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.