Peruvian desert

The trip down the coast of Peru from Chiclayo along the Pan-American highway was a quick and easy ride to the city of Trujillo, the third largest in Peru. We cruised into town and headed toward the Plaza de Armas, the central plaza of this city founded by the Spaniards in 1535.

Cathedral in Trujillo, Peru

After a couple of nights in Trujillo, we headed further south along the coast wanting to see the city of Huaraz in the highlands. There are three roads that we could take to Huaraz and after talking with some locals decided that the longest route would be our best bet. The road from the north has rough sections of dirt, the road straight east from the Pan-American highway is paved, but we were told would probably have sections washed out from the recent rains. The third route would involve going further south, to the town of Barranca, then turning back to the north-east up the better paved road. Our choice was simple, since this is the rainy season in the highlands, we chose to stick to the better, paved road.

A few weeks ago in Otavalo, Ecuador, Dave talked with six guys from Italy that have left their bikes in South America for several years and fly over each year to ride for several weeks. Proving how small a world this really is, we checked into a hotel in Barranca and found four of the six Italians lounging around the pool. We spent only one night in the port town of Barranca before heading into the highlands to Huaraz.

Huaraz is located between the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca - the Black and the White Mountains - in the Roi Santa valley at over 10,000 feet. The Cordillera Blanca is called this because it has many glacier covered peaks. More than 50 of these peaks are above 18,000 feet. The ride treated us to many spectacular views. Starting at the Pacific Coast we headed inland through a flat arid area along the Fortaleza River then rose slowly past stands of cactus, before ascending many switch-backs through small villages, cresting at 13,400 feet before riding across the wide open altiplano with dramatic snow covered peaks to the east and the lower, darker rocky peaks to the west.

Rush hour traffic

Road to Huaraz, Peru

Riding in the Clouds

On the altiplano with St Francis

Since it is the rainy season in the highlands we expected at least some rain, but we were very lucky as the weather pleasant for the remained our trip up the mountain and back down the next day.

We had been warned that it is very common for tourist that are driving to be stopped by the police for "traffic infractions" and usually have to pay the fine on the spot. The police are paid so little here that it appears to be an accepted practice for supplementing their income. On the way back down from Huaraz we were stopped by a police officer and he went through all of our documents one at a time looking for something to give cause for a fine. The more we talked, the less Spanish I was able to speak. I felt if I played dumb the officer would not want to waste his time with me. Eventually he asked for our international insurance, and I gave him our importation documents i.e. "permiso" and told him that that is all we received when entered Peru. He left for a few minutes, got on his radio then came back with the words "I need to see your international insurance" written in English on his clip board. I then handed him our insurance cards from Indiana. He accepted this and sent us on our way.

One hour later a bus passed us and then another police officer flagged us down. He had that "Georgia State Trooper" swagger and quickly started to lecture me on the dangers of speeding, then pulled out "THE BOOK". This book lists the infraction and the amount of the fine. He pointed to the line that showed that the fine for traveling at 80kph in a 30kph zone was $36. I nodded in agreement that speeding was dangerous and told him that the speeding bus that just passed us was "muy peligroso" (very dangerous) He again pointed to the book showing what the fine was and I theatrically nodded and said in very poor Spanish that I know speeding is dangerous and those buses scare me because they go so fast, then asked if he saw that bus just pass us going "muy rapido"

At this point I think the officer was wondering what kind of moron he was dealing with. Even Deb, who was having a pleasant conversation with the younger officer, interrupted me to ask what I was doing. She did not realize that we were being asked to pay a fine for doing more than twice the speed limit in the exact location where a bus had just passed us. After more elaborated pointing at his book and me saying yes speeding is dangerous, his partner asked where else we had gone near Huaraz. I took this opportunity to get out our guide book to show all the places we had been and planned to go. This was enough of a distraction that the older officer gave me back my driver's license (a sign that he had given up on collecting money for us) and started looking at the guide book and asking questions about the bikes.

At another point in our journey toward Lima, we were stopped and told that the road was only to be used by trucks and buses. We said we hadn't seen any signs but thanked them for letting us know. Once again, they pull out "THE BOOK" to show us that the fine for the infraction "misuse of the road" was $50 each. We kept acting like we didn't understand and finally the officer acted like he was doing us a huge favor by letting us go and perhaps he deserved something for putting his neck on the line for us. We just thanked him and set out on our way - back to the PanAm where motorcycles are allowed!

We were stopped a couple more times and accused of speeding but we simply denied it and they let us go each time.

Finally, we made it to Lima and the traffic became too heavy for the police to stop us anymore. We stayed on the Pan-Am highway all the way through the city and although clogged at times, it was easier getting through than we had expected. We decided to stay in a suburb called Miraflores on the south side of Lima. It was so different from the other cities in Peru, it was cool, clean, quiet and relatively safe. We took a nighttime bus tour of central Lima, the buildings and plazas looked so pretty in lights. The next day, we took a taxi back to the central area and toured an old Franciscan monastery with its catacombs, the cathedral and the national art museum.

Lima at night

Library with books hundreds of years old

Catacombs in San Francisco monastery

Statue in San Francisco monastery

We spent almost 2 weeks in Miraflores, walking all over the city, eating in cafes that lined the plaza or strolling along the waterfront parks that sit on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean.

Miraflores, Peru

We also made friends in Miraflores. We met Bill and Norma on the tour bus the first night we arrived and they invited us over to their home to watch the Super Bowl with their friend Roy who is originally from London, Dave's home town. They had an apartment overlooking the Pacific and we arrived just as the sun was setting. It was a stunning scene (and the game was good).

We also met Eduardo and his friends through a guy named Josh we met in Costa Rica. One Sunday, six of us went on a motorcycle ride to another small town about 30 minutes from Lima. We had a great time seeing the sites, stopping at a lookout point where we could see the coast of Lima stretched out before us. It was great to have tour guides that also rode. Eduardo has a website for Honda XT 500's http://pulpo.bounceme.net/xt500/ and would like to meet other motorcycle travelers, and Vladimir is a motorcycle mechanic at the KTM dealer.

Motorcycling friends - Dave, Deb, Carolina, Vladimir, Eduardo, Patsy