Fantastic!love the video .House prices crashing here all bad news may have to cut my own throat to get the house sold.Glad you have been talking with Paul Nomad ,he stayed with me on his OZ trip ,very nice bloke.Those mountains are spectacular.
Y.D.F Noel

Thank you sir

Well shit that is bad about the house prices mate, is it worth renting to ride out the monsoon? .... just a thought rather than taking a bath on the price

Yeah been in contact with Paul and hopefully helping him with things we can anyway, up to date info is always great

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

Back to the lowlands

South, well, south west up an over 4200 meters, freezing cold and drizzly, to top it off I was slightly off shade.





The food poisoning in Cajamarca has left my stomach tender and easily upset and today I was suffering I suspect from less than ideal water, not sure.

Easy trip down seeing us drop from 4200 meters to sea level in less than an hour ...wee change.

We arrived at Ceasers shop way ahead of time as the road was totally sealed and great condition ...unlike my bum!!!! :rofl

I chose to die for the afternoon and rest under the sheets while Ellen entertained our hosts.

The following day Ceaser and family took the day of work and took us to the playa (beach) then on to a swimming pool which we all made the most off being a hot day.



We played silly games that the lifeguards at any western pool would throw you out for.:rofl



Some other travellers who were there, our small waterproof camera is playing up too :evil



Again really cool being on the ground with locals.



The ride home in a mototaxi



Taking in Barranca it was a bustling town with moto taxi overload, these things were thicker than blow flies in Australia .... we even watched one get shortened by a truck when the trucks brakes failed at the intersection.:eek1

The last night we had Cuy (Guinea Pig) ... take like chicken but ya haf ta fight to get much meat



We were then ordered to sit down and have a few drinks with a birthday party ... awesome!! :clap



Plans to head back to the highlands saw us go back up the road we came down on as we left later than usual with a few photos with some local lads.

The sand dunes I dearly wanted to play on I did and Maya took us to the Elephant cliffs.

That next......:evil

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

A step up in time

Before leaving Barranca we headed down and out to the Elephants head sand dunes .....excorted by our host Ceaser, it was stinkin hot.



Sand...hot



This shows where we were parked on top of the elephants head



So photo shoot over we headed back to where our hearts were calling, not having finished with Huascaran we headed to Cataz, this time 3/4 up the mount the weather dealt to us with heavy rain and thick fog.

Towering above was massive vertical cliffs



Yes that is a bus that when off the road and remains a solemn reminder



The fog saw us down to first gear in places due to not being able to see more than a few meters in front of us, we nearly hit a cow and a (white) bus parked parked in the middle of the road....damn....kept on my toes.

No pics of the thick fog and rain, if you want the real deal jump in the shower and turn the cold water on, place a tuperware container over your face but allow cold water to hit and trickle down your face, add appropriate engine noise ... done!!

Ominous cloud met us at the top



Cresting the top of the valley the fog cleared as we “out elevated” it leaving us with just heavy rain so things were on the improve, getting to Cataz we had made good time despite the pea soup slowing us down, with Chavin in our sights we decided to get there as it was only 2.30 pm and an hour and a half to get there.

Yeah ....




So ......the weather, getting a good way up the valley the rain stopped which was great .... but it started snowing and the temperature dropped quicker than a led ballon.

Snow ...cold





The last 5km to the tunnel saw snow settling on Maya and us, heated grips on full felt useless!!!

Luckily we had prepped earlier with our full wet gear on which was a great move but the chill still let us know with authority .... bearing in mind an hour and a half prior we were at 35 degrees and wet from the inside out.

The tunnel was a short reprieve as we dived off down the valley with freezing winds tossing snow in all directions which made for hard riding, my visor was fogging on the inside and the snow packing on the outside.

As we descended down it slowly turned to rain again .... cool ..... at least warmer.

The road at this point is a combo of potholes, dirt and destroyed tar and the mix of lime and clay making a concrete like mix that is very abrasive ... as we found out getting only 1600 km our of the rear disc pads.

Something was going wrong with our rear brake and on exiting the tunnel we had nothing with the pedal going straight to the bottom with no effect ..... think we need to bleed it, again this just added to the riding level of attention using engine braking and front brake only on the greasy surface ... interesting.

Arriving in Chavin in one piece we had intentions of staying two nights but only two of the 10 - 12 hostels/hotels were open and were blindly ripping it.

We ended up paying 50% more for pretty scrubby accom THEN no toilet paper, no soap and one towel between two people saying because of the rain there were no more towels.

At that point we were in and only discovered this miserable anomaly when we went to have a shower, be fair to say I lost my cool, it was the one towel between two people which was an insult and I let them know, they then offered a tea towel .... NUP, full size or a fight. , they opened the door to a room which had towels on the shelves and lots of them .... wankers.

My hard line came about when more people turned up and they gave them towels(s) so they lied through their teeth to us

So with her miserable stupidity we decided to leave the next morning instead of staying the next night with food etc, great business tactics guys, the place is called Hostel Las Casana, DON’T bother going there as she will stick it to you after you get in the door, not impressed with them at all, this would have to be the worst that someone has stuck it too us in a “professional way‘ and is nothing short of an insult.

On a better note the ruins provided some entertainment as did the tea boxes or at least some photos.

Read the labels with your twisted mind



We also discovered the perfect RTW cookset for travellers, eco sized



The ruins



The ruins at dusk



Lastly, our video of the day

Snow In Huascaran National Park, Peru - YouTube

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

G'day Andi and Ellen ,renting is not an option as i have an Acre and a management nightmare,and there are now about 300 houses for rent in town.no i will have to find a buyer.great lot of photo's ,i appreciate the effort you guy's go to as i can see it's miserable in places still you take the time to capture the shots.I had a similar problem with my rear brake ,think the fluid was too old and it ate the bucketts in the slave cylinder ,as its a combined brake system so gave it to the local honda dealer ,flushed the system new kits in the front and rear slave cylinders $975 latter ,they will NEVER get business from me EVER again.Done nearly 600 km the last two weekends ,trying to scratch the itch.Until next time take care,Noel

Well bum that is not good, was just a thought.

Is OZ going through harder times now after reasonably well weathering the main storm?

Good shit getting out on the bike, always clears the head and allows for some thinking time, your stealership needs their nuts kicked for $975 that is robbery!!

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

This was an easy day, only 70 km to do however mum nature had been crying all night and rivers were swollen and muddy, given our trip was mostly gravel roads we decided to hit the main drag being an easier option as there were a number of slips down.

We ended up heading to San Marcos up and over, turns out mum natures tears had just as much input this way and we had just doubled our mileage to “make it easier” whose dumb idea was that.

Regretting my decision to take this way we were committed so we slowly climbed up the greasy mucky hills laded with ruts and rocks.

This soon cleared out after about 25 km to a better gravel road, the clouds started dispersing and the temperature climbing despite us climbing in elevation.



For a few brief moments the sun even made an appearance before hiding back behind the fluffy sheets but this was enough to liven our inspiration and dry the road out to no mud ...and no dust .... WOH HOH.



More cool glacial cuts



With the tables turning in our favour thing were looks up, and up .... and up which took us to the beginning of the mining scheme 4000 meters above normality, I will add at this point all regrets were long gone and safely thrown out as we would not need them again.



Taking a few wrong turns through the myriad of roading a mining grader driver flags us down and says.....no pase (no way through) and kindly directed us to a road on the opposite side of the valley ...... oooops, but the road in the distance was way better than the one we were on so that was cool.





Getting to the summit at 4600 meters the whole place opened up and there is a monster mine sitting there at 4500 meters, there were massive trucks, D9 hitrack bulldozers and massive excavators shifting Peru from side of the valley to the other.





Look in the picture you will see the small trucks





These are the beasties



Each load from the dump trucks would be a house lot by volume sending rocks 1 meter in diameter racing down the slops ... just incredible to watch.

Our road continued right through the mining area, we had to stop twice at the cross roads which were wide enough to land a 747 on, given the size of the vehicle here we gave them right of way.





Finishing our impromptu and unexpected mine tour we finally hit the super highway, a well maintained tarseal road leading to the mine wide enough for the big machinery to pass no problem .... what a treat.



The rain had set in again big time so was a timely wash for Maya who was doing her dirty girl appearance ... well sortof.

Just a little further down the road the rain momentarily stopped so we stopped beside a lake which took away and gave back in the one place.

Breath taking scenery and a snack stop .... what a location, we were joined by some mining guys in a 4x4 water tanker, their interest in Maya and our travels sparking a great conversation.

New Zealand ..... no one would know the difference in this pic.



How cool is this!!!





See the cool wave effect on the rock



After filling our minds with scenic overload and our faces with food we hit the road again as the rain crept back in, intermission was over ... back to the movie at hand ... riding to La Union.

Reaching nearer the base of the valley we spotted a small waterfall so we detoured and had a nosy.



Beautiful wee valley



Finally making it into La Union almost dry we settled in for the day.

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