We stayed last night at Churcampa in a really nice hotel. We were concerned about where we would park the bikes but there was a small garage that we were allowed to park in. it was a tough one to get the bikes in and really tough to get them out in the morning but it was a good safe place to park the bikes. The town itself we thought was really nice and clean. The towns here in Peru are clean it seems at least after the border towns.
In the morning we headed out of town and it wasn’t too far until I noticed that Jim wasn’t following me anymore. I headed back and found him just unloading his bike. He had a flat tire on the rear.
Jim Flat X
It took quite a while for him to get the damn thing off and when he did he found a five inch piece of heavy wire had stuck in one of the knobs and gone in. after he got it taken off we found that there was a two inch hole ripped in the tube and I sure didn’t like the looks of the cord on the inside of the tire. Some of the cords were cut and it has a pretty bad slice in it. I have three tire boots and could have put one in the tire but Jim was carrying the rear tire he took off when he put this one on and I thought it best to use the used one rather than try to fix it with a boot. I think that would be fine when you were using the bike around home, but out here on the road far away from tire shops and help, I would rather a new tire. We are now both needing a new tire. I hope we can find tires in Cuzco when we get there. I still have tread on mine but the way the roads that we have been traveling are, I am sure it is eating the rubber away. The other day when I stopped to ask directions Jim noticed that I was getting a flat tire. I have a tubeless tire and I only had to poke a worm in it to fix it, rather than remove the tire and get out the tube and patch it. It worked slick and amazed the crowd of locals with the worm fix and the use of the little wal-mart air compressor that I carry.
Rx flat X
We had ridden back into town as we were told that the road was impassable. This after riding way out the road where we met a man, woman carrying a baby and leading a couple of kids that told us there was no way even on a moto. Jim makes friends and talks with everybody and the guy said sure the road is not open but why don’t we go up over the mountain and we can meet up with the good road over the other side. We finally found the road that they were talking about and after making a switchback in the middle of a soccer game, the first of many, we were on the road. Nobody had driven on this road in a long, long time.
Soccer road X
The road climbed way up and finally we came to what the guys called the Ruins. When we got there we knew we were on the right road. Road is a nice name for that trail as it was pretty tough ride. There were hundreds of switchbacks and it seemed to go straight up when I came to the turns. That big bike sure had to work to get me up that hill. I would have to let it dog down to five miles or less and then ask it to pull me up and out of there. I had to run really low rpm’s and was worried that I would run out of battery juice but somehow I had enough and it never quite me. To give you an idea the progress, we went 140 miles in 7 hours and the first fifty miles were on pavement and probably averaged 50 mph for the first hour. What a beautiful road it was. I would think that I was the first person to be here in years when I would come across a shepherdess out with a flock. They are all over the hills down here. It is absolutely amazing to find someone sitting along the road miles from anywhere. Here is a shepherdess with a small flock of sheep and goats.
Sheep and goats X
I saw this little boy the other day with his hogs.
Pig herd X
After what seemed like half a lifetime we finally made it to the top of the hill. Wow, what a view from up there. it was about 15000 feet or so.
On top X
My road logs are sort of all mixed up and I am sorry about that but I am so tired after the days ride I just have not had the time or energy to do much. I took a photo the other day that I really like that shows the fields on one hill. The hills on the Lima side of the mountains are all worked like this one.
Quilt X
Over on the other side of the mountains or at least on these mountains, there is not the intensive agriculture that we saw before. The climate is much drier over here and I have even seen cactus grown in rows in some of the mountain fields. They use or at least I have seen a lot of cactus fruits for sale in town. When Jim had his flat today I snapped this photo of the cactus in bloom.
Cactus X
We went though a little town today and Jim stopped to ask directions from the lady next door to this one. I snapped this ladies photo for all my sheep friends. She is using a drop spindle to spin some wool yarn.
Spinner X
Today we were in the high country again. We climbed out of town and went way up to the pass and took off from there along the ridge of the mountains. I got out my gps and found that we were at 14,000 and the road went along the high country for fifteen miles or so. We saw some cops up there and they were amazed that we were up there. They told Jim that we should be very careful up there on that road as there would be no one up there to help us if anything happened. Well, it was really a bitch of a road as it was just so rough with washboard and huge potholes. It pounded my butt and shoulders so much that I could hardly stand it. We got into one area where there was snow, ice and mud, which makes for some interesting riding.
Slick X
I’m not sure what the name of the little town is here but we decided we had to stay here as it was getting dark and we really needed a place to hole up for the night. We stopped at the gas station and bought two gallons of gas each. They give you two gallons in a plastic five-gallon bucket and you pour it in your tank using a beat up funnel. It works. I have no idea what octane we got but probably 84 as I think that is what everybody uses around here, as it is the cheapest. I try to get the highest and that has been either 90 or 94. So far I have not noticed a problems with the gas and the bike has been running well. It does not have the unlimited power at high elevations and it idles rough when high but so far no problems. (Thanks to Bob’s Motorwerks near Red lodge, Montana). The bike has always started well although when it has been cold I had to use the choke to get it started.
This is what it looks like when you are up on top and are looking at the road going down.
Going down X
Corn. Tonight we had soup and corn for supper at the only restaurant in town. It was a big building with long tables and benches. We were the only guests and there was no menu as normal I guess. They served up each a cold ear of cooked corn. The kernels were huge and it was really good tasting corn. Way back on the trip when I was with the Colombians we had lunch some place and popcorn was served with the meal. It was strange but the guys said it was normal as popcorn was invented in this area. A few days ago we had corn that was served with supper. It was big kernels that had been heated in oil and salted. It was really good and we asked what it was. Popcorn she said. It hadn’t popped but it was not a hard kernel either so it must have popped inside or at least it softened it up somehow. (note: I saw some popped corn in a little sack for sale here in Andahuaylas that looks like popped but more solid kernels.)
The hotel room wasn’t much to write about but I will give it a few lines. When we got the room, two beds, two chairs, and one little fifteen watt light bulb that had never been dusted until I did it was down a steep little street.
Hotel room X
We were shown the Banos or toilet and we had to go through a little steel door down the street a couple of doors that was locked. They opened it for us and we went in and inspected the squat hole toilet. They are kind of neat things but very different than what we are used to. There is a place that is raised for your feet to be and around and in back is recessed with a hole under where your asshole is. They provided a hose and small broom for cleanup. I remember seeing them in the Whole Earth Catalogue years ago and I am seeing them in use here. I used a couple of them at restaurants and a gas station along the way. Well, the door was locked in the morning so we used the one at a restaurant later.
1-10-06
It was a restaurant that was open in the next town. We went in and said we wanted breakfast and Jim negotiated scrambled eggs and potatoes he thought. When it came it was pretty bad. There were scraps of scrambled eggs in a pile of very greasy soaked fries. We ate a few but decided to hit the road and see what the day offered.
Rx Restaurant X
The morning road was very rough again with the usual potholes and loose gravel and rocks. I try to go as fast as I can just to hit the high points and let the bike take those big hits which it does with grace. My body isn’t so accommodating. Damn, I am sore all over but mostly in my shoulders and butt. I try to keep a light grip on the bars but with these conditions, I really have to hang on or the bars get ripped from my grip. We both thought that the rough road was bad until we hit the muddy one. Neither one went down but it was close a time or two. The roads all seem to go either up, down or across the high country. we went across the high country again and it was around 14,000 feet again. it is really pretty up there but dang it can sure get cold up there. We came by a herd of Alpaca’s or at least I think that is what they were. One of these looks like it was sheared or plucked or what ever they do to these things.
Alpaca X
Oh, lets see, yesterday I think we went 136 miles and I think we rode a total of ten hours.
We made it to Andahuaylas around one and had lunch at a nice restaurant. We each had the pollo supremea and that turned out to be a breaded breast of chicken and a huge pile of rice with french-fries. I sure do love the fries down here. They use good tasting potatoes down here. When we have been riding by the potato fields I can see many different kinds that they are growing. Some I have seen now have white flower blooms but most have the beautiful purple ones. The potato plants are really different here too as most of them seem to grow very upright and I don’t remember that with the ones we grew in Nevada that came from down here. it could be the difference in elevation. I have seen quite a few guys out in the fields spraying the potatoes with back pack sprayers. I guess they have the potato beetle to deal with too. This is probably the home where they came from too. If I remember right, all potatoes came from Peru originally.
It was almost two after we finished lunch and decided that we would stay here in town as neither of us wanted to be out on another five hours of rough road and maybe looking for a rat hole to stay the night in like last night. Above the restaurant is a hotel and they had a nice place to park the bikes and we both got a good room with hot water and TV. I might watch tv tonight but thought I would write a road log first this afternoon.
I took a walk up town after a nap and am pleased at this little town. It is so clean and everyone seems friendly. They look at me as if I am from another planet for sure but nod or say something when I say ‘howdy’. When we have been riding through these little villages in the way-back country they don’t really know what to think of us. There cant be but a vehicle or two a week that goes through there and all of a sudden here comes two aliens on motorcycles. A lot of times I see women/girls and kids quickly slip out of sight when we come by. A few of the people wave but those are mostly the young boys. I bet it gives them something to talk about for a few days after we go through. Once you get on top, you have to go down.
The road below X
Almost all the older women here wear a felt hat and most of the men do too. The younger women don’t seem to wear them but out in the country they seem more prone to wear them. I guess town has the girls more style conscious. I sure do like the way they look in the hats. The women carry the kids and everything else on their backs with a knotted shawl. Even little kids carry their brothers and sisters that way as well. It is amazing how much they carry on their backs up and down these hills. It doesn’t take much of a walk for me to be huffing and puffing. They are harvesting lots of alfalfa and they make a wad about two feet in diameter and strap that on their back and off they go. I am not sure but I think they must be feeding livestock that way rather than letting them graze tied to a rope. There is a lot of that type of grazing going on as well as small herds being moved around with kids and older folks. Around small towns there are quite a few pigs that wander around grazing and looking for anything to eat. I love to see the little pigs poking around they are so cute. Almost every place we have been, it has been grazed close to the ground. Here is a photo I took just coming into a village. This one has just been upgraded with streetlights.
Village X
