Twisting to Lima

I wasn't feeling well, and I wasn't sure why . It could have been the altitude or I was sick so with a bunch of painkillers in my system we left Huaraz on our way to Lima.

We continued on the mountain route and reach and altitude of over 4100 meter above sea level. with stunning vistas of the mountains and river running along side the road. Then it started to drop rapidly with varrying twisty roads taking us all the way back to the Pan-American Highway.

We stopped along the way for lunch and then continued to the BMW dealer in Lima for some needed parts for my bike before getting to the hotel. While we were at the dealer we met many travelers there and exchanged information about destinations and routs.

A Day in Huaraz

The plan was to go riding today to remote areas and some off-road , but after yesterday's off-road marathon we decided to take a tour of the town and do some minor work on our bikes.

Since it is Sunday most of the shops are closed but we got a sense of the place by waling around town. There are many tour companies here as well as pharmacies. Ali and Hussain particularly enjoyed the street fruit carts and cam back with a bag of mangoes.

To Huaraz

When we were in Cali Colombia we met a guy who traveled to Peru and recommended Huaraz as a destination since there are many natural attractions with white peak mountains and off-road
tracks to enjoy so we decided to visit on our way to Lima.

We started the day on the Pan-American highway then started down an off road track towards Huaraz. we then caught a bridge and crossed over to the main route which after about 30 km turned into an off-road track. all the way until about 90 km from Huaraz that it was asphalt again.

We are getting used to stopping for lunch at local establishments and so we had a break at a local restaurant before reaching Huaraz



We estimate that we rode almost 120 km off-road today so we decided to take a break in Huaraz tomorrow and have a small city tour and tend to the bikes.

The desert road to Trujillo

As usual we left as early as possible on our way to Trujillo the route reminded us of home since it was all desert with straight roads and cross winds. with some villages along the way , we stopped for lunch at a good seafood restaurant and along the way we passed two other travelers on motorcycles one on a Triumph and the other on an 800GS.

We also came across an American riding a R1200GS Adv. just like ours who rode from Huston all the way here in Peru and on his way to reach Ushuaia and back to Huston by March 2013.He rode with us until Trujillo we wish him a safe journey and a great adventure.

We reached Trujillo around 5 pm and rested since we were going to have along day tomorrow.

Leaving Ecuador and entering Peru

We as early as possible with many of our things still damp from yesterday's ordeal. on out way to the border which was three hours away.

Our target was Piura a small city in the north of Peru. Although the departure process was fairly straight forward and entrance into Peru took a while since the person at the customs office was an old man and he had to write every detail into a log book and photocopy our documents which took almost an hour for him to finish.

Although the GPS map is from Garmin it is really bad on the way to Piura we went by a village that had a funeral and were scarring the casket in the middle of town so we diverted and ended up on an off-road track that the locals said reaches Piura. So we continued for about 20 km until the construction guy said that the rest of the way was full of sand dunes and that other motorcycles didn't make it. He advised that we turn back and go the other way.

So we did and when we got to the village we got lost since there were two ways to get to Piura and depending on who you asked will direct you in two different ways.Finally we found the less traveled and more rural route through some villages but only managed to get there around 7:30 pm. The hotel was nice and we had a great meal at a local restaurant. 

The long rainy road to Loja

Well today is a date to remember it is 12.12.2012. We had to leave without breakfast since the hotel served breakfast at 8 and we had a long days ride ahead of us. so we had some fruit and headed out around 7:15 am towards Loja in the south of Ecuador.The first hour and a half were very nice riding with the villages just starting to get alive and many of the shops still closed, as well as the natural scenery and the trees.



We found a rest stop and decided to have breakfast so we stopped and got some coffee and biscuits. Then a dark cloud came and it started to rain really hard.  once it let down we left the rest stop and tried to get ahead of the storm but couldn't and we were caught in the rain all the way to Loja. Along the way we stopped at a shop with a shelter at one of the villages to rest and pray then we continued reaching Loja around 6:30 pm.

We all wet and almost everything was either wet or damp even our paniers had water in them to the point that my laptop was moist and the laptop bag was soaked. I dried the laptop and left it, not wanting to start it until I was sure everything was dry.

The Pools in Banos

We woke up to the sounds of birds and to a good breakfast before we took a taxi first to find a replacement screw for Hussain's windscreen , and then to the volcanic pools were they were set up at different temperatures.

We started from the coolest and ended with the warmest. We also met a guy there who is originally from Ecuador but lives in Australia and was visiting.

We then went into town and found a shot that makes crafts out of some kind of nut or big seed. The gay showed us how they carve and cut the nut and then polish it to make different items like buttons, earrings and necklaces.

Then we back to the spa for some relaxation since the next day was going to be another long ridding day estimated to be 10 hours to Loja.