Peru, Lima, 22-24 Jan 2012

Posted on Thursday, 26-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Not much to report, did an oil change on my bike and as usual could not find any bike oil so used a diesel oil equivalent, went on a city tour, the usual plaza, cathedral and  something different the catacombs under the St.Francis of Assisi church which were a bit claustrophobic, piles of old bones. Turibus recently opened a franchise here so this was easily arranged instead of having to hire a personal taxi and guide. Lima is basically a transit point on the way to Macchu Picchu.

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Peru, Lima, 23 Jan 2012

Posted on Monday, 23-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Piura to Chimbote, Peru 21 Jan 2012

Desert, desert and more desert interspersed with a few towns and some greenery, long straight roads, sand blowing across the road and into my eyes, very windy, the usual slow trucks (50kph), villages and speed bumps plus going through the big towns is a nightmare, clogged with traffic and no signs so keep having to ask for directions, one Police document check, they were very good natured, mostly doing 100kph or less so wasn’t expecting any problems, stopped for the night after 620 k’s and 8.5hrs.

Chimbote to Lima, Peru 22 Jan 2012

Left early and the same again desert and more desert with some spectacular views, road became an almost freeway of 4 lanes about 150 k’s out of Lima and I get pulled over again, 2 crooked cops who had it down to a fine art, they even had a small translator device and said I was speeding, I was going 100kph with the rest of the traffic and they singled me out, they started bargaining by writing down numbers and I was getting fed up so I gave them SOL$100 ($35) and rode on, maybe I should have waited them out, 10min later another stop but this time they were pulling everyone over for a document check, crazy.
Got to the outskirts of Lima and a worse than usual mess of traffic, the drivers in this country are the worst so far and this is a Sunday, I had marked out waypoints on my phone GPS but the main avenue I was going ride down was closed and traffic was being directed down side roads which made it worse, a mini van bumped into my right pannier and sent me wobbling but I managed to stay on and kept riding, no damage, finally got to my hotel at 1300, 432k’s in 7:10hrs.
Went for a walk to get something to eat and water and even though this hotel is one block from the coast in a good neighbourhood there are bars and walls with spikes everywhere, most of the the ATM’s don’t have interbank connections and dispense a max of $140 with a $5 fee, fairly primitive compared to the other countries I have been through.

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Peru, Piura, 19-20 Jan 2012

Posted on Monday, 23-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Quito to Naranjal, Ecuador 19 Jan 2012
Left Quito and immediately started descending to the coast through the mountains, cold with the occasional shower for the first 3 hours then sea level and hot. Good road lots of slow trucks (50kph), villages and speed bumps meant slow going.
The road opened up into a 4 lanes at one point for a few kilometres, I think the police funded this expansion because after about 2k’s radar speed trap, 100kph limit everyone getting pulled up and given a ticket, I was doing 110kph, did my usual no Spanish routine and they shook hands and let me go, there did not seem to be any bribery going on, stopped for the night at a small town called Naranjal, 473k’s in 8 hours.

Naranjal, Ecuador to Piura, Peru 20 Jan 2012
Left early and arrived at the border after 2 hours at 0915, for all you overlanders, there is a new highway going to the border which bypasses the old crossing at Huaquillas and Zarumilla, a brand new complex on the Ecuador side for Immigration and Customs and 2 k’s further on is Peru Immigration and Customs, took all of 1:10hrs to get through both no problems at all.
After that a magical change occurred and the landscape changed from tropical to desert with the coast on one side. It also appeared poorer with brick buildings replaced with sticks for walls and thatched roofs, the road paralled the coast with beach towns for a few hours and then turned inland, this could be the Middle East or Africa, stopped for the night at a big town called Piura, 470 k’s in 7:45.
The first thing you notice are the millions of Chinese autorickshaws with thin tall spindly wheels instead of the Bajaj autos from India and there were two Chinese guys at breakfast and other signs of Chinese influence.

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Ecuador, Quito, 17-18 Jan 2012

Posted on Wednesday, 18-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Quito 2800m above sea level surrounded by mountains, a modern city with a historic old town. I wandered around, took the cable car to 4,100m this must be the highest cable car in the world. Hired a taxi and went to the Equator where they also have a small museum with some local exhibits.

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Ecuador, Galapagos, 12-16 Jan 2012

Posted on Wednesday, 18-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Left Quito at 0740 on 12-Jan-2012 stopped at Guayaquil for an hour and then on to Baltra Island airport which was built by the US Army after Pearl Harbour to protect the Panama Canal, waited there for 3.5 hours for another flight to arrive then a bus to a ferry to Santa Cruz Island and the boat, 12 passengers, 7 Australian, 3 Argentinian, 2 USA, 1 guide and 10 crew, the boat has a capacity of 16.
Lunch and then back to the Island to see some big Tortoises then back to the boat.

After that we cruised around a few of the islands snorkelling and hiking around them, the animals have no fear of humans and do not run away when approached. Lots of sea lions and iguanas, a few pink flamingos, fish, birds, penguins, one dolphin pod and some small sharks.
Finished the cruise at San Cristobal Island and flew out from there back the same way to Quito, arrived at 1730 on 16-Jan-2012.

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Ecuador, Ibarra & Quito, 10-11 Jan 2012

Posted on Wednesday, 11-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Left Pasto at 0800 found my way to the highway without any wrong turns, new road all the way to the border beautiful scenery mountains with crops growing on them at +3000m got to Ipialles at 0930 looked for gas but all the petrol stations were out of petrol, parked bike and then Columbia Immigration queue a mile long took one hour to get a stamp in my passport free and no forms either then Aduana that took one minute they just took the TVIP off me and that was it, changed money and the guy tried to rip me off $5, idiot.
1030 now, rode a couple of hundred meters to the Ecuador side parked and went to see the Aduana, he said Immigration first and a copy of that page of my passport, plus the face page, registration, title and drivers licence so went and stood in the Immigration queue which was even longer but time passed talking to an American lady Anita who lives in Guatemala and runs tours there right now travelling with her partner John in a 4×4 with trailer to Argentina, finally after 2 hours of standing in the queue, got to the Immigration window, no forms to fill in and free, finished with that at 1230.
Then Aduana had all the copies ready, guy inspected the bike very nice no hassels at all entered it into the system and printed off forms all I did was sign twice and done, then the Aduana guy asked if I had any Australian currency, he collects notes and coins so I gave him a $5 Australian note, he wanted to pay me seemed genuine, I said no, all very easy except for the wait in the queues a new record 3.5 hours.
I was drinking a Pepsi (caffeine and sugar my riding medicine) and waiting to leave, talked to some Colombian bikers one WeeStrom, met the old German guy whose bike came in on the same plane from Panama he could not believe how little luggage I had and he does not have an email address, left at 1300 stopped at the first gas station there was a queue of Volvos from the Netherlands all ages sizes and shapes waiting to fill up, on a Panamerican tour, so I rode on stopped for gas a bit further but no Super so just put $2 in, only $1.48 a US gallon unbelievable, again good roads through the mountains 3000m at first, down to 1800 where it started feeling hot hahaha, arrived at Ibarra at 1500, found a basic hotel, the one I planned to stay in was full because I did not book, checked in 1545 and 224km.
Left the hotel at 0715 same sort of countryside 3000m cold early in the morning good road all the way to Quito but a steady stream of traffic and winding roads and slow trucks meant constant overtaking and lots of small villages and towns forgot to stop at the equator arrived at the outskirts of Quito at 0915 meandered along asked for directions a couple of times finally started seeing street signs so stopped and looked at the Google map jpg on my phone and worked out where I was after that looked at the map every time I stopped and got to the hotel.
Unloaded and cleaned panniers and top box noticed the right pannier damage so the bike must have gone down on the right side where I fell off then dug in and flipped onto the left, plugged laptop in and it was not charging again!!! So packed it up and asked about a computer shop, caught a taxi there where they tested it and said it was the power cord no charge and told me where to go to buy one about a block away walked there and bought 2 cords and an adaptor so I don’t have to cut off the earth pin all for $6.44 cheap compared to the $10 for the used cord from Mexico.
Next checked out the Galapagos websites the lastminute one had some listed so called them, Fabricio answered spoke English and we worked out a couple of options so I went to the office and found one for tomorrow leaving Thu 12th at 0740 and returning Mon 16th at 1315 for $1100 (half price) and because it is last minute I will probably have the cabin to myself if no one else books the other bed, airfare $480.79, called the hotel to see if it was ok to park my bike and leave my stuff there so withdrew cash from 3 ATM’s and got all the paperwork done back to the hotel to reorganise my stuff for another side trip. This is the boat I am going on, check the price for a 5day 4night cruise and add airfare to that, crazy

http://www.galasam.com/cruises-queenofgalapagos.php

Like Cuba if this boat does have Internet it will cost an arm and a leg so no more posts until I get back.

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Colombia, Pasto, 09 Jan 2012

Posted on Wednesday, 11-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

Left Popayan at 0815 overcast looked like rain, wet patches but no rain, road through the mountains climbing to over 3000m many sections where half the road has fallen down the mountain, pot holes, broken bitumen, the sun came out and it warmed up, very slow going, occasional good bit of road for a rest, spectacular scenery when I had time to look at it and not the road, one of the worst roads so far, an adventure ride and just what I needed to get my spirits back up after the fall, the bike took a real hammering and nothing fell off or broke so it must be in good shape. I think the government has put this road into the too hard basket.

Arrived in Pasto at 1245, 240k’s in 4.5hrs, quite a big town at 2600m and navigated to the address of the hotel I had booked, a rough part of the town, wrong address on the website, asked for directions, the first thing the guy said was, put your phone and camera away, they were hanging around my neck, after some discussion he said this old guy will find the hotel for COP$5000 ($2.50) so he got on the back of my bike to much cheering and encouragement, he was having trouble getting his leg over hahahaha and we rode off stopped and asked for directions once and found the place near the Centro a much nicer area and an excellent hotel but even here the door to the lobby is kept locked at all times, this is a common practice in Colombia even for stores if they do not have a security guard.
The number of police and military has dropped off considerably the closer I get to the border, hardly any in fact. There are a lot of bikes on the road and car drivers in Colombia are some of the worst, I have seen 3 bikes accidents so far with the bikes hit by cars and I have had any number of close calls. Mexican and Central American drivers would be considered safe compared to this lot hahahaha.
Spent some time in the garage fixing my bike, taped up the broken indicator and managed to straighten the hand guard enough so I could use the clutch and bolted it back on, need a vice to do it properly.

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Colombia, Popayan, 7-8 Jan 2012

Posted on Sunday, 8-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

I left Bogota at 0800 found my way onto the highway not much traffic in the city but it started to build up as I got closer to the outskirts, its a long weekend and everyone was heading out of town, slow going then an accident up ahead, road blocked for 45 min and the vehicles on my side of the block filled up all 3 lanes so the ambulance coming from the other side could not get through eventually did after a lot of backing up and squeezing, making 4 lanes out of three, crazy.

Finally got moving again and just as I was going past a bus around a corner, this is a four lane road now my lane was blocked with one of those red traffic barriers, no warning, I grabbed the brake, bike was leaned over, front wheel locked and down I went, according to my GPS it happened at 1019, speed 53kph, altitude 1442m, trip distance 51.47km and I got moving again at 1034, I tumbled leg came off but stayed in my riding pants slid to the side of the road and got it on again, a bike rider asked if I needed any help, no thank you, cop asked if I needed an ambulance, no, a couple of locals picked my bike up and moved it to the side of the road, the left hand guard was bent slightly, enough to prevent the clutch lever from being pulled in fully, got my tools out and removed the guard and put it in the pannier, GPS and mirrows askew, left indicator broken, left thumb stuffed, right wrist, ribs, hip and knee stuffed, camera and phone which were around my neck had scratches but still worked, when riding off I noticed the cop had removed the barrier and traffic was using the blocked lane?
After that it started to rain and some very steep and winding roads over 3000m for 2 hours, busses used the whole road going around hairpin bends, 2 stops of at least 30min for road works, one the road had fallen away, Quindino came up at 1500, 7 hours of riding stopped for fuel and a Pepsi, still a long way to go didn’t think I was going to make it to Popayan and decided to stop at Cali, joined the Autopista and speed crept up to 110-120kph police and military checkpoints every 10k’s making random stops.
All the roads had tolls but bikes are exempt, you just have to ride past the toll booth down a special lane for bikes, I forgot to do this once and had to pay $3.25 because there are sensors in the road. There must have been at least 10 toll stops which makes this place nearly as expensive as Mexico.
Made good time and arrived at Cali at 1650 andother 150k’s to Popayan so decided to keep going as the room was booked road narrowed to 2 lanes with villages still doing 100kph most of the time, started raining and the road started climbing and winding upto 1800m, about 20k’s out slowed right down to 35kph blinded by oncoming lights and drops of rain on my visor got to Popayan at 1830 in the dark, turned into a side road and stopped, rain had stopped so got the Nokia N8 out and checked my location used it to navigate to the hotel, it has proved invaluable on this trip with its offline maps, checked into the hotel at 1900, for two nights, 571km in 11 hours. Ibuprofen for dinner.

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Colombia, Bogota, 1-6 Jan 2012

Posted on Friday, 6-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

2.5 hour flight from Havana to Panama, 3 hour wait and then a 1.5 hour flight from Panama to Bogota, Arrived in Bogota at 1700 and stood in the Immigration queue for an hour, got some money out of an ATM and next to the taxi office where they give you a slip which has the fare to your Hotel on it, you pay the driver when you get there $12 in my case checked in at 1900 a long day.

Bogota is a big modern city of 8 million at 2660m altitude, even the PIN on my credit card worked at the hotel first time in a long time, wandered around the city on Monday looking for a road map of Columbia with no success, they have GPS and book maps but no fold out paper maps, BYO for all you travellers out there. First couple of days I was breathless and had a headache getting acclimatised to the altitude, having come from sea level.

Called Girag Air Cargo about my bike on Tuesday and was to told it would arrive on Wednesday night, called them Thursday morning but could not find anyone who spoke English so got a taxi ($10) at 0915 to the airport found the Girag office got the original waybill from them and went to the Aduana which is right in front of their building presented my papers and they did all the work, filled in the forms, all I had to do was sign on the dotted line a few times and they gave me two copies of the documents one for Girag to release the bike and one for me, back to Girag downstairs this time to the warehouse, inspected the bike all ok except for a crack in the plastic of the top box didn’t notice it until I got back to the hotel at 1215, total time taken 3 hours not bad and what a relief.

Wednesday was a tour of the Salt Cathedral, inside a working salt mine located in Zipaquira, huge caverns quite an amazing sight.

Friday went up to the lookout on the cable car for a view of the city then wandered through the old town lots of other tourists, cool and cloudy, it has rained lightly most days in the evening or at night.

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SCAM – Warning

Posted on Tuesday, 3-January-2012 by Chris Desmond

I have just been informed of this Scam, it was perpetrated on two elderly friends of mine who live in the USA, same age as my parents. Do not pay anyone any money, the person listed as next of kin in my passport is my daughter and if I was to call her she would know if it was me or not instantly. This happened while I was in Panama and if they had checked this Blog it would not have happened.

Here is the story as told by them.

On Dec. 21, 2011, one Sergeant Patterson called us from Dominion Republic asking for us; obviously he had correct details, and the telephone number. He told us that Chris has been involved in an auto accident which was hit and run case. The driver was found to be under the influence of alcohol but Chris was clear. Chris is being held for want of bail. At this point on our insistence that we talk to you, it sounded like you talked to us, telling us that you have been involved in the accident and that you can make only one call. So we were some what relieved by the fact that we talked to you personally.

The Sergeant told us that if we pay USD $2,900.00 Chris could be released by the court. We should wire Western Union cash payment to: James Evans, bondsman in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After we make this transaction, we should call the Sergeant and give him the “MTCN” (the receipt) number, which we did, after paying $2,900.00 plus service charge of $239.00 for a total of $3139.00. The Sergeant told us that after the release by the court, a full refund in the amount of $3139.00 would be sent to us by check in three days.

On Dec. 22, 2011, this Sergeant Patterson called again and told us that Chris has been released. But the bad news is that he can not leave the country unless he pays his 50% of the damage caused by the accident. His due is $2,500.00  If we pay this amount to  Robert Stern in Cuautitlan, Mexico, after receiving that amount they will put Chris on the plane to Australia. We wired USD $2,500.000 plus service charge $76.00, for a total of $ 2,576.00. We did that too, fearing about your safety.

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