Peru.
I was easily able to get the 180 day stamp, just in case but a little detail I missed was that I was sitting opposite of the immigration officer with a fan blowing on my back. Few days and few rains and these shorts who seem to hold the worst of smells made sure that this was the speediest check in ever. Just as I left, women were setting up a volleyball net using the migration sign to hold the net up and across the street 3 storey billiard hostels.
It then just started drizzling so they all hid under the roof, me: I was excited to see where that road goes.
Yellow line and shoulder and speed limits? Definitely not ecuador where it feels like the speed limit is "go as fast as you can without dying"
One thing was for sure and that was that the bike shorts will need to go. While they are comfy for biking, if pushing the bike/walking they seem to rub on the upper parts of my legs making nasty scratches which is worse when wet. A dog walking down the highway stopped, sat down and watched me change.
Past the first town the typical Peruvian tri-motos are negociating road space with chickens.
It was getting late but with the refreshing rain I wanted to clear as much of the hill as I can as it may be baking hot tomorrow. The rain didnt seem to stop and it turned colder but just trowing a rain jacket on top did the trick.
It was no luck looking for an abandoned house like in Ecuador, there was absolutely nothing by the road. Eventually I settled for a cover for the bike and a relatively decent spot to camp. With the rei tent there was ample space to cook and I had one last trick up my sleeve, a 20 cent Ecuadorian potato. The kind you tell your grandkids about. Mind you.. thats before entering the peruvian potato mountains!
It poured all night and 2 coffees after I woke up I packed up during a brake in the rain. One horse intently inspecting me and the other was just too hungry to lift up his face from the wet grass.
Lots of rocks had fallen on the road overnight and I made my way up with a señor walking his donkey up.
Aside from the tri motos, dogs had the run down of the highway. Lying down on various parts.
And yet when you speak to them they act as if nobody on a bike has ever stopped to talk to them.
Others completely ignored me, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
Others were all up in my business barking and staring.
It was a whole different dog world here with its own rules and culture. The skinny dog (top left) was walking down the road when the brown one came out and asserted its dominance by pooping in the middle of the road. The white puppy was just running around not interested in dog politics and the skinny just turned around and walked a good 1km to his house as I followed him in granny gear. None of the dogs paid any attention to me.
Now, the downhill was the fun part. With the remainder of the rear brake pad burning up at the end of Ecuador it was all Flintstones style to the first big city here in Peru. I put on a pair of slippers I found on the road and went on down. The gently sloped downhill would have been rad with brakes and without still kind of fun, i was dead in the middle of my lane resulting in some angry cars on corners but i had to go as fast as possible to save my soles. Several times I used a bit of the remaining metal brakepad backing plate to slow myself down.
the kid driving the propane trimoto let me hold on until San Ignacio, getting pulled up by a truck is one thing, having to slow yourself down like that is a different game and very exhausting. Somehow i managed to go hands-free long enough to snap this shot
the shimano SLX alternative braking system. better heat management at least!
fred flintstone would be proud!
It was like riding down into an oven but shortly the clouds rolled in for some gentle shade and pedaling on the almost flat road was amazing.
For some reason though, Peruvians added speed bumps at the bottom of many hills which barely made any sense. Sometimes it was for a house and other times they were just there...
There was a bunch of 10-20 european vehicles, some sort of 4x4 adventure in south america...
...and I bet you few of them did not see this coming. The sign "dangerous curve" does little to describe the little drop around a sharp turn.
rockfall cleanup was rather slow...
I stopped at a little house near the rice fields to ask for camping.
"Are you here to kill us?" Said the woman jokingly,
"No, just to camp."
More on that later but they let me shower with river water and i set up camp up a little hill at 500m elevation.
It wasnt that bad really, I have been afraid of the heat all this time but out of the sun and a little breeze does wonders. Mosquitoes and bugs loved me though and I coudlnt wait to get in the tent.
No snooze mrathons this time, I was up and packing by 5. At sunrise I chased Charlie arou d the yard, the poor dog not sure what to make of the excitement in my voice and probably thinking I will eat him.
Charlie, what a cutie!
It was up and down baby hills among the rice fields in the cool but humid morning, hoping the sun wont come out.
Eventually some slow truck came out so I grabbed on the back. He had a big beer fridge on the back and was driving not in a straight line. He must be drunk. We stopped before a checkpoint and chatted.
"Why do you drive so slow?"
"Oh, I am learning to drive. We cant go past the checkpoint, I dont have a license."
"And the other guy? He cant drive?"
"No."
Just as I unsuccessfuly tried to find a detour it seemed that the police went for a brake so we continued on.
We clombed another hill, this time faster but I was well prepared of the sudden changes in direction or gear shifting. My friend behind the wheel was a wild card but eventually I let him go.
Another bump on the bottom of a hill, this time a checkpoint. I rode it the guy asking
"What country?"
"We are in Peru." Definitely not the answer he was looking for but they didnt seem to want to stop me.
With my extremely poor financial planning I was again on "scraping the bottom of the barrel" budget. I was able to take out about $40, 7$ machine fee and $5bank fee for the withdraw, 10 on new brake pads, 9 hotel and the rest for food for the next about 10 days. I looked up a route idea for the quicket way to get back up to some real altitude.
getting an early bird start on the peruvian mountains. there is actually a piece of chicken somewhere under that!
Jaèn was a moto taxi hell. Buzzing back and forth on the lawless streets, no lights no stop signs just the rule of "whoever goes the fastest." But once you are ahead people do stop and i did not see any accidents. Many slowdown to look at my bike and while I have never thought it to be a safety bike it seems to make things a lot better.
I took a slow truck up the first hill, trying to imagine how slow and hot it would have been otherwise and then it was a pleasant cruise down to 400m and then a climb on the bigger roads where the moto taxis gove way to the longer range trucks.
There was various options for refreshing and quenching the neverending thirst of these hot lowlands.
Almost a shame not to take a slow truck till up the next little hill, these ricketry wooden contraptions moved almost slower than I sometimes.
I was finally at the base of the big climb back to the mountains and in the evening it was nice to gain some altitude, knowing I will sleep somewhere cooler with every pedal stroke. I couldnt take the pavement anymore, I was longing for somewhere more quiet, so I turned onto a dirt road with the shopowners promise that it has an exit, it didnt matter to where as long as it was somewhere cold.
Past the suncows and the dogs napping on the road I asked at a quarry if I may sleep there. The boss said yeah. Compare this to Kemano, Canada where I was told to leave the mainland and paddle across the bay to sleep...
The two brother dogs and the night watch kept me company but the brown dog just kept barking at me, at stuff and at nothing all night.
My friends wife brought fresh eggs for breakfast and a kilo and a half of potatoes.
The climb was surprisingly easy but i still chose to walk it interestingly going up 1000 vertical meters in just two hours. The dogs were odd, not sure what to make of me. Some running away, some watching intently and others being quite friendly. This was the case with people as well. A man climbed down from working on his roof to shake my hand, kids stared me down and a woman with her kid stopped when they saw me and looked at the ground while the kid gave me back a half smile to my "buenos dias". Then they watched me go around the next switchback from the middle of the road.
In Pimpingos I set up to cook breakfast in a quiet football field until a bell rang and a group of school kids descended. It was funny to see them do similar stretches to what we did and then the boys started playing soccer and the girls volleyball.
ops... wonder how long that has been in there...
it was a blast asking people for directions for PIMPINGOS as everytime I kept forgetting the name and ended up trying to say something similar until they corrected me.
The ascend continued to be surprisingly not steep and I peddaled on in granny gear, I was finally getting a peak into the vast mountains of Peru.
and the farm animals were also getting a peak at me...
A truck carrying cement had broken through the road and effectively closed down the whole stretch. I easily snuck through with the bike going past some 15 cars and trucks waiting for the CAT (driven by a 15 year old) to flip the truck up and repair the road.
At Santo Tomas I got to see the wild construction works that are going on in these parts, looks like the whole town is getting paved.
I went past a little town on a road to an old quarry. It was early but I have some time to kill. Sometime after I set up camp the kids from the town came by. Looking from far away. Just looking. I asked them whats up and the oldest said "just observing."
Observing and whispering and laughing and pointing. I was in a zoo but I was the animal being observed. They kept doing the same, getting closer and closer it was I think the worst experience so far in North and South America. They werent excited and interested like other kids they didnt want to ask or see anything they just wanted to watch. Eventually they left after I told them its not nice to be watched like in the zoo as best as my Spanish allowed me.
They left but I just did not want to stay here, what if they come back? Plus it was a good time to be riding.
The hillsides offered very few camping options and the houses were with very little space around them. I debated setting up on few pstures but decided it was best to stay with somebody. I set up under a sugar cane boiling hut and was invited to a great plantane and rice dinner. The sound of the bugs, the fireflies, the snoring baby pig, it was all perfect.
I rode up the surprisingly well built road with one thing in mind: i cant let yesterdays experience be a first impression and a theme for peru. If you are looking for something, you will find it and there is no place for negativity here. But it was there, that feeling that you dont belong. People would stare after you pass, others would run into their houses and others turn around and wait for you to pass and then stare.
I rode down a nice hill to San Antoio in hopes to fry these plantanes in a quiet spot. The plaza was under construction and the perfect spot. In no times I was surrounded but these people were just nice and curious.
And that would be the theme for San Andres, I asked a man looking out a window if there is a place with internet and he said to come up. Then I found the perfect solution, let somebody ride the bike while I sit in the shadows and observe!
I showed one of my videos in the office and somebody must have really liked them because they asked me to stay here and make a video of the nearby national park. We went out hiking nearby.
Then I was told to get in a truck.
"We are transporting a patient," a man who was working on his house and had an accident, we drove a 4x4 road for 30 minutes and he got carried off on a stretcher down a hill. For obvious reasons I did not feel appropriate to take a photo and yet I was in a similar situation. I was just watching as something interesting was happening. I guess its not that bad when people watch!
The few days it would take to hike in the park would be amazing, I need to wait to have some money until the 5th of november or so and thats still a week away. But all Inwas told is "eat here" and "here you can sleep". I still dont know what is happening exactly but thats how things work...
the yearning restaurant dogs of san andres
Morning comes and I am still not sure what is happening, eventually I meet Fran and he says to wait for the lamps. I ask if we will be camping, he says no. We get lamps, lunch and a mototaxi driven by a 8 year old kid. I think the legal driving age here is when you are tall enough to reach the clutch. On the mototaxi life size head of Che Guevera, thats how we roll!
We drive up a little ways and then start hiking up a trail into a country much like Colombia with its pastures, tall palm trees and impending rain. My friend told me that there used to be a lot of tourists here before and then it died down because few mine prospectors made claims and planned to build mones and the locals did not like mines. That may explain the odd treatment toward foreginers, who knows if I carry surveying gear on my bike and frankly setting up camp as I did the other day on a mountainside quarry would arouse suspicion.
Then I realized what the lanterns were for. Caves. We are going into a cave. I have never been to a cave.
The way down was quite slippery and one should really wear a helmet, a person died here back in 2005.
The kids jump like goats on the rocks and the man whom I convinced not to go with slippers was happy to have borrowed a pair of shoes from one of the houses on the way. The cave is dusty and possibly quite dirty. The walls and textures are amazing as it is all you can see with your light and the thundering screams of bats reflect through the cave.
We stop at what seems to be batshit minefield and decide to stop.
The second cave was little but more cozy.
On the way back the rain pelted down and we waited most of it out under a roof, the kid kept everyone entertained with a long joke list about "Pepito" and his misadventures.
Next day we head out to some waterfalls and the following day I put together a short video. Sadly the computer they gave me was infected and erased my entire SD card from Vilcabamba to here... (although the videos for the cave and waterfalls got mostly copied). Its a quiet life in this little town, one restaurant and nightly moonlight rides often accompanied by few kids on bikes. The video is below: