Motorbike RTW: Border Crossing: Chile/Peru

Leaving behind the fishy smells of downtown Arica, we book out of the much more pleasant smelling Hotel Avenida. Knowing that the money will be different again we hand all our Chilean Pesos to the receptionist in part payment and settle the rest by credit card. Well, that's one way to keep the wallet less confused. We start the early morning 10kms ride to the Chile/Peru border and arrive in good time, and nice and relaxed. We've heard that it takes a long time, so were not particularly worried about the long, long queues that line the road. I amble ahead of the line to see what is happening and the kind security man let us through ahead of the cars, out of the already hot sun. We park up, find all the paperwork, cover the bike and secure it with disk lock. There are lots of people wandering around and the security man advised us to watch our belongings. I cannot exactly remember the order of events, but the Customs Booth sent us to the queue at the Immigration booth, who sent us to another room where we presented the bike papers. A charming man whose only English consisted of the word 'Wonderful', stamped and copied and declared the bike 'Wonderful'. We then joined the Immigration queue again and whilst waiting I chatted to the lady in front of me. Our turn came and we presented all our papers, except for the one we should have filled in before getting to the desk. That was the Transport one that a man was 'selling' at the entrance for 1000 pesos. It was a compulsory form and we didn't have 1000 pesos. We had paid the hotel bill with all our money. And there is no ATM at the border post. Stalemate. We can't buy the form and we can't get any money and we can't get through the crossing without the form. I spot the friendly lady from the queue just coming out of the Transaction booth and dash over the demarcation line. Please can you help, I beg, explaining about the form/lack of money. "It's a gift" she says as she hands over 1000 pesos (50p)! I thank her profusely, and as she drives off in her car, we continue with the immigration and customs performance. Note to self, next time keep a bit of local currency!! We've already been through 5 paperwork process/booths and are very glad to get back to the bike, glug some warmish water and set off. Only to be stopped a few metres down the road at the barrier. This time we had to unpack the whole bike and get every bag scanned, which involves a lot of bungee untieing, mesh unhooking and velcro unsticking. Grrrrr. Especially as B still finds it sore to lift, push, carry, etc. and this feels like a one woman weight-training program. We haul the bags into the scan room and back out to the bike and reverse the process of loading everything on again. We had arrived at 10 am, it was now 12h30, or so we thought. The nearest town on the Peru side is Tacna, and the 53kms ride there was pleasant enough, just desert and more desert. It was easy to find the main street and whilst B rested on a parkbench in the shade, I wandered around looking for a Telephone shop to buy a Peru Sim Card, and a shop to get a map of Peru. No maps for sale, but a nice lady in a tour shop gave me a little tourist brochure with a map on. That'll do. We are ready to leave town and ride to Moquequa, a mere 150kms away. It's now 3pm, we should be there by 5pm. Except that it's NOT 3pm, it's already 5pm. The clocks changed by 2 hours when we crossed the border. What a weird feeling to have lost so much time by stepping over an invisible line. We decide to give up and find a place to stay. There's a happy Red Umbrella beckoning us to stop for a coffee and a 'bookings.com' search. Luckily there are plenty and we choose one the other side of town, except that we can't get there. The town is blockaded off-limits to traffic. It's fiesta time. After many u-turns and round-abouts we are back at the Red Umbrella having a re-Search. This time we find a whole house just around the corner for a fabulous 14 euros. Done. Having lost 2 hours we had a very early night, the clock said 10pm, our bodies said 8pm. Looking at our little Tourist Map, we opted for inland Route away from the PanAmerican Highway along the coastline. We woke up well rested at 6am, (body clock 4am), departing leisurely at 10am (we thought) for a 150kms ride to Moquegua, fuel stop and an afternoon ride of 266kms to Puno. We calculated that the fuel stops were at convenient intervals and there was enough time to enjoy the day. What we didn't calculate and what the Tourist Map didn't show was the enormity and elevations of the mountains, coupled with the ferocious unpredictability of the weather. This time, the PLAN and REALITY misfired horribly. But that's another story.