Peru....Part One....

Peru...Where our trip goes 'pear - shaped'.....keep reading.

Our arrival into Peru on the 4th September 2018 was an easy one. The border at Huaquillas is modern and organised. You can read about our experience crossing here 📝

Once away we rode down to Zorritos along the coast road (1N) for our first stopover. Cool little place, right on the beach, El Delphin, about 40 miles from the border. Shame it's just a one nighter.

From here we were heading for Chachapoyas, the Amazonas region of Northern Peru. Our ride there was certainly full of surprises, not all good. We didn't ride the way people may have expected us too though. We rode down the coast a little further and headed inland at Ciudad de Dios...obviously not in one hit...there were several more one nighters but just general stops and not really anything to write home about though in Piura we discovered that many of the roads in Peru were in really bad shape once you left the main arterial ones. Some of the town centres were a complete disaster. Imagine happily riding away on tarmac/asphalt looking for your lodgings and bam.....roads gone.....sand, potholes, gravel…..what the heck.....seriously dysfunctional roadworks.....anyways not to worry we took it in our stride and I dismounted at bits above my paygrade and Chris moved the bike. We rode to Chachapoyas on the 8 and 8B passing through Cajarmaca and Celendin.

Cajamarca and Celendin are Peruvian towns interesting in their own rights..... Cajamarca being famous for 'The Battle of Cajamarca' which resulted in the defeat of the Incan Empire by the Spanish in 1532..... and Celendin.....We did notice that we'd entered the 'land of the 'hatty people' as we affectionately referred to them as and this was confirmed by the fact that Celendin has a large 'Hat' monument and is famous for....yep....hats...straw woven ones called Sombrero Celendino. Different regions of Peru can be recognised by the hats the people wear. In this region 'Cajamarca' the hats were quite large and reminded us of tall Texan cowboy hats.

The road, the 8B is amazing with breath taking views, steep drops, twisties and all on asphalt....nice.…..eventually we enter the Amazonas region of Peru at Chacanto crossing the Maranon River and stop for a break in the little square.

And now the day began to change......no sooner than we had left the square the Softail started getting grumpy and 'lost the will' to get up the hills.....so we stopped …..again... and let that bike cool down.....Chris said it was like it was running out of fuel but it was 3/4 full. He managed to get it going again and off we went, only to discover that it was going to repeat it's issues...the fuel wasn't pumping properly....yikes...we've a long way to go yet...just under a hundred miles. We really didn't want to break down out here, that would have been a real headache. As the problem was worse going up, every time Chris got the bike going again he would push on as far as possible without stopping and then let the bike rest whilst I caught up.

And so we continued doing this for miles.......miles and miles actually....it worked and we enjoyed the views and the glorious sunshine, a cracking day apart from the problem.......but then we realised the sun was starting to go down and we needed to 'pick up the pace' a bit.....the Go Pro battery went....dam no more video.....by the time we reached Nuevo Tingo we were in total darkness. With only 23 miles to go we decided to continue steady away and get to our hostel at Chachapoyas.........and then the day went completely wrong......the asphalt disappeared and we found ourselves back on gravel in the pitch dark....For me this was a disaster.....I'd already lost the plot with gravel, to have to ride it in the dark flung me into a panic attack and as I tried to get out of the way of some Peruvian drivers (it's a single track road) I came out of a tyre track over some deeper gravel and that was it....lost control of the bike and down I went.....the bike fell on top of me.......needless to say there was a lot of squeaking and tears from me.

So here we were....not broken down.....crashed.....shit....what happens now???!!!!

Enter a 4 x 4 and three friendly Peruvians.

As I was lying on the ground under the bike squawking, Manuel, Miguel and Lesley pulled up behind us. They all jumped out to assist Chris and helped him lift the bike off me.....don't forget it's fully loaded and not as easy to pick up for one person. They helped me up but I couldn't stand. It was blatantly obvious I couldn't ride my bike....what now.....ambulance....police??? Nope...none of that. Turns out that these three 'good Samaritans' lived in Chachapoyas and knew the hostel where we were heading.....Miguel excitedly offered to ride my Sportster there.....with no other option available I handed him my helmet and gloves, the keys were still in it and Lesley and Manuel put me on the back seat of the 4 x 4. Miguel set off and after an initial wobble on the gravel rode like a pro....ha, ha Chris had a job to keep up....Miguel was a local and used to the roads and he could definitely ride a bike. They were as good as their word, dropping us off at the door of the hostel. Leslie knocked on the door and started explaining to the hostel owner what had happened as I crawled through the now open door and propped myself up against the reception desk. Miguel helped Chris parked the bikes up and once the three had checked we were ok they left. We couldn't thank them enough......the 'kindness of strangers'......you have to believe in it ❤

Enter Ingrid and Otto the owners of the hostel.....'HOSTAL CASA KUELAP', Chachapoyas.

So I first meet Ingrid as I'm laid on the floor......after an explanation from Leslie, Ingrid along with Otto takes control of the situation. First they change our room from an upstairs to a downstairs and get me in there, onto the bed and comfy. Otto goes for ice to put on my rather swollen ankle and a decision is made that if the ankle hasn't gone down by the morning then I have to go to the hospital......for now I need to rest .....we'll see what tomorrow brings.......

So that's how the trip went pear shaped...….more coming in Peru Part two...…...but before that whilst you're waiting..... take a peek at the video of the roads, the 8 and 8B.