The day after yesterday ... tired. :huh

Welcomed in by Tobys amigos and friends (at 1.30 am) we enjoyed Pucallpa very much which is seated on the Amazon and this my friends is one massive mofo of a river, bearing in mind we are ONLY at the headwaters or beginning....its gota go right across the island before hitting the sea, the Amazon is 200 km at the mouth!!!.

Our awesome hosts Hugo and Meche



The river ... or at least a very small part of it



We were taken out for lunch to a very nice local place, as they had us as guests at their beautiful home we covered for lunch, we were then taken to the lake house for a relaxing afternoon overlooking the water which was just spiffing after our previous big day out.:clap



The lake



Toby and I relaxing on the swing chairs



Maya also got a new belly full of Belray full syn oil, I did this with the help of my assistant who was a 13 year old boy eager to help. :clap

Two drain bungs, 2 magnets, three filters later his eyes were bulging at the seemingly endless pile of “stuff‘ compared to the simple motos he was used to, all the same he was into it. ... (like this fella -> :eek1)

We developed a crowd of about 15 onlookers which was cool, one fello even talked partly english, very nice guy.

With my KTM apprentice at hand it wasn’t too long and we had Maya back together and filled her with fresh Belray Blood, my apprentice had the honours of starting Maya ... the shock horror look on his face with the initial cam tensioner rattle while filling was funny. :eek1 :eek1

With her going quiet in about 1.5 seconds his face lit up with a grin of accomplishment (like this fella -> ) , then his reward, with Maya up on 4 bars I said to him twist the throttle, this was met with HUGE enthusiasm, a coupla small flicks his hand was shaking.

With approval to give her a big flick the gathered crowd got bigger, a quick bounce from the top end of revs saw a large blue flame shoot out about 300 mm, this set the new level of excitement and laughter, by this time cellphones were out and vids were being made.

Who would think an oil change could generate such a crowd and create so much laughter and fun.... but there you have it.:clap

Want a moto taxi, there is one or two around so they can be found :rofl



We also visited the KTM dealership to get some rear disc pads, again Maya bought the people out of the shop to take photos, even the security guard was in on it :lol3, I was lucky enough to get my photo taken with the hot chicas while Toby talked business, I felt guilty tho cos my T shirt stunk however this almost added to the foreigner adventure biker with a dirty 950 moto grande, so kinda cool in a weird sense. :rofl

World records, this man is into them and has set them, Richard is his name, really neat guy and inspirational with him accomplishments and upcoming attempts



Time to head back to Huanuco we hit the road with ominous clouds watching us from a distance.

We fueled up on the cheap petrol, Maya full with 38 liters on board and cruising one up and no house and contents she did 5.3 liters / 100 km which gives us a theoretical range of 695 km ... not to bad.:clap

Given Maya was seriously dirty from the previous days shenanigans of bog holes etc the rain was welcome .... then in true Amazon style it just caved in seeing us drop to first gear in places from serious lack of visibility.... talk about a water blasting!!!

Stopping in the gorge on the way back we saw what we had missed at midnight on the way through, it was raining lightly when we arrived then really set in while we were there so the weather was chasing us.



See the truck at the bottom, see the size of the waterfall!!



Sorry for the outa focus but rain on the lens ... excuse for a bad photo



The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, even when we came back upon the washed out bridge the digger was there cleaning up and it bared no resemblance of the mayhem we encountered that night.



Two young fellas were there “helping” so Toby gave them some bread each which lit up their faces.

The last POI you won't find on Garmin



Home James ... from there easy as apart from seemingly every truck in Peru on the road that night.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

The Central "Zona Do It"

Back safely at Toby and Saras Ellen had to get some dental work done and I had been putting off some work on Maya until we had the right place and services, Huanuco is it.:clap

The town square



The view from opposite their home, see the hill picture on their B&B site





I wanted to get the Dr Bean board into our fuel pump, redo the mudflap which had been attacked and torn, clean out indicators from mud (the insides), clean air filters etc so just a big tidy up round.

The board was easy done however the guy did a less than ideal job on one soldered joint so we got that sorted the following morning, all good.

For a while I have been wanting to fit a bigger foot plate on the side stand and this was also accomplished $6 Soles (about $2 dollars), my exhaust baffle I had extended too $5 Soles (about $1.70 dollars), all in all my entire list of goodies to sort was sorted with a little local help from Toby.

Ellen and Sara did the icecream thing ... dunno how I missed this out :huh



A free Plug Here,
Now Toby and Sara are volunteer workers and spend much of their time helping the community for no gain for themselves other than satisfaction so our hat is off to them big time.:clap

Toby runs Around The Block moto tours and has a selection of machines from 250 to 650, both touring capable with KLR650s and offroad capable with the XR250s and XR650L .

We stayed at their B&B for a week and enjoyed ourselves although I was completely set up on a board game coming last .... hmmmm :lol3

Tobys site is

Moto Tours - adventure motorcycle tours in Peru and all South America

...and their B&B is

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1835398?s=9669

Wonna find em on your GPS, this will take you to the front door



We had hearty breakfasts, comfy bed, REAL hot water, wifi that is probably the fastest we have had in Peru, that was the paid part.

The non paid part is local knowledge from Toby and Sara, stuff you don’t get on GPS and maps.

With Tobys local knowledge we got Maya sorted (as noted above) and Ellen got her dental work done, done well and very economical.

Now Huanuco itself it not a total tourist town but has great shops and services, it is also close to Lima if you are flying in to start a trip or if you are lucky enough to be RTWing their place is a great stop over to get parts ordered etc, Toby can source stuff as he spent most of his childhood growing up in Peru and knows the locale, also speaking fluently in the local tongue cannot be matched for getting stuff sorted and the "not what ya know but who ya know" plays a huge part.

Huanuco is also a great gateway to the Amazonas to the east, the Huascaran National Park just north and of course south to Cusco and Machu Picchu so pretty well placed centrally, all in all for RTW travellers they have a great place stop, sort out and breath, sort our any moto stuff with a lock up garage and undercover place to work...ouwh and they are just good honest people helping ADVers and Hubbers alike.

I have just realized that all "us" photos are on their camera, so will have to get these .. that is an epic fail on our part!! :evil

Leaving Huanuco we headed off again with good advice from Toby (well sorta ... it snowed:rofl), onto harass some other unsuspecting people

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Saying goodbye we hit the road south, the day was stunning and warm, total tar so a relaxing ride apart from dodging the usual Peruvians who like our lane better than theirs.

For the most of it getting up onto the plato the twisting tar gave us a nice rhythmic ride winding our way up the valley.



Stopping at a waterfall we layered up a bit as we were at 4000 meters and just cool enough, across the road was a another cool waterfall .. well at least half a waterfall anyway with the water pouring out half way down the cliff, something we had not seen before.



Cresting the plato there were very ominous looking clouds, being right on lunchtime we fooded up on hot tucker preparing for some rain, wet gear on too in advance.

A small mining town



As we approached the bank of angry clouds there was a huge flash and the big fella took our photo followed by a large bang/crack ... we knew then it was gonna get ugly.

See to the left pf the picture Ellen just caught the lightening :clap



Up ahead it appeared white but through my now wet visor I thought it was sandstone .... that would have been easier.

Hail, yeah, bouncing off everything every which way in all directions .... classic, at least it is dryer than rain.

The hail got heavier and heavier, the road was white with some wheel tracks creating a narrow safe-haven at least for a while.



A car was off the road and being pulled back on by a truck under the guidance of the police, one policeman looked at us like we were crazy .... I think he was right.

Our spot would not send any messages to the orange dot gods as the air was electric stifling any signals from spot, (we now have a straight line on our map) lightening was striking to our left and ahead of us giving us booms in stereo, this also meant that we would be riding into the stuff ahead.

Forced to first gear at one stage with about 50mm deep of hail on the road and no wheel tracks it was a game of lets try and stay upright, I won this game.

The storm veered right and our road veered left which was a welcome reprieve, however the hail then turned back to very heavy rain again, bike got another good wash.

We had visions of stopping in Junin but Junin sits at 4200 meters and it was bitterly cold, given it was only 1.30 we continued on with the last section to Tarma easy as just with lots of roadworks.

Small vid for fun :clap

Ice Ice Baby - YouTube

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

G'day Andi and ellen, great photo's always .i think you were more charitable about the peruvian Drivers than i would have been.Glad you got through the ice /hail ok looks treacherous.YDF Noel
P.s some more lookers this week so here's hoping

Never seens trees so red before. Grt pics. Really enjoying you travel like this.

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Wonderful pic in the warm waterfalls

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

Heya Noel

Yeah Peruvians are a different breed of people when they get a steering wheel in front of them.

Good news on the punters mate, fingers crossed.

YDP

A

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heya Kayjay

Yes there are some amazing colours and creature in this part of the world.

Many thanks for your props.

Andi

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heya Kayjay

... they were NOT that warm

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

A relaxing start as sleeping beauty stayed under covers till 9.00am :evil.

No rush, today was a local day to the caves and surrounding area.

Flinging the cases off Maya we set too only to find a massive market outside our front door, so people, please make way, there were stalls and stands everywhere, the only free bit of concrete was the footpath ... foothpath it is. :rofl

The caves are only 26 km from town and the dirt road takes you through small villages and up a valley, the caves sit at 3600 meters and the 5 minute walk to the caves seemed like a 5 hour trek.

A torch or headlight is essential, if not you can hire a guide who had a 1 candle power LED torch.

A guide and customer came in just as we got in too, so we all went in together, I had my LED lenser (made in USA and BLOODY awesome).

So here is a few photos to enjoy, not much to write about.

This waterfall greets you on arrival :clap





Caver extraordinaire





Ellen got a dirty bum sliding down one of the slopes



It is like the temple of doom with little bridges :rofl





The entrance from the inside out



Couple of llamas on the way back, you can sit on this fellas and get your photos taken, I still prefer KTM.:evil

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Not as famous as Machu Picchu but a nice walk, to be honest you can ride probably 90% of it ... just a problem getting down the last 10% intact.

Just to give it some authenticity ....the old guy on the right gave us directions and we gave him two toffee lollies ....he liked them



In true form from the Peruvians who didn’t have a clue they guided us completely astray, Peruvians will never say they don’t know and they will always give you directions to somewhere.

The soil at this point was very red and very orange ....mineral rich of something.



There are a couple of crazy trees with S bends





There was few ruins along the way but to be honest without sounding like a bastid sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between ruins and someone house.

These are inhabited residence, no power, no running water, they are as genuinely old school as you can get.



The crest of the valley f i n a l l y ...with ominous clouds to go



Highlight of the day, an old man took a shine to Ellen and picked her some flowers which was duly thanked with a kiss ... he was not expecting that



Total surprise from him with Ellens reaction and thanking him, he was delighted despite the look on his face (which changed after this photo) and I know she made his day



This was our collectivo taxi that picked us up, there were 8 adults and 3 children in the car , just a small Toyota station wagon .. could easy squeeze another dozen in

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere