Peru, persistent problems and persistence

8th November – I decided to take a day off riding yesterday for some relaxing and some surfing. The lack of waves pandemic that plagued me in central america has followed to the south! No waves, quite a grey day as well, but it was good to take the first break of the trip in a lazy beach town. Known for its wild parties, I must have caught Montanita at a bad time because it was pretty tame by anyones standard.Because of that it meant I got up quite early and fresh to hit the road and make the border. I had forgotten Law #236. Law #236 of motorcycle travel is that any “early start” will be hindered by mechanical and/or other problems. I had a triple whammy. My tire was flat, the ignition still didn’t work, and the back brakes were not releasing the wheel. My early start turned into 1pm and then it turned into not today.

9th November – Applying reverse psychology to Law #236, I decided to get up whenever and leave whenever (if it was early, all the better). It did work, and by lunch I was riding through 100′s of kilometres of banana plants that reminded me of Innisfail. I had chosen the backmountain border crossing which was a bit further than the apparent chaos on the main highway border into Peru. The last stretch was at night once again, but without clouds, it was an unreal ride through the mountains under the stars.

10th November – Peru! Extremely easy bridge border crossing with an office on either side. I loved the fresh road and good speed. That’s what these countries like to do though, make the roads near the borders perfect. As if to make your last memory of the roads a good again. But it’s just like make-up, after a while it all wears off. I chose a route on GoogleMaps which was less kilometres and set of for Jaen. I saw mountains ahead, they were big but not too big, behind them was cloud. The first mountains just turned out to be the foothills of the Andes. The road deteriorated to a single lane bad quality dirt track, edged with stunning dropoffs on one side, and stunning cliffs reaching straight up on the other. It was the kind of road you think when you hear about South American bus crashes in the mountains. Although my route was shorter on the map, it was less used and was mainly there for access to a remote Peruvian town called Huacabamba. The buses take 10 hours to get up and 10 hours to get down. I didn’t have that time and pushed hard. It’s only about 200kms, but extremely tight, curvy and bumpy. My body was shaken and fatigued by the end of the day and I counted the last slow kilometres one by one. I checked in a hospedaje and went for a walk. I could tell they didn’t get many foreigners by the abnormal amount of curious looks I got from the locals. When people start tapping their friends and pointing to look, you know its pretty remote. Cute little town, tried some different foods, all of it tasted good, but as I found out later, something I ate had a virus in it.

11th November – I woke up with a strange mix of eagerness to keep going and a bad stomach. I knew I had another full day of ROUGH riding ahead of me. I started out enthusiastically, but after an hour the pains were back. A knife-like pain in my left shoulder, an aching torso, and weak legs from standing on the pegs to get through the rough stuff. It was the first time I hated the trip, I wanted it to end. The road deteriorated, my mind fighting to ride fast and get through it or ride slow and get through safe. My bike was bumped to pieces, at one point my side case (which has never bounced off since Canada) had come off and my top case was just hanging off the back. At this point I noticed my license plate. I took some time and fasten everything on quite good. When I go I like to just keep going, but stopping here on this road, jungle to my left and a huge valley to my right, seeming like I’m in the middle of nowhere, but there were some farmers working the field 50m aways. Well I don’t know if they call it a field, because they use land on 70 degree inclines to grow their crops. Hard work. I was reminded how lucky I was and how I’d chosen to do this. My hard work was a pretty damn good version of hard work compared to theirs. I got on with it for another couple of hours and it Asphalt. OMG Asphalt. The last hour to Jaen was smooth, blissful asphalt. I loved it, I wanted to lick the road, but I didn’t.

13th November – Spent the day in Jaen yesterday. A medium-sized town that is the centre for coffee and agriculture in the region. Met up with Peter an english mate I’d met in Colombia and his friends. It was good to see a familiar face and get to know the town. The banging around the last two days was enough to break the plate in my battery, so I walked the town hunting down a new one. The guy who gave me directions for a place to wash my bike turned out to be a friendly farmer and took me out to his farm to pick fruit and put in a sack for me. The stomach bug has been kicking me sideways, I have been living off crackers and water. I have a constant feeling of fatigue I can’t shake off.

14th November – Another all day push. 8 hours into the day of fairly typical peruvian countryside riding, the bikes temperature starts Overheating. Shit. It was 5pm and with only 2 hours more to Tarapoto and Peter’s bungalow, the bug wreaking havoc on my stomach and the fatigue, I just wanted to get there. I stopped in a town and found a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing, opens the top end and does some maintenance, changed the oil and filled the coolant. I get going when it was still twilight, at least I had sacrificed the daylight riding to fix the overheating. Or so I thought. 30 minutes on the bike’s temperature climbs to overheating. I tried switching off the engine at the crest of hills and coasting to the top, riding softly, but inevitably I had to make about 3 stops to sit in the dark on the side of the road for about 20 minutes to wait for it to cool down. I haven’t been really positive through all this like I usually am, I think the stomach bug was a big reason and it zapped the zest from me for these moments.

16th November – Ahh relief. I hope I’m not calling it too early but my stomach has settled and I have some energy to stand for longer than 2 minutes! I’ve spent the last couple days in the bungalow taking care of Peter’s dog Wayra and the bungalow. A bit of rest and a swim in the pool does wonders. I’ve also spent a bit of time in the mechanic both days first getting the cooling problem sorted which was something to do with the water pump, my spanish failed me on that one, and then today he rejetted the carb to sort out a weak ignition problem and my baby has its zest back as well! It has vigor and the grunt to pop up the front wheel which I haven’t done since I first got it, even after the new piston in Colombia. As if our souls are bonded we’ve both been given a breath of fresh air today. One more rest day tomorrow to make sure. The next step is south to Tingo Maria through cocoa country (highly not recommended of course!), and a couple more days after that to Cuzco!