Next, to Banos.

First crash of the trip.

Raining. Came up to these diagonal railroad tracks, didn't realize they had deep wheel-catching trenches until it was too late. Slowed down and tried to go sideways over but didn't take enough of an angle and the front wheel caught the trench. I was only going 5mph, so no damage to us or the bike. Just a few frustrating minutes of trying to clear the flooded carbs. Lucky it was very minor.

Stopped in a Salcedo, where every single shop advertised this special fruit ice-cream. Apparently it's famous all over the world

Probably the best icecream ever. Cream flavor on the right, avacado flavor on the right.

We got to Banos, but kept going to find an appropriate camp spot. Right before the first tunnel after Banos we saw a little place where I could ride the bike up into the reeds. Beyond that, there was a short hill where the tent could be hidden. This looked good:


View of the waterfalls going down the canyon.


Stealth camping at it's finest.


The bike was hidden slightly further up the hill.


Definitely the most beautiful camping spot of the trip thus far. We spent two nights here while we explored Banos.

Paid $1pp to take a hike down to "Pilion Del Diablo", a waterfall.
From a distance:

40 minutes later:

You could crawl up a little path to go behind the waterfall. Rain gear came in handy here.



Beautiful place.


Then we went to this bridge:

Climbed up on this platform:

And did this:

It's called "swing jumpin". Sort of like bungee jumping, but the line isn't elastic. You run out, jump headfirst and when you hit the end of the line you go into a big pendelum.


I planned to take a video of Michelle doing it, but 2 seconds into the footage the camera said "memory full", and I didn't have enough time to erase anything before she jumped. What a shame!

Here she is setting up:


Banos is famous for it's Melcocha, a sugar-cane based candy made by hanging the mix from a doorframe and beating it. It´s all over Banos.




These meals-in-a-bag are common in Ecuador. Normally corn, topped with meat and salad. Quite tasty.


Still have yet to try the Ecuadorian delicacy: Guinea pig


Banos Cathedral at night.


Thermal waters. Super crowded every day.


The last day in Banos we rode up to the top of the volcano road to get pictures of the active Volcano and the town. This is what we got:

Damn clouds! The road itself was interesting enough.

On the way down we took our second tumble of the trip. Going down a rocky hill the front wheel became destabalized from the large rocks in the road. Lost control and had a low-speed tip over. No damage to ourselves or the bike, just a sore knee the rest of the day. Ecuador is just bad luck. Did 9 countries with no spills and now two in 200 miles!

Our next destination was Guayaquil, the second biggest city of Ecuador. Ecuador is a gorgeous country.


The first part of the day was clear, but after 2pm the clouds and the drizzle came in. We were riding through the clouds for hours. Visibility was only 10 meters, and the road was very wet. Not having a front fender, I had dirty water shooting up into my face constantly. Visor up or down, I couldn't see anything. This, plus numerous Ecuadorian dogs running into the road and tight twisty turns was just too much for me. We turned into a little town and asked for a hotel.



We had no idea where we were at this point. We had started the day following the signs to Guayaquil, but once we hit the clouds even if there had been signs we probably wouldn't have seen them. According to the spot tracker message we were in "Suscal", some secondary route.

The only hotel in town was a strange one. 4 stories high, but completely empty. Eventually a little boy came by, and said the room was $7. We went floor to floor looking at all the rooms that were unlocked. We chose one. A few minutes later a woman approached me on the street asking what I wanted to eat. $2 a plate. Where? She would bring it up to our hotel room. Some little girls walked in an hour later asking why we were in this room. Apparently they lived on that floor and used that bathroom. Strange circumstances, but the people were friendly and we were happy to be warm and dry again.

We ended up paying $10 for the room when we finally found the owner the next day. In the morning we bundled up and hit the road. 2 hours later we at sea level. Probably 50 degree difference. We were dying with all our layers on. Not so bad when we were moving (roads were flat and straight, back to 80mph!) Walking around from hotel to hotel in Guayaquil was a very sweaty enterprise. Guayquil is where we are now, doing laundry, uploading pictures, and all the fun stuff we've been putting off.

I am a huge fan of trip threads with lots of photos! Thank you for letting us live vicariously through them.

enjoying every episode - keep them coming! great pics too.
in a world where "adventure" is a big Beemer, metal panniers and sat nav, you guys rock!
I envy you and your adventurous spirits - keep safe.

__________________
I am a traveller, not a tourist.

Fantastic trip report, you guys are real troopers.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

In Guayaquil we tried the "pinol" grain, on which the delicious icecream of Salcedo is based. Just powder in a bag. Apparently they eat it with milk or dry, and we were told was the "healthiest thing you can eat". Personally, I thought it was way, way to sweet. Michelle liked it. In any case, 1lb gave us breakfast for two days.


While we were in Cali, Colombia, Alberto the baker had given us the number of a friend of his who owns a bakery in Guayaquil. We gave him a call and were treated to even more delicious pastry on the bosses tab. Really friendly fellow, really great bread, just like Alberto. He and Alberto are both from the same little pueblo outside of Medellin. Apparently a ton of people from that pueblo (name forgotten) leave to own bakeries all over Colombia and Ecuador. Awesome.

In addition to the empanadas, he took us around the city and showed us the sites. He was riding his little 100cc 2 stroke. Sweet bike.


Juanito:


Every day in Guayaquil we ate at this restaraunt next door. It's awesome. Big drink, big soup and big plate of food for $1.30usd. Hard to finish. It was incredibly packed from 11am to 3pm all day. They will only serve one or two things all day. You don't really order, you just choose an open chair and before your butt is on the seat there's a plate of soup in front of you.


The guard who watched the bike all day.


After a few days in Guayaquil it was time to keep moving. We got a late start, so we didn't make it all the way to Peruvian border. Camping in the jungle! Really, really hot and humid.


Making the first of many campfires with the cheapo cookware we bought in Colombia. "Avena" means oatmeal, and it's a staple of our camping diet down here.


Had to do some gnarly jungle riding to get to the camping clearing.


Now for Peru...

We reached the Peruvian border in no time. Unfortunately it took several hours to actually get through correctly. We stayed on the Panamerican until we hit the Peruvian border checkin. "Where is the Ecuador checkout?" "Oh, a couple miles back. Take the left at the first town". So we head back and in a few minutes we find where to get our Ecuadorian passports checked out. Then we start searching for the customs office to turn in the bike permit. Everyone is telling us somewhere different and we spend a few hours riding around till we finally find it a few more miles up the road.

We passed this sign several times before we actually were ready to sign into Peru. Peru was free to enter, just like Colombia and Ecuador. Gotta love South America.


We stop in Tumbes to pull out the Peruvian currency, the nuevo soles (2.8soles = $1usd). We eat a mediocre lunch at an overpriced restaraunt. 7 soles per person! You must be joking! It's funny how our standards have changed over the course of the trip. Back in Mexico a meal for $2.50 was a bargain. Now it's extortion.

The Panamerican highway in this area is great. It runs between the desert and the sea. Hot, flat and fast. Nice change.


A few hours down the road we pulled off so I could put earplugs in and Michelle could put her ipod on. There we met Antonio aka El Patagonio aka El Chamaco. He was an older Mexican man riding a little honda 125cc scooter. He was just seeing if we needed any help. Then he told us his story. He had quit his job as an architect in Guadalajara and decided to travel the world. Sold everything and began his trip. He went from Mexico to Alaska, then to Tierra Del Fuego and back up to Brazil. 80,000kms on the little scooter he was riding right now. He had traveled for three years, and now he was in Peru doing some contracting jobs to save up for his next adventure (Asia).

Here's his website: INICIO - Mexicano viajando desde Alaska hasta la Patagonia en motocicleta scooter

Here is a terrible pictures of us three and the two bikes.


He said we should go stop at "Waltako", one of a thousand little cabanas on the side of the road on the beach (the north coast of Peru is apparently a big vacation spot for Peruvians). He had helped build these cabanas and he was staying there. He assured us that if we told Rodrigo the owner that we were friends of Antonio we would be well taken care of.

He wasn't lying. We spent the next four days staying for free in a beautiful cabana on the beach. Empty beach, beautiful ocean, hammocks, cable, wifi. Really peaceful place. Not much to do, just lounge around, head to the little town up the street and go to the one little store in town to buy food. Perfect.

The Cabana we stayed in:


The most delicious mangos in the world, in season. These were about 17 cents per piece at the store, which is dirt cheap compared to the US. Venessa said she had bought 45 mangos for 3 soles a few weeks before.


Lots of chess in the shade


Ahhhhh... yes.


That's not to say it was all relaxation. Rodrigo and Venessa (his girlfriend) are working on some trails, campsites and future cabanas out in the desert. Lots of work, and every morning they hike into the desert behind the cabanas to clear brush and build trails. Of course we offered to help, and we spent many hours helping them with the project.

The hike:


(Rodrigo in yellow)

Waltako trees, from which the Cabanas get their name. When we started this whole area was filled with dead brush.


Hard work, blistered hands, but very fulfilling. The daily routine was to work for 4 hours in the morning, come home, immediately change into a bathing suit and jump into the cool ocean for a minute to get the dust off, rinse off, then enjoy lunch with Rodrigo and Venessa on the porch or head a few minutes into town to have some fish in the pueblo. Then we'd buy mangos and spend the rest of the day laying in the hammocks, playing chess on the porch or watching poorly dubbed movies on TV. Man, what a life.

We were very sad to go, but Antonio had hooked us up with some motorcycle clubs along our paths, and one was waiting for our arrival in Lima on Saturday.

Venessa and Jade (her daughter):

Venessa was born in Brazil, but she moved to the US for a few years. She was a successful designer working for "hush puppies" (shoes I think), but she decided that the pace of life in the US was too stressful for her, and she didn't get to spend enough time with her daughter, so she moved to Peru and is now happy. She speaks perfect, fluent english.

If you are coming down the Panamerican through Tumbes, I highly recommend stopping at Waltako. Bienvenidos a Waltako Beach Town.......
Say you're friends of Jordan and Michelle, and you'd be happy to volunteer, and you will be taken care of. You might even meet up with El Patagonio, and you should definitely have a chat with him.

One last shot of the two motorcycles far from home:

By the time we had finished packing up and saying goodbye to everyone it was already 4pm, so we didn't make it far. We camped outside of Mancora, in the desert. The great thing about Peru, whether in the mountains or in the desert, is that there always seems to be tons of stealth camping to be found.

My first time riding in deep sand. Challenging, to say the least.


Riding through the desert was way cool. We had changed scenery from the lush green mountains of Ecuador to the sand dunes and seas of the Peruvian west.


Michelle had a friend who was working for the Peace Corps in a town outside of Piura, the next big city. He had a meeting in Lima, and was going to be in Piura that day, so we headed in and waited in the plaza for him. Enjoyed a peruvian "ceviche". Different than other ceviches, Peruvian ceviche is raw fish heavily marinated in lime and served with a small assortment of salad and toasted corn.


Omar has been working in Peru for over a year now. I am seriously considering peace corps, and it was definitely enlightening to talk with him about his experience here. One problem though, he said the peace corps forbids it's workers from riding motorcycles while in the service. Uh oh, potential deal breaker there.

Great time talking with Omar.

We didn't see any need to pay for a hotel when there was so much open desert, so once Omar left on his train we headed out of town and got ourselves some more stealth camping.


Political rally while going through Chiclayo. Apparently it's presidential election time, and every flat surface seems to be covered with campaign ads. There are 13 candidates, and apparently they're all about equal in popularity. Very much unlike the US's 2 party system. Voting is also mandatory here, if you don't vote you get fined.


Bad shot of some moto taxis. One thing of note in Peru, especially the coast, is there is a TON OF MOTOTAXIS. These little chinese 3 wheeled, chain driven, 1wd motorcycles are everywhere on the coast. You can easily see how the factory just takes 1 front end and two back ends to make these little things. In the mountains they use more specialized 2wd mototaxis. No matter where you are, Peru is moving around almost exclusively on 3 wheels.


Man, I just love the desolation out here.

Village of sand:


The views:


4/7/11 Trujillo
We stop three days in Trujillo. It's actually surprisingly chilly at this point. Too bad our budget doesn't allow for hot-shower hotels. Trujillo is a cool city. It's got a lot of history and cool colonial architecture.

More political rallies:


Downtown:


There are two main ruins near Trujillo. One is Huaca Del Sol y Luna. Built by the Moche, a costal tribe that predated the incas. The site is two pyramids, with what was once a city seperating the two.

Huaca Del Sol is a very well preserved pyramid. Apparently every 100 years they would build a new pyramid on top of the old one, and they did this 5 years before their civilization came to an end in that area. The result is that the outer layer was erroded by time, but archeologists can easily dig into the 4th and 3rd layers to discover almost perfectly intact frescas and architecture. The paint on the walls is still in great shape and is completely unrestored. Most of it is now covered by huge awnings to protect it from rain and wind.




And very close here is Huaca del Luna. As yet completely unrestored. You can actually climb up this one.


The other ruin is Chan Chan, a huge adobe city on the outskirts of town. It was a city built by the Chimu people, another costal tribe that is thought to have evolved out of the Moche.

Chan Chan has several huge palaces still standing, and the whole area of the city is 28 square kilometers.




Like I said, massive palaces in various states of restoration. Not nearly as well preserved as Huaca Del Sol y Luna, but much much bigger.

The best part of Chan Chan is that it's essentially the remains of an ancient adobe city, and although it is now a protected archeological zone there is no gates or anything to keep you from riding in. The locals still use the area for argriculture in some places (utilizing the ancient sink holes that the Chimu culture used to get water from the ground), so there are plenty of little roads and trails going all around.

We spent a good amount of time riding around some incredibly fun trails before it got dark. It blew my mind. Riding a motorcycle around the ruins of an ancient city. Wow. This trip just keeps getting better.




We got lost eventually (the Chimu civilization didn't leave street signs) and followed a friendly local on a bicycle out.

I liked huaca Del Sol y Luna more from an archeological perspective. So well preserved, but Chan Chan is definitely a must if you're on a motorcycle and in that area. It's epic.

5/3/11 Ayamara, Peru


It was pretty darn cold, inclement weather was approaching rapidly, I was exhausted from my hike and we were both feeling a bit under the weather, so we decided to grab a hotel room for the night. Soon we ran across the little town of Ayavari, so we turned in. We only had 1 criteria... a hot shower. Normally we wouldn't care but today it just felt like a hot shower day so the quest was on. This apparently would be difficult to achieve. Ayavari was a little town, but it boasted 9 hotels in total. Michelle and I checked each and every one. Michelle was not a huge fan of Ayavari, most of the hotel owners she talked to were rude to her. Out of all 9 of the hotels, only 1 hotel had hot showers... and it was $30usd. That is an insane amount for Peru, that's a luxury hotel, so unfortunately we would not be having a hot shower. But wait, a policeman said they rented hot showers at the market a few blocks away! Perfect, so we'll get a cheap room and then maybe find a hot shower.

So we went back to the only friendly hotel we had checked, and got a room. Then began one of the strangest conversations I've heard. This a brief paraphrase, but the actual conversation went on for a full 5 minutes (in Spanish obviously).

The whole thing is gone over once again, and it finally ends with:
He used the exact same words Michelle had used. His spanish was excellent and fluent.

This was just one example of communication problems we had in Peru.

Several times Michelle would walk into a hotel and ask the clerk "Do you have any rooms available?" and they would respond with "What?". Michelle would rephrase the questions several different ways and then finally the clerk would say "Oh! Yea, we have rooms" using the exact same words. What else would a traveller walking into a hotel be looking for?

Later I asked: "Can you drink the water here?" and get the answer "Oh, you're ready for breakfast?".

Another occasion I asked: "Do you have coffee with milk?" "What?" "Coffee with milk" "What?" "Do you have coffee?" "Yes." "Do you have coffee with milk?" "Yes. 2.50 soles."

Michelle walked into a pharmacy and says: "My stomach hurts and I have nausea, do you have anything for that?" and got the response: "That doesn't make any sense. You're contradicting yourself."

Though it seems that everyone knows Spanish perfectly there were still many odd miscommunications. We would use only the most basic of words, words that were on the menu or on the sign outside. Many areas are still heavily indigenous and have their own language, but the locals speak spanish to one another and nothing is printed or advertised in the native tongue. I'm still confused as to what causes that unique problem. Maybe a subtle dialect thing?

Anyway, long story short we never did get a hot shower in Ayavari. We made due with the frigid mountain water that drizzled out of the nozzle in the wall. We appreciated the 4 blankets that were piled onto the bed, even if the mattress was about a foot too short for me!

Next day we got a bit of a local specialty. This delicious BBQ goat (or was it lamb?)


And we took off for the short ride to Puno!

Got a cheap hotel room. 20 soles, about $7usd. Now we have had many cheaper rooms over the course of the trip, but this one stood out as an awesome value. Private bathroom, hot water and a working TV with cable! And I could park the bike in the lobby! I would love to recommend this delightfully cheap establishment to all my fellow travelers, but damn if I've completely forgotten the name. It was a "hostal" with an Asian sounding name on the left of a dead end street in Puno. Happy hunting!

Lake Titicaca is what we were here for for. Apparently it's the highest navigable body of water in the world at 12,500 feet, and the largest lake in South America. The people here are not Quechua, they are mostly Ayamara. Different language.

Lake Titicaca was very pretty. We didn't take any boat tours out to the islands but they are supposed to be pretty interesting. Islands way out in the the lake (several hours to reach by boat), each with a couple hundred families. Each has their own unique culture. Pretty much no electricity or machinery of any kind. Up until the 70s when the islands were discovered by tourists, the islands pretty much lived the same way they had for thousands of years.


The harbor for Puno. Notice the boat sunk into the water. There were actually a bunch of sunken boats scattered around. A little creepy.

That night there was a huge market in the center of town. Wandered up and down for hours. Found a couple of these awesome little shops.

Pretty much they sold forged diplomas and certifications and they would put your name on them. If I had a spare sole I would have definitely got myself a Peruvian PhD.

Next day we left for Tacna, the Peruvian city on the Chilean border. Beautiful, stark landscape up there at 13,000 feet.



A little too stark... After a few hours I became seriously concerned about our fuel reserves. We had passed only a couple of tiny settlements after leaving Puno. As we hit reserve I was desperate for any sign of civilization. After another 10 miles... a miracle! A town! But as we rode through my heart sank. It was only a handful of little shacks, no gas station. Exiting town we saw a sign for the next town... over 100km. No way we were making it that far. I pulled over and decided it would be better to seek out gasoline from the villagers than to figure it out 40 miles from anywhere. As luck would have it the first person we accosted was of the entrepreneurial sort. He led us to his shack and sold us some gasoline out of a tank. Measured out with a milk jug and poured into the bike with a funnel. A few kids played soccer in the dirt streets around us as we chatted with the gasoline vendor. Problem solved! We hit the road.

Now the next problem was lodging. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but it's INCREDIBLY COLD at 13,000 feet. Even worse if you're riding on a motorcycle. We were decked out with multiple layers, scarves, balaclavas, it just didn't do much good. I felt guilty pining for a warm bed after two days of hotels in a row, but the cold felt downright unbearable. We pulled over and had a team meeting. It was getting dark, but we were only a few hours away from Moquegua, the next big town which was about 8,000 feet lower. The decision was made to carry on until we found a hospitable climate or Moquegua, whichever came first.

Llama herds!


The sun soon set and the temperature began to drop even further. I gave it a good fight, but a few minutes later, teeth chattering, I pulled over and told Michelle we wouldn't be making it any further. Luckily camping is incredibly easy to do in the tundra. Thousands of square miles of open space, and stealth isn't really required since there is nobody out there to hide from. We go a few hundred feet off the road and set up camp by the light of the ninja's headlamp.

The night is cold and restless. The freezing ground really makes me wish I had decided to bring a sleeping mat of my own. Michelle's cheapo 3/4" foam pad really does wonders. We empty all the clothes we weren't wearing into the floor of the tent and hunker down like gerbils.

As soon as it's light outside I hop out of the tent, anxious to get moving. Thick frost covers everything.

Guess we won't be riding anywhere till the sun hits...

(That reads "woo peru". My actual handwriting is just as bad)

In another hour we're packed up and ready to go. Frost is still everywhere, so I take a rag and give the bike a good wipe-down. Unfortunately it takes a little bit longer for the ninja to decide she's ready to go. I cranked and cranked and she sputtered to life a little bit but overall even with full choke she wasn't happy. It was at this time I realized the petcock was leaking fuel. Not too much, but enough give the engine a light coating of gasoline while idling. No biggy! I was concerned, but suspected that it had been going on for quite some time and realized there was nothing to be done about it until we reach a real town.

And as with every starting problem I've ever had with the little ninja, she forgets about it in half an hour and fires right up. We begin the blast down to Tacna!
On the way we stumble onto mars. Vegetation and signs of life stop completely. The landscape is completely bare of even a shrub.

Still cold though.


A video! Great to watch if you like the sound of wind on a crappy camera microphone!


As we descended further the shrubbery began to appear, but it was still an incredibly craggy, dry landscape we travelled through.

(Get used to this color. As it turns out, we were about to enter the top of the Atacama desert, according to national geographic the driest desert in the world.)

Ate lunch in Moquegua. Surprised to find how much more expensive food was in the lowlands of Peru. In the mountains we would routinely eat dinner for $1usd each. Here is was incredibly expensive, close to $2usd per person! Outrageous!

Within a few hours we were in Tacna.


We were excited to get into Chile, but we had a few things to take care of. My first order of business was to attend to the petcock. I took off the tank off and diagnosed a bad petcock diaphragm. Damn vacuum operated petcocks! No such things as "Kawasaki" here in Peru, but our hotel was right next to a little Suzuki shop. We walked the tank over and had the mechanic see if he had anything that could fix it. He ended up fashioning a new backing from a piece of metal and created a new gasket to replace the diaphragm.


I was pretty impressed by the ingenuity. Unfortunately the gasket did not hold, and the petcock was leaking fuel as badly as ever within a few dozen miles. Oh well, just precious money wasted. We spent two nights in Tacna. Like all border towns there was nothing much to see in Tacna, but like all border towns it was an efficient and inexpensive to get miscellaneous things done.

It was also around this time that we finalized our departure plans. Heartbreaking as it was, our small amount of money was slowly running out. When we had arrived in Panama a few months earlier we had a decision to make. Do the responsible thing and turn around, or go for broke and see as much as we could in South America. We knew when we got on the boat to South America that there would be no return trip, the money and the time would not be there for another return crossing. It was a tough choice, missing out on an entire continent and all the adventures it held, or committing to returning broke, bikeless and jobless.

Since I've been posting from South America it's clear what choice we made, but the more we looked into it the harder it seemed to leave the bike behind. According to everything and everybody we talked to it seemed virtually impossible to sell the bike in most South American countries, especially the Chile and Argentina where we were heading. Luckily, we had been in contact with a sympathetic buyer who could get around the… paperwork issues…. regarding the sale of motorcycle. He was trustworthy and waiting in Lima for our return. In the meantime we had been scouring flights back the USA. Flights were steep but many many hours of searching finally yielded an affordable flight. Since we were virtually broke by this point we borrowed some money and purchased the flights online. We had three weeks left, a few hundred dollars, and a frantic desire to see everything we could in our little time remaining.

We packed our things and made the short 15 mile ride to Chile!

I couldn't believe it. It had been over a month in Peru, the longest we had spent in any country thus far. Now onto Chile, the longest country!