Day 4 Andehuaylas to Cusco

After the last few days of late starts we pushed for an early morning start and headed down to the bikes at 05:00 with our gear, by now I’m wishing that I’d left more of my stuff at home and that we'd get a room on the ground floor of these hostels, at least we’re sleeping in doors..!!

Getting the bikes loaded is starting to become streamlined as we organise the “don’t need it stuff” into the panniers and leave these packed. After leaving the hotel it’s not long before we find ourselves on dusty gravel roads again, these are shared by the usual travellers, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses… big trucks..!! and the mangy dog that runs alongside the first bike barking, oblivious to oncoming cars or the bikes following, so it’s no surprise when Dean mentions that his boot heel has had a close encounter with one of the flee ridden locals.. really I think he was taking out his frustrations on the poor dog after following the GPS directions into this man hole..!!

I know it says shortcut but we can't all fit down there..!!



Once we're across the bridge the tarseal begins

Tar-seal, after travelling through dusty valleys for the last few days, today we hit tar-sealed roads and stay on them for some time which is a welcomed relief, the roads here are surprisingly well built and the corners seem to be one of four different curves, “U’s”, right angles, forty five degrees and “S” bends and they all seem to have been made from the same moulds, we also get nice long straights and attempt stick to the speed limit..!! oh and don’t forget the occasional speed hump that’s given me a wake up along the way.

We arrive in Cusco at 14:00 and find a place to stay, after translating what the lady was saying we find ourselves driving the bikes up the curb and wheeling them through the front door and across the court yard to the back of the “casa”.

Sitting in the court yard that we had to push the bikes through

Since Brian was starting a 24hour flu we left him in bed while we went out to find parts for the BMW and some rear brake pads for SamC’s bike, this was harder than we thought having arrived on a Sunday and finding most things closed including the place where we were going to buy tickets for Machu Picchu, considering we all wanted to see this place we decided to add another lay-day to the schedule and we’d have to make it up somewhere else, hope there's more tarseal in our travels

So today was quite an uneventful day, other than Dean taking on a dog and trying to drive to china.

Day 3 Ayacucho to Andehuaylas

At Ayacucho we pick up the bikes at 8:30am to get on the road for Abancay about 300ks of gravel. Wrong! we get onto the outskirts of the city on a rundown dirt/rock track that is the main road out only to find they are upgrading the route to a sealed road and we can't get throght the first bit until 12 Noon. We finally get underway and find that road works are happeng for about the first 20 km. We hammer it during the lunch break and make most of them - some were like your everyday farm track or trail ride.

We go up over 4000m ranges 2 or 3 times some with hail and thunderstorms and wet pampas highlands. winding our way through 250Km of gravel and dirt with a few shortcuts throught the highlands to miss some of the s bends. We just make the town of Andehuaylas about 30 minutes after dark down a steep mountain that is full of roadworks - the road was good though so fairly safe. Thats our 2nd night ride experience, its getting easier although we plan to start as early as possible from now on without bike maintainence and such.

We met a local girl in Andehuaylas who's family owned the local version of KFC - we had beer, fried chicken and chips. The Sams went for a walk with Angela afterwards to look for hoses apparentley.

Next stop Cusco.

Day 2 La Oroya to Ayacucho

Early start and good sealed roads leads to some good k's under our belt. We make Huancayo by 11am we have been following big valleys and rivers with agriculture starting to flourish although it is dry and arid. The temperatures are high and the days are sunny. We have had to shed our thermals and liners - its like an NZ summer. No rain in sight. Little roadside villages pop up along the way - kind 70's like country shops - Naike or Te Akau spring to mind.

Things look good for our destination until we climb over a large arable range (second time over 4000m) and get stopped by the police again. This time its a checkpoint and they want our documents. Sam T shows them his ownership papers and all is fine and we are on our way. We are over the other side of the range and the road cuts down the side of a huge range that we have been on top of. The road loops about 20 times down sheers drop offs, we drop 1000 meters in 5 minutes.

This is where we hit the gravel and dirt roads snaking through some of the most amazing mountain landscape on the planet. We got used to the traffic and how to watch for vehicles and dust as you could see the road snakeing along the river or looping up a mountain for miles. Villages are out here 100's of ks from main roads or other luxuries, houses are made out of a sort of mud/rock brick and streets are often dirt. Sam T has a moment with "truck vs bike" on a gravel  corner with a steep drop off full of cactus, Sam opted for the gravel surface breaking a clutch lever in the middle of nowhere....!!! We managed to get the bike to push start by frigging the wiring and made it to Ayacucho just after dark. Another stroke of lick came along when we spotted a bike shop open who could get us a clutch lever. We also had to get new tyres and he had them in stock so we got this done overnight ready for the morning.

Day 1 Lima - La Oroya

At last some time to write something down. Were to start ... its been 5 days of adventure to the max!

Day 1

We left Lima and were exposed to some of the worst traffic in the world on a Thursday morning at about 8am and managed our first negotiation to a petrol station. Once back on the road confusion rained with the group splitting into two at a right hand turn. That was the beginning of our half day excursion around Lima city. The roads, traffic and streets are mind boggling with road works and diversions every where. We headed east into the Andes - target Huancayo via La Oroya, an easy ride if we had the full day however that was not to be.

Firstly we were approached by a man in a small town outside Lima who asked for our papers then once he started chatting with our Spanish interpreter (Sam T) he told us to follow him as he new a good place for us to have a bite to eat... we were in too minds and then he jumped into an official law enforcement vehicle and escorted us to a big Hacienda up a semi paved drive with armed guards gaurding a large wooden blocade gate!! Now we were really sh**ing!

Right boys get ready for your first strip search and interigation maybe even a firing line or jail cell for the rest of our lives. We parked up inside next to a speed boat, motorcycle and other toys, the armed guards greeted us and then the man we met jumped out of the car - by the look of the reaction from the guards he was there superior. The words on the emblems said Departmento Narcotics and Drug enforcment or something - the lads were close commiting there first soiling of said underwear on day 1.

To our utter suprise and amazment Javier is the Colonel of the Narcotics law enforcement agency and is in charge of the region we were traveling through. He showed us into his office as guests and is a real motorcycle enthusiast when he is not in the jungle hunting down drug runners and king pins. He got is assistant to prepare what he called a small meal (half a chicken and veges) - I did eat my veges considering the possible consequences.

We talked and did photos with the Colonel, he advise the best routes and place we could go over a coca tea, before being introduced to the 2 IC. Brian reminded us that we must move - the Colonel presented Sam T and Brian with a department medal, we presented our one and only NZ sovenier in the hope it would be appreciated enough for the Colonel to let us travel freely through is country. The Colonel is now a gret amigo and he had one more trup card up his sleeve. We were escorted by 2 Police motorcycle all the way to the department boundary (about 20 km). Flashing sirens, road blocks, the works - we were respected visitors to the Colonel of the province. Not at all what we expected considering all the negative stories we have heard.

We were running out of time to make the destination so we nailed it for a while up through the valleys of the Andes, until we lost Sam T off the back with a flat tyre - luckily they have small shacks on the side of the highways where they repair tyres. This meant we had to make our destination La Oroya as we had no chance of making our scheduled destination. We climbed through the Andes reaching the pass at 4800 meters (higher than mount Cook). the bikes lost power noticebly at around 4200m, and we were feeling the effects of altitude. We made it to La Oroya (quoted as the most toxic city in the world) a mineral minning town where the mining run off goes straight into the water supply.

First Stop

Well we’ve arrived in Santiago and have sat down for our first South American meal….. a burger and beers.!!! We’re here for another 7 hours before heading off to Lima. Sore arses, eyes and heads – need some sleep. And the bodily odours are a little bit off at the moment.

Food is here

Gotta go.

2 Days until Blast Off!

I have changed the blog page to something more suitable - comments etc. Hopefully this will suite our purposes more easily whilst on the road.

Our last bit of organising will be done on Monday to get the bike parts and some gear for Brian 35.

We have managed to purchase a set of UHF radios, connections, and headphones that will act as a sort of bike to bike comms kit. This plus our new smart phones and music make for a full bike entertainment system. We just need to find a mobile data provider in Peru now.

Adios