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Published: January 4th 2014
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Peru
How come all border towns in 3 world countries always are so dismal?
Going over to Peru from Macara' in Ecuador was abit of a let down , well not really.
Customs and immigration were really helpful, it only took half and hour or so and they just looked at my paper work and not the bike itself.
They did warn me about live stock on the road though and right bthey were, cows, goats sheep,pigs and chicken, I almost got me a piglet...
Next decent town was Piura, yet again I found a room with the help of the local Fuzz.
I had to push the bike or rather drive into the foyer again, a Swewdish receptionist would shit a brick if I asked them to let me drive my bike into the hotel and park it next to the pool.
Next on the agenda was , of course, a beer and some food.
The Peruvians pride themselves of being the inventors of Pisco and ceviche, ceviche is nicer than Piscothe local gut rot. the Chileans claim that the Peruvians are thieves and have nicked the idea of Pisco being aPeruvian thing and say it originates from Chile.
Whatever,
I'll stick to beer.
All this driving takes it out of you, 11hrs or so, makes youy fall asleep at 9. 30 or earlier.
Bright eyed I enjoyed the splendid breakfast included in my room price, two pieces of toast some jam and a cup of coffee.
Off towards the south, Chiclayo or some thing to that effect.
Outside Piura I was greeted by a very long straight road with a strong side/ head wind and shit loads of sand blowing about not the best of driving situations.
the wind played havoc with my fuel comsumption and i had to but a gallon, yes a gallon.
For some odd reason the Peruvians, Colombians and Ecuadorians sell petrol by the US gallon, the price came as a very nasty surprise, petrol is about 2,5 times more expensive than in Ecuador, not so much fun when you have to drive a couple of thousand km, poor me!
Once in Chiclayo I filled it to the brim and checked out the availability of fuel along the way, it so turns out that the rest of the Panamerican highway is studded with petrol stations.
Ceviche for lunch and a chat with the "restaurants" owner
and of to Chimbote another plain Peruvian town, nothing to write home about so I won't.
A major surprise did occur though, I saw a day glow coloured helmet in my mirror and then I saw two, hmmm, Gringos = company.
It so turned out that it was Colleen and James from California the people who helped me buy the bike, very strange, meeting in the middle of nowhere on the road in Peru and also nice.
half abottle of whisky later we were up to date and had dinner and a getting up to date chat.
A very nice couple if there ever was one, they're on their way to Tierra del Fuego aka as the end of the world which I will not be able to make unless I make a very mas dash, hmmm!
Anyway the next day we parted as I'd hear that Huaraz, up in the snow covered Andes, was a nice place. The ride up there was pretty and getting up to 4255 m I got a spendid view of a lot of white clad peaks, on the other side of those is the Amazon rain forest.
At 4255 m you don't sweat, you
shiver so I hurried down to Huaraz, once there, there was no really good reason to stay so I hit the throttle and sped back down towards the coast.
The sun was going down and it was getting cold so I drove as fast as I dared, a very good road due to the fact that there's a mine or two up there somwhere.
It's not very hot on the Peruvian coast anyway due to the same Humboldt current that sweeps up from the Antarctic passing by Chile as well making that another cool place, temp wise, to be in.
But it's still a lot hotter than up in the Andes and especially when the sun is saying good night.
Next biggest town was Barranca and I got there just as it was getting dark, I have this idea about stopping to drive at 2 pm but somehow I never do, one km more...
Well Barranca was noisy and dirty so I really didn't want to explore anyway.
Dinner and lights out for me.
Lima next, 180 km with finding a hotel take to also host my bike took the better part of the day but finally I was
sorted.
As my E-book reader had decided to drop dead i really needed a new one so I took the bus into the center of the historical Lima a stange mixture of splendid colonila buildings and dilapidated newer ones.
It's easier to find hen's teeth than an e-book reader in peru so after a major run around I bought a tablet and thought that would do it.
It probably would've done it if it had worked, but lucky me I got a dud.
But any way i had a nice walk around Lima and a pucker moment when i almost forgot my Visa card in the ATM.
I was not staying in central Lima but in the Miraflores district, a place with loads of hotesl and restaurants.
And according to legend quite safe, at least no one robbed me.
Most of the next day was spent being driven all over Lima in the search for brake pads for the orange beast, and yikes were they expensive 80 of uncle Sams green ones ,'bout three times the price in Sweden.
Then I took the tablet back to where i bought it thinking that
i would have to fight like mad to get my money back or a new one.
The guy at the store just said ; Ok if it doens't work here's your money back.
Wow!!
Another walk about and then back to Miraflores and to what I thought was new years eve.
Not much fun going on, but the again it was an ordinary working day.
So I had my nice New Years ceviche in spendid isolation.
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