Hi all,
Well, we are happy to be out of Lima. The traffic there was crazy. Leaving
town, we opted to take the route from where we were staying directly towards
the beach and ride along the low road along the beach to leave town.
Reminded me of riding along the California coast. Stopped in Pisco for the
night in a really nice-looking secure hotel out of the main center of town.
They even had a locked parking area for the motorbikes, but the place turned
out to be very loud. There was a preacher in the church behind yelling into
a mic until 11pm that night. Even I felt like repenting....
We left the next day, headed for Nazca and possibly Chala, this little tiny
place on the beach I had heard was nice and relatively undiscovered. We were
sort of on the fence about whether to go to Chala or not as it is a bit off
course and could turn out to be a total dive but the decision was made for
us when we stopped in Palpa for a cold one (cokes people, we{re riding…). We
came out to find I had a flat rear tire. But we couldn{t figure it out
because there was nothing on the tire anywhere. Anyways, the great thing
about Peru is that the guy working at the fanciest grifo (gas station) in
town (i.e. the only one with compressed air) does not care one iota if you
want to unpack your bike and disassemble the thing in the front of his
establishment. Hell, it actually drummed up business. 2 gringos in the heat
heaving their own tire apart brought out many locals to his grifo see what
the hell we were up to (we learned that gringo does not have the negative
connotations here that are associated with it in Mexico). Anyways, it seems
that we didn{t get the tube in perfectly flat when we changed the tires
before we left Canada and there was a wrinkle in the tube and it rubbed a
hole that all the air finally had a chance to leak out of when we finally
stopped after burning through the straightaway desert-like conditions all
day. We got the new tube in without problem and the whole process went
relatively smoothly. We knew that we were bound to get a flat at some point
on the trip, but we were surprised to have it happen so soon (but in this
case, it was our own pre-trip-rushed fault). We only have one spare tube
between the 2 of us, and 17inch tires are relatively unusual here (not sure
how soon we can access a new one) so we took it across the street to the
llanteria (tire repair place)- no one actually replaces tires or tubes here-
they just fix them. For 4 soles (Can$1.60), they made the old tube as good
as new- no word of a lie. They put a patch on it and put it in a vertical
vice. The top of the vice has walls on the top so that can put some fuel in
the compartment on the top of the vice and set it on fire and vulcanize the
patch so it becomes part of the tire. Yes, I was somewhat concerned to see
what appeared to be the tube on fire, but it is a very good patch job.
So now we are in Nazca and have been hanging out here a few days. We will
take a flight over the Nazca lines (landing strips for the aliens??)
probably tomorrow- don{t worry, hundreds of tourists do it every day and we
checked out the surprising well-maintained light aircraft they use- they
thank goodness do not share the same standard of quality as the taxis in
Peru. We will then make our way up to Puquio- which is only 145kms away but
3000m in elevation (we are presently at 300m). Acclimatizing is something
that is different for everyone and since we are on bikes, we are going to
take it slow. There is another stop en route to Cuzco, Abancay which is only
2500m elev, so we{ll have the opportunity to go down a bit before we go up
again, which is supposed to be a good practice. We are expecting the roads
and the views to be pretty amazing…
Cheers all,
Scott and Pam
PS- I forgot to mention that I got a very good haircut in Pisco for 4 soles
(Can$1.60). Scott had a good one earlier when we were still in Lima, for 10
soles. But it is costing us twice as much to get our laundry done- some of
the prices here seem very strange in relation to each other.
Hi all,
Success! After 12 hours between Lan Chile Cargo, Customs and the cargo
warehouse, the bikes are free to roam South America. Actually, it was more
like LanChile, customs, LanChile, customs, customs, customs, LanChile,
customs, customs, customs, warehouse, customs, customs, warehouse, customs....
You get the picture. And 12 hours was after spending 3 hours sussing it our
on Friday last week before the bikes arrived. Suffice to say that anyone
bringing anything of value to a country such as this should make sure to
have every single piece of paperwork correct, even that little piece of
paper that you never think anyone will look at, and even if your
“experienced shipper” doesn{t mention the things you have heard are
important, they are important so be a pest and ask the questions and insist
things are correct before you leave home.
In our case, only my name appeared on the manifest as the consignee, but to
get 2 CITs (certificate de Importation Temporel) for 2 bikes, there HAD to
be 2 names on the manifest. That “small piece of paper” I refer to is the
bill for the shipping, which was also in my name only and was spelled
incorrectly at that (this piece of paper my shipper said “was not
important”). Eventually Aduanes (Peru Customs) decided that if we could get
a couple of bills for payment for shipping in 2 names, then this, plus of
course a small fine, would be sufficient, in lieu of having 2 names on the
manifest, which could not be changed. We finally got to the bikes at 4:15pm
yesterday (after starting at 9am) and had them inspected by a customs
official. Scott assembled them with no help from 5 very eager warehouse guys
while Hein (translating for us through all this) and I tried to pay the
warehouse fees to remove the bikes to the parking lot and get the final
Customs stamp for the stickers and paperwork. Once we got the bikes out of
the warehouse, we thought we were home free but the customs guy was nowhere
to be found to finalise the paperwork. We finally found him in a café with
his buds drinking a beer and even though I threatened to sleep in his office
overnight, he refused to complete the paperwork for us that night. In limbo
because we couldn{t leave the warehouse compound without customs approval
and outside of the secure warehouse , we were helped by a very friendly
warehouse guy who allowed us to sneak out with the bikes, as long as we had
them back, in the same spot, the next morning so customs wouldn{t find out.
This am, we returned the bikes as promised and then the customs guy made us
stand in the sun for 2 hours waiting for him to complete the paperwork. I
thought it was punishment for giving him a hard time in front of his friends
the night before, but then we found out that we have CIT #000002 and
#000003, so I guess the guy hadn{t had much experience in writing up these
things…. The bikes are now safely home, in the living room, after the thrill
of riding the streets of Lima to get home. On this experience Scott writes:
Got the bikes out of Customs today. Any body who thinks that they are really
good at riding in traffic should pop down to Lima and have a go. No one pays
any attention to any kind of rules of the road. It is like being on a race
track in a race, with everybody vying for position, but at 60km/hour!! Sheer
madness and I cant wait to get on the open road. The roads are just trash
here! A Dualsport bike is a must! They have 97 oct. gas at the pump! Tried
it but it was to much for my old 1989 dr600 (Ping, Ping!) and I went down to
90. We are staying with a nice Peruvian family for $11 US a night. Our host
is Dutch and speaks English and Spanish. He has been our interpreter through
all of the customs stuff. Great guy! Having a great time though, drinking
Pisco Sours and Cristal Cerveza. Pisco is a 48% booze made from grapes. Very
good.
So, we expect to leave Lima tomorrow, heading towards Nasca. Not sure if we
will head up to Cusco via Arequipa or via Nasca as we have heard from
someone who travelled the Nasca road recently that it is in better shape
than it is advertised to be and not too busy. We will be sad to say goodbye
to the family we are with. The Dutch fellow, Hein, has been beyond helpful
to us and the Peruvian family is very, very nice, even invited us to a
birthday party for the mother the other day- all the family was there and
had good Peruvian home cooking- and beer for all.
Cheers,
Scott and Pam
Hi Gang,
We made it safe and sound. Should not have watched the first episode of Lost before flying- had a bit of severe turbulence and Scott turned positively white. I was sorry that I spilled my drink. But other than that, a relatively painless flight.
So after we get through customs, who made us open our boxes of gear, Hein picks us up and escorts us past the tourist taxis to the cheaper ones on the street and we head to his casa, in a residential area of Lima. We arrive there around 2 am. Very tired. This morning, he walked us around to a local market and the bank and sent us out into Lima. Very nice people. He is Dutch and has a wife in the Netherlands. And calls Ana his Peruvian wife... I dont really get it but suffice to say that he doesnt seem to care that Scott and I may not be married.
So we{re jut cruising around, had a meal at what we figure is the Peruvian equivalent to Chuck E. Cheeses- we order this mixed plate and then broke out the Spanish-English dictionary to find we had ordered Chicken, Porkchop, Sausage, sweetbreads and what we are pretty sure is intestines. Oops. Oh well, the other identifiable stuff that isn{t sweetbreads was pretty good....
Bikes due to arrive midnight Monday so we are going to the airportwith Hein to suss out the customs scene tomorrow am. He is eager to help.
Answers to questions--- we are 3 hours ahead here, same time zone as Ontario. No, it isnt too hot, but muggy and temp is mild- tshirts and pants weather. Spanish is not quite coming along yet, but we{ll start some lessons with Ana and Hein soon.
By the way, if those of you on Messenger can add us to your contacts, we are logging into MSN to get to hotmail- maybe we can catch you once in a while.
Cheers all,
Scott and Pam