Yesterday was a day that should have broke our spirits, it should have decimated us, made us throw in the towel on this Adventure Travel BS. But is could not, we stood stronger than ever and instead of crying we laughed and as the saying goes “Soldiered On.” The Clearance of our bikes was never captured on the computers at SUNAT (Customs of Peru) and therefore no one knew what to do or how to handled this as we had confirmation Emails saying the suspension on our TIPS were lifted and we could take our bikes after they were inspected, within 24 hours. But they never came to inspect the bikes. The Custom people at the border1s Head Office did not know what to do and they tried phoning the big boss in Lima for help, and he was probably on a golf course or in a pub (it was a Saturday,) so they just kept trying to get direction from above. It was a monumental effort from Rocky who sat and snored away at the chair next to the junior Customs lady (he tells us he don’t snore, but he does when sitting in a chair.) He would wake up every hour and then ask the junior to check with the senior.
What I forget to mention is that we only got through the border at 3h00. They only got the go-ahead from Lima to re-do our paperwork, do an inspection and then capture the photos and VIN Numbers of the bikes and issue us with a stamp so we could proceed to the Chilean side of the border where we had to get a new TIP for our bikes into Chile, and then they wanted to put all our luggage through a X-Ray Machine. No fruit was allowed, they said nothing about Cocaine, but fruit was a no-no, and the sniffer dog kept on sitting down at Pies leg, he told the officer he had no fruit in his bag, but Pie was stripped searched (ok that is a lie,) and they found a small piece of Nartjie Peel in his bag. Rocky, who had been carrying a bottle of Wine Rum from Brazil with him for days had to dump all the lemons he had been carrying from which we were going to mix Capharinhias Cocktails.
We ate lunch and dinner form the vending machines, we sat like boemelaars (homeless people) under the trees on the grass in the afternoon, but when the border got quiet around 22h00 we started sleeping under the trees. After midnight the guys rolled their riding gear into cushions and started sleeping in the fetal position, while the nozzles and other animals used and abused us. I have 3 bite marks that may or may not be from a deadly tree spider, time will tell.
The photo above was earlier in the day, many hours we were all lying on this patch of grass, except Peens and Rocky, they were snoring on the 2 chairs in the custom office (they chased us out as we were sitting on the steps as there was only 2 chairs in front of the Supervisors Office.
We arrived at 10h15 and left at 3h15, but there was also a two hour time zone difference, se we actually waited at the border for 15 hours and lost 2 hours to time zone change, so in our day we lost 17 hours.
We then had to ride to the closest town which turned out to be a Resort Town on the coast. We checked in at 3h45 and collapsed into bed. My feet wake me up 10 minutes later and I went to shower and then collapsed again, properly. We set our alarms to make the 10h30 Breakfast cut-off. The we leisurely packed out bikes and set of into the desert.
Chile is clean, the people are much wealthier and instead of staying in huts they stay in high-rise apartments, have not seen a Tuk-tuk and the roads are wide and in good condition and we have definitely taken a step-up from Peru.
But none of our chargers are working as the Plug Points are different, so some us could not charge anything last night, but of course “some of us” went to Reception and “Borrowed” Adaptors. note to Self ;Pack such an adaptor for next trip;
The desert road did not follow the coastline but ran South about 20km inland, it was a good road (we are back on the Pan American Highway.) There were very little traffic and the scenery was great, for a desert. here are some photos of the road today:
I could not believe how many people died on this road we traveled on today, we passed at least 100 little shrines for people who lost their lives on todays road, and it is mostly a straight road, through the desert. Sone shrine’s were really big, like a Zozo Hut (Garden shed,) with the front removed so you can see in, and some were built by bricks and artists had painted the face, or faces of those that dies at that spot. One was very big and there was a blown-up photo on the back wall of the guy that died there, at least 3m by 2m big.
We did go through 1 toll gate which caused chaos as we still don’t have Chilean Money (oh boy do we have Bolivian Money!!!! what will we do with it now that we can’t go there,) and they don’t accept Dollars, but Millsy’s credit card did still work and for that we thank his lovely wife Jax.
We put in all the fuel we bought for Bolivia and the bikes are now much lighter. I can believe we had two bad and hard days in a row. The lady form the South African Bolivian Consulate is very upset and embarrassed by what happened to us and tells us she will be writing a letter of complain to their Minister of Tourism to complain about the Border Officials, which she say she out-ranks and should have listened to her, but it is water under the bridge, I will never try to go to Bolivia. Even today she sent Peens a message (I think she likes him, for his fish supplies,) that we should return to another border and then we can enter and see the Salt Flats, but it is too late, we already found Salt Flats in Argentina we will visit, it night not be the biggest and the highest, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
We headed for another Resort Town on the coast and we did hit the Jackpot with our hotel, it is on the water and really very cheap, and they will have Proper Breakfast. Although I am wondering if we are going to sleep tonight as they have a private party tonight around the Pool Deck and already the DJ is warming up his speakers and the duf duf duf has already started, and we have not even had dinner yet and the sun is still shining.
The Hotel Peens found on his GPS (he is really good with finding gems, he also found us a very good local restaurant tonight by chatting to his newest best friend, a waiter form Cuba who will probable ket a kick-back from the restaurant he recommended, but it will be local and it will be good. There are few things that tastes so good as a beer after a day on the bike. The weather has changed now that we are down at sea level, the water gloves has been swapped with Summer gloves and all the vents and zips on our riding gear are open, the layer of clothes has also disappeared, life is good, again, (still.) We are next to the Title Pool and right on the beach.
And the winner of the Bano of Peru Competition is ………………….. (A bano is the name for a Public Toilet)
I needed to invent this Award to tell the story about this toilet:
Note the electrical wires connected to the Shower Head. But using this toilet was a humbling experience for me as the lady who runs the Local Eatery where we ate two nights ago, high in the Andes Mountains, in a little village, Cookes the food, she serves the food, she also stays in this little building, at the back, and was proud to offer me her toilet when I needed a toilet. Her smile was genuine and she was proud to host tourists, (she called her friends and we were shown off,) but her food was fresh and tasty, her dog begged for scraps and even he had a smile on his face. All of a sudden I don’t feel the need to up-grade my Bathroom any time soon. I am so blessed, and I hope I never forget how privileged we are.
Tomorrow we continue South for the morning before turning East towards Argentina, and another Andes Mountain Crossing on Tuesday.
Go Big Or Go Home !!!!!
Fleisch
Clearly I haven’t been shopping enough 🤣