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| Northern Desert of Peru |
South America has been rugged and beautiful. The riding has been some of the most challenging of the trip with intense mountain passes and poorly maintained roads. The generosity of people here is like nothing I’ve experienced before.
I spent three days and nights in Bogota, Colombia at a hostel overlooking the city. The elevation of Bogota is around 9,000 ft, so the temps were nice and cool and my morning runs were spent gasping for air. The motorcycle is alive in Bogota – everyone has a moto and the riders are decked out in rain gear 24/7 due to the climate. Sure, the bikes are smaller than the U.S. but they are decent machines capable of highway speeds and often are ridden two-up. When you see bikes on the road they just look so well equipped, maybe even over equipped, like a group of American touring motorcyclists all decked out. After some hunting I found the central motorcycle flea market in Bogota – just shop after shop and bikes lining the street for blocks and blocks. It’s a little shady though and I was warned strongly not to bring my camera or take pictures there. I should have though – it was epic, and I picked up anything and everything I needed; oil filters, clutch and brake levers, rain boot covers, etc. It has rained on me every day since I crossed the border into Panama – so roughly two weeks. You get used to it and it really doesn’t bother me much anymore. I’ve got a rain suit and all my luggage is covered with various plastic scraps.
As I made my way south of Bogota through Colombia I camped the whole way and each place I stayed the people were insistent on feeding me and would not accept money – even at a restaurant that I camped at they said the food was on them. No matter how hard I try to pay or turn them down, they wouldn’t budge. One of my camp spots found me. I pulled over to the side of the highway to remove my rain gear and this group of Colombian females surrounded my bike asking me questions. They were laughing and laughing when I told them I’d been camping and riding down from the states - and without hesitation they said I could stay with them. I ended up ferrying some of the teenagers around town on my moto, three-up. In the morning they brought me to meet the rest of the family in town and they fed me tamales and black coffee until I couldn’t fit another bite. They sent me on my way with a HUGE avocado –the size of a softball or larger – with instructions on when it would be ripe enough to eat (two days exactly).
In Ecuador the hospitality continued. I stopped and asked to camp in front of this sweets shop and the guy said sure, and came back out with a cup of hot milk with rice before I could even get the tent up. The riding in Ecuador has been challenging due to the high elevation – I’m literally riding up in the clouds at 10,000 ft and above. It has been very cold and wet at times and the roads have been treacherous; big sections of dirt and rocks, drop offs, pot holes, and big semi-trucks. All of this around hairpin turns up and down mountain passes. It keeps you on your toes and the going is slow – I’d say my average speed over many sections is around 20mph.
I crossed into Peru via a less traveled border crossing in the city of Macala, Ecuador. I had heard many warnings about the border along the Pan American Highway and I decided I could do without the headaches of scammers and corrupt officials. It’s nothing dangerous really, just annoying. The temperatures changed abruptly as I got closer to Peru. It felt so good to be warm again, but I did run smack into some of the hardest tropical rains of the trip – it didn’t matter, I was just happy to be all thawed out. The poverty is also abrupt and harsh as you enter Peru. The living conditions are noticeably worse and the building materials consist of tarps and scraps in the shanty towns along the highway.
The highway has dropped down to the pacific stretching out as a flat-out high-speed burn from city to coastal city through Peru’s northern Desert. The winds have been really strong coming off the sand dunes and my bike acts like a sail with all of the luggage packed on it. I’m in Lima, staying in a hostel near the beach. I plan to rest up here and get supplies, most importantly a new set of tires.
This week leading up to easter is celebrated as Semana Santa here in S.A. and people are out every night either going to the bars, hanging out in the town squares or attending church.
Happy Easter everyone. I miss you guys.
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| Rolando, one of the Venezualen guys riding a KLR 650 (same as mine) from Caracas to Machu Picchu with two of his buddies. I rode with the group for a bit and we had lunch. |
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| Gas prices in Ecuador. Yes, that's USD/Gallon; Reg/Prem/Diesel. Hurry lets get the biggest tub we can find and start taking this stuff back to the states and make a KILLING. Oh yeah, Chevron already did that.
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