PERU: A Sense of Urgency

The plane touches down in Lima at 5h30 to a misty damp grey sky. We had been due to arrive some 8 weeks earlier to catch the last days of summer but a series of unconnected events kept tripping us up. Having welcomed the arrival of our granddaughter we are all set to resume the riding adventure around South America. On the day of departure B developed an acute ‘plumbing problem’ which requires emergency surgical intervention. On doctor’s orders he is banned from physical activities for 6 weeks and that includes flyng and riding any motorcycle. B is effectively grounded! The temporary import permit (TIP) for the bike in Peru is due to expire in exactly 8 weeks on June 24th. Which means that the moment the 6 weeks recovery time is up we must board a plane, service and replace worn parts, and ride the 1300 kms to the Peru/Ecuador in a narrow 16 day window. Whilst B steadily scans memorabilia photos and newspaper cuttings into some cloud,  I swan off to visit family in Majorca and CapeTown for afew weeks. We meet up again in Paris on due date, bearing a new motorcycle tyre, brake pads and other bits for the bike, ready to ride again. How lucky we are that our bike is safe and secure with friends who once again welcome us with hugs and our favourite freshly made granadilla fruitjuice as we emerge from a rather harrowing early morning oneandhalfhour Lima traffic taxi trip (28kms).
The arrival at Lima brings a few anxious moments as the peculiar shaped baggage of a holdall encased in a motorcycle tyre,  bandaged up with clingfilm,  has gone missing. We are also hoping  the vacuum pack of South Africans Best Biltong will clear customs.  A few enquiries at the help desk located the escaped luggage containing vital parts without which our trip s doomed.
I had left CapeTown on Tuesday for an overnight flight,  met up with B on Wednesday in Paris for another overnight flight to arrive in Lima on Thursday.  Our lovely friends put us to bed and when we woke up it was Friday! And time to put the action plan into motion. We have 16 days to get to the border 1300kms away. Day one of the action plan involves attending to the bike.
More wonderful contacts in Lima helped get the bike on the road. The Michelin Anakee 3 tyre had given an amazing 25000 kms of wear, and now needed replacing. With the heavy load it appears that we ran the tyre slightly underinflated resulting in the outside edge worn smooth. The original rear Metzler had lasted 12000kms, until it was replaced in Greece (BALKANS TRIP) with the Michelin Anakee 3 which lasted an incredible 25000kms. B contacted Michelin in France to find out about availability in South America which was negative.  He purchased one in France and we lugged it and other spares to Lima.
Together, B and Flavio (of EFE RACING) replaced tyre, chain and sprockets, rear brake pads, fitted new filters and replaced the oil, topped up the battery and gave the bike a power wash. The 12kms ride back to Base on a Friday night in Lima took 2 hours! ! Thailand driving is comparable to Weave and Glide.  In Lima it’s Push and Shove. Saturday saw us washing Bike gear,  buying mobile data Sim cards (called Chips here) and yet more sleeping.  Sunday saw us munching a fabulous farewell breakfast of pancakes,  bacon,  blueberries, cream and maple syrup before heading 50 kms back through Lima to the desert and coastal road North. 
14 DAYS TO DO 1300 KMS, EEZY PEEZY.
It’s a perfect 17 degrees with extensive cloud cover, so much so that the GPS signal from Spot  Tracker is having difficulty getting through. The landscape is sand, sand, sand and I need to keep glancing at our HiVis Bright Green rainsuits to remind myself that the world is not always monochrome. We follow ioverlander App to some bungalows on the beach at Media Mundo,  which involves riding on a Ribeiro ( unpaved road) . Naturally I am rather tense about this, however we have shed 20kgs of excess stuff which we took back home way back in April. The top bag is now empty and just there to remind me where the bike ends when I lean back. The ride down to the beach was uneventful and B commented “ the bike is altogether different, weight distribution perfect and centre of gravity nice and low with all the weight very Lowdown, handles the dirt roads perfectly”. The bungalows are beyond the budget but we catch a glimpse of wetland birds before riding into a village of mudbrick houses searching for another Hospedaje, which we cannot find. A kind Peruvian in his HotRod Car plus chick escort us on twisty dirt roads out of town back to the highway. Photos are taken and thank yous given before we ride into Barrancas, where we pull up at a gated/walled complex aptly named Sahara Suites (must be the sand?). The welcome was marvellous , with bottles of water, a car trip into town to buy wine, fruit juice and breadrolls, and an invite for breakfast in the morning. The walls in Peru, behind which people fortress themselves, are at least 8 metres high with 6 metre high metal padlocked gates. It makes sight seeing rather a lost cause. The well travelled Biltong and fresh sliced carrot sticks are a welcome dinner. A delicious pancake breakfast, accompanied by story telling from our USA retired Helicopter Rescue Host and good sound Safety Advice, set us in the mood for another day’s riding adventure.
1. Only show COPIES of documents unless otherwise asked. NOTETOSELF: find a copy shop
2. Only STOP at regular places, eg Fuelstop, restaurants. NOTETOSELF: no more pulling up to check route at random on the road
3. Be AWARE of your surroundings.NOTETOSELF: Anxiety levels increasing by the minute
4. Do not get ISOLATED. NOTETOSELF:  think Lion and Wildebees
We are still using a combination of GPS Garmin, Google maps, Tourist map, ioverlander App and Maps.Me to navigate and are experimenting with ‘co-ordinate location’ on the Garmin. Varying degrees of success depend on cloud cover and wi-fi / mobile data signal.   Monday 11th starts very misty and 15 degrees so we don the rainsuits for warmth and visibility. After a while a sort of sand blindness takes over with grey skies, grey tarmac and grey sand. We stay at another gated/walled motel on Tuesday where we meet our first other adventure traveller on a Triumph. Over morning coffee we swop tips and stories and connect up on whatsapp and facebook. Because we have a date deadline at the border we cannot team up to ride and rush up to the next town of Chiclayo, which can only be described as the TRASHDUMP centre of Peru. We finish the last of the biltong and fresh picnic carrots ( lasted 4 days in a zip lock, no fridge) from our friends in Lima and take timeout to check all the paperwork. SHOCK, HORROR! The permit expires tomorrow; the 14th!! Not the 24th!! How did I get that so wrong?? We are more than 500 kms away; we squeeze the bike out of the foyer of the Hotel Posada where we jammed it in for overnight security and tackle the long 400 kms journey today, leaving a short 100 kms for the day of the crossing. The terrain improves, passing through banana plantations, then wheat fields, cornfields, wind turbines, Oil donkeys and at last we reach the ‘Pyramids of the North’, where we find a cheap, pleasant hotel with a much needed swimming pool. A goodnight’s rest was not achieved, partly due to our anxiety about the border crossing and the loud Disco boom-boom beat from the partygoers in the town. There is no time to be grumpy as we load the bike and ride the last long isolated 100kms stretch along the coast passing a few fishing villages, to the border.
It takes a mere one hour to stamp us out of Peru and into Ecaudor, and two hours for the bike to be stamped OUT and then IN. And all on the right day.
We head for the city of Machala and discover that the Garmin is useless, despite having purchased and downloaded a 79 dollar South America upgrade.   Our first decent meal, apart from left over bread rolls, was a scrumptious garlicky mixed grill, and soon after we found the appropriately named Hotel Mercy and fell sound asleep by 7pm. All Sense of Urgency now vanishes and we can finally relax after a rather busy 8 weeks of visits, flying, operations, set backs and preparations.