We had a bad meal last night in a “restaurant” without a toilet and it served no alcohol. We bought some Peruvian Red Wine (tasted much better after the 1st glass) and warm beer from the little shop next-door. Mike, the fellow traveler we bumped into on the road joined us for dinner. He has done 10 000km more than us, so he is on 115 000km and we are around 105 000km, he is French and he travels on his own, that take guts, he is a nice guy, we only had one night together in Ecuador and he left early the morning to go and see a Doctor as his BMW GS fell on him and he got badly burnt on his calve. He left before us this morning but we caught him as he stopped to speak to two French Cyclist heading North. At lunch we ended up in the same village at the same time,  it only had one little eatery which I think is the families dining room which they converted. We looked at the menu and ordered mouse for Danny Boy, but it was lost in translation as we all got served the same, a watery soup, warm home-made juice and a plate of chicken with rice and carrots.

The road today was our most challenging and technical yet, we only did 158km but it took the whole day as we only had 10km of tar, luckily the tar was on the very twisty mountain pass going up. The rest of the day was spent on the gravel, it felt like we were riding in Lesotho again, except 1000m higher. Today 38km was on a road being constructed and we had many stop-and-go’s, and the Grader Men with their sadistic Water Tanker-mud-maker friends were out in force. I struggled for the 1st few hours as I knew it was going to be a tuff day, I gripped the handlebars so tight that both my hands went numb with pins and needles, but as the day progressed I got into a rhythm and thanks to many trips in Lesotho with my friend Slang, the confidence returned and I started to relax, one gets used to the wobbly feeling on the loose marble road and the slide into a corner as you brake, you remember which line to take, not too close to the apex and always making sure your line is not going into the powdery soft sand around the edge of the corner.

Every little village we had to ride through had a village square with some form of art or garden or statue and their village’s name. The locals were not used to seeing big Adventure Bikes and we caused quite a spectacle as we rode through each little village.

Our “hotel” tonight has no wi-fi that works, so I am using my phone, so not too many photos today, sorry, but here are some of todays photos:

Danny-Boy was on Rockies bike and Rocky was driving the Rally Car that Danny-Boy hired. Rocky was seen drifting the car sideways through the corners to try and keep-up to the bikes, and as a result the rally-car got a puncture and poor Danny Boy was called back to change the tyre as he was the one that hired the car, so he has to change the wheel.

Below is a photo of Mike, who also rode in Alaska like us,  but he took a canoe down the Yukon River, 750km, in 10 days, then took a bus back to his bike. I wonder if our paths will cross again, he took a turnoff to lower ground but will also stay in the mountains.

Our only tar road today was the very vicious pass down and up the mountain,  thankfully this was tar as this pass was on another level.

There were hardly any other vehicles on the road today, but you know Murphy, Peens took the wrong split in the road and as he was making a U-Turn he fell just as a truck approached, and the truck just blew its horn and kept coming.

See photo below: When we got to this section I looked down and then thought an Ambulance would not be needed if you go over the side, not that we have their phone-number or cell phone signal.

Our little town only has one hotel, although it is still under construction, I did not hear how much our rooms were but I hope it is less than last nights $7-50 as the rooms are much worse, the hot-water is literally drops of water, how do you mix cold water with it, more drops, so taking a shower was a slow process to get the whole body wet.

But it is on a beautiful Plaza and we sat on the street and had a beer, Pie made new friends and with Google Chat on his phone had a conversation. He did point to a restaurant and was asking the man if that was the only restaurant but the translation went slower than his pointing hand and as he pointed a woman walked past, then the man then typed on his phone before he read Pies question about the restaurant on Pie’s phone and he informed Pie proudly that yes, the woman Pie pointed to was his wife.

Peens also used Google Translate to find the address of the local Machanic which was woken from his afternoon nap to fit the Rally Car’s tyre.

Danny Boy also showed us a trick all the youngsters of today know, you open Chrome or your Google App on your phone, then you click on the little Camera Icon and then you hold your camera over the menu and it then reads the menu, you click Translate and the menu is translated to English, slim ne!!!

As you can see below, we are still high in the mountains and our progress South to Lima is slow, but we only need to be in Lima on Wednesday evening, so we can enjoy Adventure Riding a little longer. But I must admit, it would be nice to find a town big enough to have a Laundromat, or a town with a selection of hotels and restaurants, we have really not been given any choice in these small towns, but there is a vibe and we really can say we saw Peru the way very very few people has seen it. We are at the blue Dot tonight.

My phone’s data lasted, but the phone has been beeping Spanish Messages, so it might be coming to an end, so let me end today’s Blog here.

Good night

Fleisch