Parked my bike in Chiang Mai, flew to Sloveina to purge the carburetor on the CB 500, change passports and then straight to Lima for some more riding.
Of course the bike wasn’t ready. Motos del Peru was storing my bike. They have a fully operational workshop, they had a full list of what I wanted to be done on my bike in my absence and they had 8 months to do it. They changed the oil, they did. I hope. As for the rest, I didn’t want to get into a discussion and just moved my bike to another workshop (Endurance Motors), where I got the tires I wanted and the job was done some by myself and the rest just good enough. The bike worked. I rode to Pato canyon with a guy I met in the shop, William. A man that rode around the world. Twice. That was before I got my bike in the second shop and I was still thinking that all I need is just a new set of tires.
Canon del Pato was impressive. Amazing, probably the most bestest thing I’ve seen in Peru. A scary road, if you don’t like heights. A mostly one lane road carved into the walls of a deep deep canyon. Indiana Jones stuff. Most of the fallen bridges were fixed after the flood, but not the one down there, so there was a detour. A detour that makes the Death road in Bolivia to shame. Maybe not as much in scenery as in deadliness. Buses and trucks on an improvised one lane dirt road, with spectacular vistas that can take you straight down to hell. It was a fun ride!
After that I went back to Lima and got stuck there for almost a month waiting to fix all it had to be fixed on BC1. Don’t like the city that much, but the natives made me forget that I was waiting for so long, so it wasn’t that bad after all. Museums, Which markets and parties stretching early in the morning. Good times.
After the moto was ready, I hit the road south. Full of memories of the nights in Lima and hopes about the future on the road. I was on my way to achieve a dream. And that’s always an awesome feeling.
Nazca, Arequipa and some places in between. Sand dunes, riding in sand (on purpose), camping in the sand, New Year in Arequipa, surrounded by volcanoes and then lake Titikaka. I skipped Machu Picchu, because it was raining. A lot. Which reminded me of last March and the Camel Trophy kind of adventures.
I was very ready to leave Peru. Nice country, incredible history and the food! However, I was being pulled by something. Call it depression, expectation, determination or fear of missing out. I had to leave and get a fresh stamp in my fresh passport.
Bolivia is next…