Day 80: Peru II

The Rest of Peru:
We traveled most of Peru through the Andes mountains. Much of our riding was in the altiplano, or the high plains of the central Andes, where the altitude generally ranged from 11,000 to 15,000 ft. The altiplano is mostly treeless and is ringed by high, snow capped peaks. Because this is the rainy season in Peru, we have encountered a lot of rain and clouds. Temperatures have ranged down to the upper 30’s. A couple of times we have had to ride in snow/hail slush accumulated on the road. The highest we rode was up to 15,800 ft.

One day we were riding through pea soup fog and all of a sudden, a large gray shape appeared in front of us in the road. We slowed down as quickly as we safely could as even more large grey shapes emerged. Was it a herd of Andean Sasquatch walking down the highway?! No, only a herd of cows.

We’ve seen lots of llamas and alpacas. Some of the llamas have cute colored ear tags. Many of the Inca made farming terraces remain on the steep hillsides. Some are still in use today by farmers who toil away with hand tools. You see them walking from and to their fields shouldering hoes, shovels and axes.

Most of the roads we have traveled have been good pavement. That doesn’t mean you still don’t have to keep a sharp eye at all times for the occasional deep pothole, animal or ???? whatever may show up! However, several days we choose to ride secondary dirt/broken pavement roads because the primary paved roads do not always follow a north to south route in the mountains. These secondary roads were definitely adventure riding for us…… narrow one lane roads for two lane traffic, blind corners, steep drop-offs, rock fall, river crossings…..all combined with dangerously aggressive Peruvian drivers. In the pics below, you can see the road behind Bruce that we traveled along the steep hillside. That is our friend, Johanna, blasting her way across the river that we also crossed.

It is difficult to explain how to describe the attacking attitude of these Peruvians behind the wheel. In the US you would be thrown in jail if you drove like an average Peruvian. One driver came so close to knocking MB off the side of a one lane dirt road that Bruce got so mad he chased the driver for a ½ mile kicking at his car and yelling “you asshole” at the top of his lungs! It really wears on you to deal with these types day after day.

Waiting an hour for a rock slide to be cleared, Bruce gets friendly with a local.

Another aspect of Peruvian driving…..aggressive, motorcycle chasing dogs…..not just chasing but seriously trying to bite us. Are they so angry because their motor driving masters are so angry?! One dog actually got its teeth into MB’s calf. Good news is that it didn’t break through her moto pants. We stopped on the roadside for a bathroom break and there they were! Were they going to attack us? Not this time….they just wanted the crackers that we fed them.

Bruce has had a goal on this trip to buy a sheep skin to put on his moto seat for comfort. One day while driving high in the altiplano, we passed a simple lone farmers house. Sitting in front of the house was a small moto with a huge pile of fur on the back. Bruce called MB on the helmet speakers and said, “Did you see that?”. MB said, “Yes! let’s turn around”. Fifteen minutes and $15 later, Bruce was the proud owner of a beautiful large piece of alpaca fur.

We really enjoyed the more tourist towns in Peru….Huaraz, Ayancucho, Cusco, Ollantaytambo and Arequipa. Here we are partying in Cuzco with Johanna and Josh, adventure riders we met in Ecuador. Josh and Johanna taught us a very important riding technique in Peru……the foot kick at cars that are passing too close on the left or the right! It scares them off usually. We think they get freaked by mad gringos. We have both been using this technique.

And of course, Machu Picchu was very special to see! We paid extra to hike up Machu Picchu mountain only to see fog!

A couple of firsts. We ate alpaca which was very tender and tasty. We finally took the time to wonder through a local market. The meat section was particularly interesting!

We took our first tuc-tuc (that’s what we call them) taxi ride. It's basically a motorcycle with a passenger car built onto the back.

We wanted to ride the shore of Lake Titicaca and cross into Chile through the mountains. We got within ½ hour from the town of Puno on the lake front (after riding in heavy rain and 40 degree temperatures for hours) only to run into 3 inches of hail on the road with a major accident holding back traffic in both directions. It was getting late so we decided to turn around and go back to the last city we rode through, Juliaca, a pit as bad as any we have come across in all our travels. It was raining hard and the streets were flooded with brown, muddy water deep enough to cover all the potholes so you couldn’t see them and would hit them sending mucky water everywhere. At the same time trucks and cars coming at you were doing the same, sending that water on us and our bikes. Finding the best hotel we could, not great in this town, we took a couple hours to get warm. We had enough of Peru. Skip Lake Titicaca. The goal was to take the fastest way to Chile!

However, Peru gave us a nice send off on our last day today. We road the coastline in far southern Peru and it was beautiful! Almost 100 miles of good to great paved road……EXCEPT for ¼ mile where all of a sudden the pavement was replaced by deep sand. MB almost made it through without dumping but a car came the other way and she freaked, let go on the accelerator causing her front tire to dig in and over she went. Oh Peru!

PS...Third theory is the charm and we finally really have figured out MB's locking handlebar problem. The back end of her front fender has been getting caught on screws sticking out from the after-market skid plate she had installed in St. George. We've turned the screws around....duh!

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Ernest Hemingway