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

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