one of the group started to suffer symptoms of altitude sickness. The road was potholes badly at first but still good fun to ride as it swept through some fantastic scenery. After a break 90 miles in the road improved increasing the pace a sweeping though the high Andes. Near the highest point a weather front moved in we were subjected to hail, not small hail but larger marble sized hail. Moving at speed resulted in some stinging blows even through the armoured bike jacket so I had to slow until it passed. We also encountered packs of vicunas and lamas which have a habit of jumping into the road, one of the group had a glancing blow leaving fur on his boot, a very lucky escape as in other years people have ended up being medi-vac'd due to just such encounters.

Miles
Today : 289
Total : 14862
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Monday 19th October
Abancay to Cusco

More great riding in the high Andes, climbing up above Abancay on 25 miles of switch backs which took nearly an hour, we were still only about 5 miles from the town but had climbed a couple of thousand metres again reaching well over 4000 meters. The views here of the snow capped Andes was superb and continued for the rest of the ride even though we started to descend. A short turn off on the way took me to the Inca Fortress of Ollantaytammbo I stopped for a late lunch here then went to visit the fortress climbing all the way to the top having spectacular views of the Ina Sacred Valley. This fortress was the last stand of the Incas against the Spanish, though they stood little chance against the superior weapons.

Miles
Today : 98
Total : 14960
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Tuesday 20th October
Cusco
Visit Machu Picchu


Cusco is at 3400 metres and some of the group were feeling this but we were up early to catch a bus and then a train, unfortunately the Peruvian authorities do not allow any motor vehicles to use the road to the modern village below Machu Picchu The train (backpacker) took about 3 hours to get to the village where we then took the official buss up to winding road to the entrance to Machu Picchu. The place is now normally packed with tourists, we were lucky as it was a light day and the views of the site and surrounding mountains were spectacular. After a 2 hour guided tour the heavens opened up and we made our way back down to the village below to catch the train back to Cusco, eventually arriving 9.30 pm.


Miles
Today : 0
Total : 14960
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Wednesday 21st October
Cusco
Day Off

Visited the historic Cathedral built upon the original Inca temple. The Spanish demolished the temples and used the stone to build the cathedral.


Miles
Today : 0
Total : 14960
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Thursday 22nd October
Cusco to Puno

Riding out of the very nice city of Cusco I looked for any Petrol station selling 95 octane fuel, but could only find 90, this becoming the norm for Peru and even some stations having no 90 and only 84 (probably equivalent to 75 by our standards). The run out of the city was straight forward, the road becoming very good with lots of sweeping bends as I climbed up to 4300 metres from the cities 3400 metres, at the top I was on a plateau and the roads became long and straight, the scenery was again spectacular with the plain surrounded by the Andean mountain tops, some snow capped. The temperature dropped and I found myself using my warm under jacket again, I haven’t needed this since Canada and have acclimatised to the higher temperatures so am now feeling the cold. Although roads where long and straight here, there was still plenty to look at as we passed though the numerous villages where the kept Llamas, cattle, sheep and pigs, all roaming around free and occasionally a hazard on the road. The final part of the days ride was on the lookout for a petrol station, I had had no petrol since Cusco, but no stations had anything other than “84” the bike performed well and I got to Puno on the 16 litre in the tank with 20 miles still showing.

Miles
Today : 245
Total : 15205
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Friday 23 October
Puno
Day Off

Miles
Today : 0
Total : 15205
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