Thursday – Lima, Peru
I finally worked out the YouTube problems and can now upload movies again, if you want to see what riding the foggy twisties of Ecuador is like, click here
Well, another distance day planned and the goal was Lima. I had heard some good things about a certain hotel there in the old town with bike parking, so I decided I would go there. I was interested in getting some new tyres somehow and probably an oil change etc but I had not pre planned anything. For those without a GPS, the address for the Los Pinos is
I actually got away early, I thought there was breakfast served but I was mistaken, so I just packed and left. I knew I would hit traffic later on as Lima is the capitol of Peru and I wanted to be off the road by dark 🙂 The road out of town was easy to do, turn right out of the hotel and just follow that road around in a big circle until you get to the first roundabout, go around 270 degrees then ride straight through the 2nd roundabout, easy peasy but it still took some time due to traffic, about 30 minutes :), check out the following close up of my tracks, as usual, the road I took does not match the Garmin Database.
The road south started off by going through a lot of agriculture areas and a lot of manual labour was being used in the fields. But, that was only for a short while then I was amongst the desert again, a far cry from the mountains I was in a few days ago, this looked more like the badlands in the US, but not as sharp and pointy 🙂
I went through a tunnel and arrived in Chimbote, now this was a prick of a town, and it stunk, the directions stunk as well because the road was being worked on, a diversion sign was put in place, but after that nothing, nada, they expect you to know where the fuck to go, idiots!! So, I got lost amongst the damm back streets and everyone you ask tells you a different direction, idiots why don’t they just shut the fuck up if they have no idea!! Well, I eventually got out, on the right side of town and was thankfully back in the bloody desert where the people have brains 🙂
Sorry about the rant, but it pissed me off getting lost in a small town for no reason, but the scenery through this next section was worth the effort in the end 🙂
I was thinking of food and eventually stopped at a tiny little food stand and bought some bananas, I had forgotten breakfast and was famished 🙂
After this I felt better and riding amongst the desolate countryside and near the coast was great, despite the constant side wind and sand.
It was near lunch time and I had actually seen a road sign advising of 250km to go to Lima, so my time was good and after another hour of the desert I came amongst some irrigated areas and found a place to have a feed, the chica was fun and the third photo in this sequence is just for Albert from the Barking Spider, he told me everyone down here takes NoArse pills and end up with no arse, well, proven wrong my friend 🙂
And another BTW, look in the first photo in the above sequence, top of picture dead centre, another damm artefact in my brand new camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When will this end, I meed to contact someone about warranty again and I am not going back to Cali, Colombia!!! Well, I was just hoeing into some pork and rice and chips(I am nearly sick of chook) when another bike sees my bike parked and pulls up, this is Graham and Sue from the UK, travelling south like everyone else along this road at this time of year. I had actually seen some posts of theirs on the HUBB, so well met 🙂
They were planning on going through Lima by the day’s end, but after mentioning this particular hotel I had heard about they dialled it into their Garmin GPS( a Nuvo 550, I need one of them and would buy one but the amount of cameras I have bought lately has knocked my budget a bit ). SO we ended up riding south together after a leisurely lunch that dragged out for over an hour 🙂 By the way, this particular truck I have now passed 4 times, like the tortoise and the hare, he just plods along, I barrel along, stop for food, piss, photo whatever and he passes me, hopefully this is the last time 😉
When we get towards the coast the terrain rises a bit and the afternoon sea fog comes blowing up off the water and it gets a tad chilly up there, not high, only about 300m max, but the water must be cold still.
So, about 3.30pm we get to a toll booth just north of Lima, now, bikes are allowed past for free, but we were told we could not ride through the barriers where the rest of the vehicles go, we have to take this damm dirt goat track around the road works and end up on the paved road after 200m, weird I tell ya!
Now we get stuck in traffic as we enter Lima, but we had expected that, but it was crazy, it took us an hour to find the hotel even with the GPS mark and address and it was all zip, dart, zip, dart through holes in the traffic without getting hit or run over by the big things called buses and trucks, not my favourite time of the day and the only reason for being here was tyres and oil etc.
They had rooms and room for the bikes, in the lobby, it was a bit of a step up and down, but a small ramp helped things along nicely 🙂
I even found an extra stairway and found a roof top location to send a Spot message, bonus 🙂
The hotel is a weird place, funny rooms stuck everywhere, skulls in the front lobby, real ones too by the looks!
We arranged to go and have a beer but some other people staying there kept on asking questions and at least an hour of good beer time was wasted imho! I have no idea what this conversation was about, but Sue looked bored(like I was) and Graham was showing the nosy lady how to do a teapot impression maybe 😕
We eventually escaped and went as far as the cafe 5 doors down, they had beer and seafood 🙂 But, the traffic noise bouncing off the narrow sided street made it hard to talk, everyone used their horns to say hurry up, even though the lights were red, crazy people!
We left there as it was too noisy and went and found another weird place, all pokey rooms and steps and hideaway places, a bit like Bungalow 6 in Quito, it was quite quaint and they served big beers, a different type again and not bad 🙂
The food menu was a laugh, I ended up having Bisteck to the poor thing, which is a bad translation for cheap crap meat, more on that later 🙂 The word Papas means potatoes, but papas also mean Papa, or Pope or Dad, so beef steak with dads is beef steak with potatoes(not dads nads like I first thought), hours of fun 🙂
Well, we were starving and when my poor mans steak turned up, it sure was the worst cut on the planet and tough as old boots! In fact all three of us decided none of it was worth really eating, so I can only recommend this place for the beer and ambiance, not the food 🙂
Now, they had a couple of cats running around getting friendly and looking for a handout, well my meat was only fit for the cat so I took a movie of the tug o war 🙂
As you can see the little black cat ended up with most of the goodies 🙂 We did not stay much longer, but on the way back I stopped in at a bar just across the road for a few quiet beers as I could sleep in, while G&S were planning on a ride south to Nazca tomorrow. Now, I had really wanted to see the Nazca lines for years, but I had been told by at least 4 different people it is a waste of money. They say that the ride is a bumpy wild ride in a small plane with 6 people in and quite a few get crook and throw up, on top of that the lines are hard to see and covered in tyre tracks! Well, it did not seem like a good idea to me to spend $150 for that type of experience, so I had made the internal decision not to go there, instead I would head direct east to Cusco and Machu Pichu, so I may meet up with G&S again in a few days. 🙂 I had am early night, in bed before midnight, just 🙂
Day – 357 miles and 575 km
Trip – 46,304 miles and 74,519 km
Salud
TravellingStrom
WORLD 
TravellingStrom 