Jan 6 th, Mountain Town, Peru to Town North of Piurra, Peru – 800km on the Pan American Highway
For most of the day I felt a little off in my guts. At about sundown things had changed from no big deal to I NEED TO FIND A PLACE TO STAY AND A BATHROOM NOW!!! I ended up paying $30 (way more than I ever spend, I had no choice) for a pretty nice hotel. I didn’t leave my room for the next 24 hours. I took tons of pictures.
January 7 th, Town North of Piurra, Peru – no mileage was made
It seemed like the cards were stacked against me getting to Cusco in time to meet Zoe when she landed. I was already running behind and didn’t need the Anti-Christ to set up a workshop in my lower G.I.. I kind of disappeared from this planet for 24 hours. When Zoe and I finally could connect, we made plans for her to fly to Lima so we could rendezvous there and then ride to Cusco together. Zoe is not a motorcycle enthusiast to say the least so I was nervous and curious to see how this would turn out.
January 8 th, Town North of Piurra, Peru to Chimbote, Peru – 700km on the Pan American Highway
I had parked my bike in the courtyard (which is inside) of the hotel that I had grappled with my dodgy guts for two nights. On my way through the door into the lobby (riding the bike) I knocked the sliding glass door of it tracks and into a free fall with one of my panniers. That in-turn knocked over a Christmas tree and all of its ornaments toppled to the ground. Thankfully, I caught the glass door before it fell all the way with my forearm or it would have shattered and I would have had to pay for it. The people at the front desk were cool with it and I took off down the road.
This is what Northern Peru looks like on the coast, desert, nothing more, nothing less, it gets old after awhile
To add to the overall experience you can see and smell frequent, large scale, trash burnings
People live out here, although I never actually saw a living person, only their adobe houses made of dried mud
You guys think I’m nuts! This dude rode his bicycle from Alaska and is heading to Ushuaia!
There were dune and hill formations every once in awhile
The desert stretched on forever. There were other cars, mostly trucks, and very few towns. You could go as fast as you wanted. The roads were straight and mostly empty. There was nothing alive that could run out in front of you.
That being said… I did rocket my way into a speed trap. These guys were waiting for me. Lights, sirens, the whole nine yards. I pulled over. I tried my standard practice of not shutting my bike off or taking my helmet off. My Spanish isn’t the best to begin with; however, in these situations I found that no Spanish can be better than some. Sometimes you can frustrate the police officers with the language barrier. Not this time.
It turns out that they have a dude in the hills with radar (bullshit, impossible) and they clocked me going 86 kph in a 50kph zone. This is also bullshit; I was actually going much faster on this completely straight, abandoned section of road. Unfortunately, I can’t tell them how I know they are lying. My fine is 348 pesos (a little more than $100). I start laughing at the number when I see it and I say in English “You want me to pay a $100 dollars for this?” still laughing. There was no way I was going to pay even a fraction of that. It took some haggling and 45 minutes of my life, but I got it down to $8. They told me I was cheap and I told them that bikers aren’t money machines for Peruvian Police.
The mood with Police down here is a lot less solemn and serious than it is in North America. When you get pulled over it is a negotiation for a bribe, nothing more. You absolutely cannot cave in and pay the first number they come up with. If you do, you screw it up for every other person that rides this same road with foreign plates. Besides, I have to come back this way in a few months. I want them to recognize and remember me as a cheap pain in the ass rather than an ATM.
I got pulled over 20 minutes later.
This time I stood up in the saddle, bike roaring, helmet on, arms crossed. The officer sauntered over and asked me “why I thought that it was okay to pass all those cars going through town?” I lost my shit. I’m not proud of my lack of patience, but in this circumstance it actually helped, which is rare. No games. In Spanish I told him that “some other officers 20 minutes down the road already took all of my money” (okay some games were played), I told them that “this kind of shit is bad for tourism and bad for their country.” “I passed one tractor trailer on a perforated yellow line and did not exceed the speed limit (this is true) and I won’t pay you anything.” They started laughing and asked my to calm down. They asked about my bike, my trip, and told me I could go.
One hour later I got pulled over again.
I was going down this crazy road that dropped off in to the Pacific, it ended at a toll both. I was trying to go around the tollbooth (bikes don’t have to pay in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina and they have a special lane to go around the toll) when I noticed some lights and some cops. So I played the furious card again, stupidly, because all they wanted me to do was go back the way I had come and get on the right road. This road was for trucks only. I had to back track an hour to find the turn that I had missed. No big deal, thanks guys.
Crazy road on the Pacific for trucks only
I stayed in a Chimbote that night at a motel.
Jan 9 th, Chimbote, Peru to Lima, Peru – 400km on the Pan American Highway
I just had a short ride to get to Lima to see my woman! We had planned to meet at a hostel in Miraflores. Miraflores is a suburb in Lima.
Lima is a massive sprawling metropolis. The driving here is the worst so far with Panama City following at a close second. People were driving on sidewalks. The cars bunch up like packs of wolves and bully their way across intersections. It is completely lawless.
It took me awhile to find Miraflores. Once I did it took me some time to find the actual hostel. I got there just a few minutes before Zoe did. We hadn’t seen each other for months and it was so great to see her! We opted to spend the night in a hotel. The hostel we met at was crappy.
We took off in the morning and headed for Nazca.
Jan 10 th, Lima, Peru to Nazca, Peru – 800km on the Pan American Highway
I was pretty nervous about having my baby on the back of my motorcycle after all this time riding solo. I wasn’t sure if she would like riding all day for hours on end either. My fingers were crossed.
And if I was nervous, imagine how she felt! I give her a lot of credit for coming all this way for us to see each other, and on top of that to be more than willing to hop on the bike when it meant that we could see each other sooner. She’s great!
We got out of Lima; it took some time, and headed South to Nazca.
Brennan and Zoe
She looks happy! Phew!
Beach getaways South of Lima
Check out the photographer in the mirror