From Quito to Lima
 

Hi,
I'll be heading south from Quito towards Lima this Monday (14-Dec), making extra day stops at most cities to visit. Probably be in Lima by X-mas?. I will then continue south to Bolivia, Chile, Arg....

Any riders on the same road?

Just ahead of you. I dropped down through Banos, then followed new roadway to Limon, then single lane dirt and gravel up through nice jungle into Cuenca. Nice way to do it, though of course it took longer than I expected. Peru border was effortless, but the head and crosswinds plus dust in the desert was unexpected, so be prepared. Leave 2 hours after the border to get to the first substantial town, too: i arrived well after dark.

Should be a New Yorker on a Buell with a Frenchman on a GS somewhere near you by now. They´re headed north, but don´t sound eager to actually arrive in the states anytime soon. Say hello for me.

Mark

(from some dusty little town in Peru, headed for Huarez)

In Banos, Headed to TDF
 

I´m in Banos now and will be heading from here toward Ushuahia. I´ll probably stop in Cuenca, but otherwise have no need to stop much as I´ve seen most of western South America previously.

I´m certainly amenable to travel and seeing places that others haven´t seen, but would like to get to TDF by New Years, or fairly shortly thereafter.

Sounds like a sweet route Mark. Kinda tempted but I got another few days delay here in Quito with the paperwork and registration of the bike (6 days on-going, an that's with help of local friends!). Maybe Wednesday I'll be done and start heading south.

I'll be doing some visiting, probably 1 day on the road, 1 day visit? all depends. Thanks for the tips guys, keep it coming. You can also e-mail me directly at: samizmc@yahoo.com

Ride up
Sami

Hi

I moved from Quito today and am in Riobamba tonight Sunday, and riding to Ceunca tomorrow then south into Peru.

Motoman, I also would like to get to TDF by new years, but I also want to do Machu Pichu and the road of death in Bolivia, have you done these yet?

Cheers
TS

Heading South
 

Sounds like we´re on similar paths. Yes, I´ve done both Cuzco and Bolivia, as I lived in Bolivia and did most of western SA. I was planning on just going straight South through Peru and Chile as I really like southern Chile.

On the other hand, I haven´t yet seen Iguaçu Falls between Paraguay and Brasil. That´s probably not very realistic, just like your itinerary is quite ambitious as the Cuzco valley has much to see and Bolivia will take more than a day. Let me highly recommend three things:
1. When you go the Macchu Pichu, try to stay overnight so that you can be in the ruins before and after the train full of tourists overuns the place.
2. Go to Ollantaytambo on your way to or from Macchu Pichu as the massive stone work is impressive.
3. Go to Pisac market in the Cuzco valley. The stone work above the town is the tightest I´ve seen after going to many ruins. If possible, try to go during their market day.

I would consider returning to Cuzco, and going through Bolivia again, if I could do the falls in Paraguay, but it would be somewhat ambitious, to say the least, to do this in less than 17 days. I´m willing to give it a go, and being a little later to Ushuaia wouldn´t be the end of the world.

On a related note, you probably already know that the 2010 Dakar Rally will be from 1-17 January in Argentina and Chile. It might be fun to see a part of the race or ... alternatively, to avoid the traffic of the race.

motomon

Gps
 

Mark and all,

How did you find out about the way from Baños to Cuenca? It sounds very interesting, especially since I´m on a dual sport, and if the single track isn´t too difficult. Did you (or anyone else) find a source for Garmin GPS maps? I have neither these nor a good map of South America. I tried to find at least a map in Quito and Baños, but no joy.

Hi Motoman

Thnaks for the tips. I am about to head to Cuenco, power issues here at Riobamba delayed my day and I had to find an alternate internet source.

If you are interested I have the World MapV4, the base map that is all that is available for down here. I also have a paper map that covers the whole of the South, I got that from the AAA in San Diego.

If you are going to be in Cuenca this eveing, maybe we can meet for a beer?

Cheers
TS

Looks like you are a litttle ahead of me. I will leave here today or tomorrow. Yes, I would very much like the V4. I am not sure which version I have as I switched to a different computer and didn't load Garmin because I don't have the disks.

Maybe we can have that beer in Lima, if I catch up to you there.

Chris


quote=TravellingStrom;267860]Hi Motoman
If you are interested I have the World MapV4, the base map that is all that is available for down here. I also have a paper map that covers the whole of the South, I got that from the AAA in San Diego.
Cheers

TS[/quote]

Most of the mileage is on obvious roads that appear on any map. As far as Limon, the road is freshly paved, therefore a total delight on any machine. After Limon there's about three hours of single lane dirt and gravel, but it's not difficult at all, at least in the absence of hard rains. This road showed on only one of my three bad maps. Head out of Limon asking directions towards Cuenca, and at the only possible place to go wrong (about 20 minutes), take the right fork past a little police guardhouse and gasolinera. That might be your last chance to confirm that you're on the right road. Beautiful country until the town before Cuenca, where it becomes humdrum again. Even in the lowlands, you're still at an altitude of 600 meters and above, so it gets rather warm but not blindingly hot.

I don't use a GPS. Mostly I rely on two of my ten sentences of spoken Spanish: "Por aqui se va a Cuenca?" You could explore endlessly down that way with a dual sport. Enjoy!

Mark

Hi Motoman, OK, maybe somewhere further down south, I am now in Mancora after entering Peru this afternoon.

I am making a beeline for Lima and Machu Pichu, I have found once again it is fun to be riding rather than the other fun I have when not riding :)


If you want dirt, head from Cuenca to Loja, I can tell you for a fact there is an unexpected 100km of it :)

Cheers
TS

Loja- Macara
 

Hey
Dunno what sort of bike your on but the road from Loja to Macara is pretty cool - good tarmac, hairpin bends, mountain scenery + border crossing at Macara is easiest in S.A

Hi, I actually designed a Garmin route that went that way, but for some (stupid?) reason followed the road signs to Huaquilla, which took me on the dirt crap road, sounds like I had a different type of fun, the scenery was good, when I got a chance to look at it though :)

I hope you write up the border crossing for other people, because there is nothing but the crap one I went through, but I am using Wiki
Cheers
TS

Anyone near Lima?
 

Hi If anyone is passing by or staying in Lima and want to get out a have a beer, send me a message giacomoolcese@yahoo.com

Ride safe,

Giacomo n' Pat

:scooter:

Beer in Lima
 

Love to have that beer with you Giacomo, or anyone else if you are around Lima for Xmas, especially if it is Cusqueña Red Lager.

Chris, motomon at pobox dot com

Motomon and travellingstrom
 

Motomon, you say you lived of live in Bolivia?? I thought I knew most bikers in Bolivia, especially if they're foreign, but then the country's big and I don't like la Paz. Where were you living then?
I used to live in Sucre with lots of biker friends in Santa Cruz also. I'll try to find out your real name then....
And travellingstrom is that you R.?? I'll look it up now. What has become of you? I recon you should be back home working by now right? Let me know what's up.

Gert, the dutchman

PS. by now I have all of south america complete except for the Guyanas (but no one goes there except for me I think). All for Garmin and all routable. send me a mail at gertmans at yahoo dot com and I'll send them to you. All thanks to Graham, you remember him travellingstrom?

Gert,

It was many years ago, but we lived in the Calacoto suburb of La Paz, where I taught maths and science at the International School. I didn´t like La Paz either and only stayed one year. I went from there to Costa Rica where I was the director in a bi-lingual, multicultural school.

My "real" name is Chris Brown.

Gert, maybe you can help me. I met a dutchman briefly some months ago in Quito, Ecuador. I don´t remember his name, but he had shipped his bike from the Netherlands to Surinam. The cost was less than I paid to ship my bike from Panama to Colombia. I would love to know the company, or some way of finding out who they are. Do you have any ideas as to how I can find out who they might be?

I´m currently in Rio Gallegos, Argentina, where I´ve been stuck with a blown engine in my Suzuki DR650. I found it essentially impossible to get parts, so I used my airline points to fly to the US to get parts to rebuild my engine. It has cost me several weeks of time, but gave me time to see more of Argentina and Uruguay by bus (El Calafate, Rosario, Cataratas de Iguazu, Colonia, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, where I had a bag with all my clothes, etc. stolen).

I am now almost ready to leave, but don´t know exactly where I want to go. One option is to get to Surinam and ship me and the bike to the Netherlands, especially if it is as cheap as the other Dutchman paid. I think he said it cost $400. I had originally hoped to go back to Chile from Ushuaia and ship me and the bike to New Zealand, but the unplanned for costs of a new engine destroyed that dream.

If I don´t go to Surinam, then I was planning to go back up the west coast of Chile and Peru to Ecuador and Colombia. The two problems with that are that I hate to retrace travel that I have already done, and the recent earthquake in Copiapo may make travel through there somewhat difficult.

Chris, the "Pinche Gringo Loco" (sobre nombre given by friends in Mexico) or "Cabron" (another sobre nombre in Mexico given by a cop who misread my firma, which is C. P. Brown as C.A.Brown)http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ons/icon12.gif

Motoman, that's one of the more remarkable strings of bad luck I've heard about yet.

If you end up heading for Suriname, I'm leaving B.A. aimed in that general direction (the loop through the Guyanas) in a couple of days. Should spend the first week dodging Santa Semana, so won't really make much forward progress at first. Let me know if you want to try and join forces--Gert had some serious misfortune to report on his swing through that area, and it might be good to bring reinforcments along.

Mark

(markharf "at" yahoo "dot" com)