Into Peru

I left Quito heading south on the Panamerican Highway, which essentially runs all the way from Colombia to Patagonia. At least that was the plan, I got lost and followed my compass south on some rough roads until I finally intersected the Panam. The road was well surfaced and fairly straight with long, sweeping bends, so easy riding for a while. Following the line of the Andes the altitude never got much below 3000 metres and at one point topped 3520, the highest point of the trip yet. South of Riobamba I saw my first snow since Glacier National Park in Montana, one huge snow capped Andean peak, all on it's own. The landscape around was very rural, farms with cows and even fir trees. The temperature was low enough to have me shivering with cold, not even a degree south of the equator!

At one quiet point on the road, I stopped to answer the call of nature and noticed a solitary indian woman sitting on the hillside, watching a herd. She was dressed very simply and had one of those trilby style hats and a thick red shawl wrapped around her against the cold. I wondered how many years she had been sitting watching cattle. At that altitude, most of the population were indian, living in huts by the roadside, and almost all were cheery, smiling characters that would often wave at me. I found myself thinking that maybe there was something to the simple life, you don't see so many smiling faces on commuter trains bound for London ;)

Further south it was hard to believe I was on the same road, the nice stretch of (toll) road turned into a twisty, narrow and severely potholed mess as it climbed towards Cuenca. The last part of the 450 plus kilometers from Quito to Cuenca crawled past as I faced some of the toughest conditions on the whole trip. The road would have been a nightmare if I could see it. But sadly that was made impossible by the thick fog which brought visibility down to a couple of metres. For about 80Km :) When I finally climbed out of the fog, glancing behind I could see it was actually a cloud enveloping a peak.

I was very glad to get off the bike in Cuenca. Looking back it was hard to fathom how I ever managed to ride 800 plus kilometers in a day, I was so tired after a mere 400 odd. Worse was to come.

The following day I had decided to ride from Cuenca to Loja, assuming the same road conditions I figured it would be a short day as it was only 200Km. But it would set me up nicely to cross the Peruvian border the next day. The road was actually worse. My Ecuador guide book had mentioned that the route was fully paved, but occasionally "damaged by landslides". The vindictive part of me wanted to make the author ride it, after the surfaced road turned into gravel with potholes. Then it turned into roadworks, as the whole thing is being resurfaced! In a couple of years a future Frase travelling that way will have a great ride on a nice road, enjoying the mountain views. But I got a battering and so did the bike's suspension ;)

About 30Km short of Loja the road was shut completely. I sat waiting and got to know the roadworks supervisor, Leonardo. He asked a lot of questions, and for once I understood most of them (answering was another matter ;) ). After half an hour the road was opened, I shook Leonardo's hand and took off. I got to Loja around 5pm completely exhausted. It had been a full day's ride and then some - seven hours to cover 200km and the only stop aside from the road closure was for fuel.

I had trouble finding an hotel and stopped to ask some traffic cops, one of whom with a big beaming grin asked if he could sit on the bike. I obliged and warned him it was heavy after his 125 that was parked nearby. He got on and over it went, he was a little too short to put his feet down ;) Fortunately I had my hand on the luggage and between us we managed to stop the fall. Then before I knew what was happening he fired the bike up and cleared off up the road, leaving me looking bemused with his colleagues. They thought it was great though ;) He only took it around a nearby roundabout and then came back, much to my relief. We all shook hands and I rode off, no better off as far as hotels were concerned :)

I got up early on Wednesday as I knew the ride to the border was going to be tough. After the crossing the roads in Peru looked much nicer on my map. The morning ended up being tough for all the wrong reasons.

I got as far as Catamayo, just south of Loja, and then followed a sign for Macara (the border town) without checking the road number I was on. After forty minutes or so the road turned nasty and I started to realise that none of the villages were where they should be ;) I consulted my map and realised I'd taken a back road through the mountains rather than the main road. But at least I was going to the border still :)

Approaching the summit of one peak, there was a small house on it's own with two dogs eagerly watching me ride up. I knew they were going to chase me - most of the dogs in the mountains had - but what I wasn't expecting was for one of them to run straight at the front wheel. I grabbed a handful of front brake and then tried to jink out of the way, but I still caught the poor thing with my left boot. It yelped and hopped away, but seemed to be ok after that. At least, it was running around ok. Not knowing what else to do I rode on, upset at quite what a 30mph kick might do to a dog.

A few minutes later the whole episode was forced from my mind as I was effectively run off the road by a small lorry. The road narrowed, and figuring I was a bike and he was a lorry, the driver just kept coming on my side of the road until I ended up in deep gravel at the roadside, and dropped the bike at about 1mph. The only damage was to my ego, and in fairness the guy in the lorry got out to try to assist. But I was angry enough to lift the bike no problem ;)

After being stopped at a military checkpoint by a guy with an Uzi, and strangely him writing down all the details off my driving licence into a little notebook, I finally made the border at 1.30pm. I was worried that a slow crossing would mean getting to a hotel really late, as there was nothing for a long way after crossing into Peru. But I needn't have worried as the border was simplicity itself. It was a bridge with Ecuador at one end and Peru at the other. Kids swam between the two banks freely ;) I was the only one there and got stamped out of Ecuador and into Peru, bike forms included, in forty minutes. I rode away shaking my head at all the nonsense I'd had to go through in Central America, tramitadors, obscure fees, and long waits.

As soon as I got into Peru I noticed that I was the centre of attention, in a way that had me self conscious even though I'd been stared at all the way from Sonora in Mexico. People would whistle at me from the side of the road, bikes and cars flash their lights, and some would wave. Some kids tried to shout that my lights were on (they always are) and I wondered if that was the reason behind it all.

The roads, however, were nicely paved and straight now that I'd left the mountains. The climate quickly got very hot and the surrounding land started to become desert. By the time I reached Piura, my destination, sand was blowing through the outlying buildings, which were little more than shacks really. I'd Googled a couple of hotels and finding one was pretty straightforward, after asking another traffic cop worryingly ;)

Looking forward to crossing the Sechura desert tomorrow, south towards Lima.

Frase.