I forgot the 170-degree reclining seats are great, but the tip-to-tail length of the “bed” is just short of comfortable for my 6’2” body. The arrangements are designed for Peruvians and they are in general not the tallest of people. Starting to sleep at 10:00 PM I was doing OK, until 2:00 PM and the bus was coursing through mountain switchbacks that tossed me back and forth. A gentle rocking is usually a good thing, it gets babies to sleep. In my case the hope of solid sleep to make up for no sleep the night before was over. Now two days running without proper rest, ugh. Whoever said adventure riding trips are easy never took a redeye flight to their starting point and then a night bus through the Andes.

By 7:30 AM the bus pulled into the Huanuco terminal and shortly I was in a taxi. The easiest direction for taxi drivers to the motorcycle shop is to say, "The Morgue de Huanuco." Yes, the motorcycle shop that I have been going to since 2014 is a few doors down from the city morgue. Sometimes the taxi drivers give a look and I quickly say in Spanish that I am going near the morgue, and then they understand the full picture.
 

To pass the time I fed a stray dog the high sodium cracker from the night bus. After half an hour or so, Toby Shannon came down the street from his apartment and we got working on the customization and modification for the 2022 Honda XRE that we had been discussing for a few months. He laid out the steps to get the motorcycle ownership in my name, and we spent time catching up in general.  By late afternoon the shop owner Jaime and the team were cutting and welding parts to customize the supports the panniers and installing engine guards (sliders.) These guys are great. We worked together to arrive at a design to support the panniers so the boxes’ weight would be supported without drilling holes into them. I brought straps and a general concept and they are making it happen. This kind of work would be very expensive in the US, but in Peru, the price will be reasonable. The work will continue into the next day.

Toby and I went to get the ownership transfer papers notarized and checked in with an insurance broker to learn the expiration date of the bike’s Peruvian insurance. While we were with the insurance broker, Toby asked if they sell Mercosur insurance. A Mercosur insurance policy will provide liability insurance for multiple countries in South America. The broker will have a quote for us tomorrow! If the Mercosur insurance comes through, I won’t need to buy insurance one at a time for each country on the trip. That means one Mercosur policy will cover: Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. The price of insurance will be about the same, but I won’t need to buy it five times!

Peru is celebrating Independence Day(s), so the transfer of ownership of the bike will be delayed by two days during the celebrations. The good news, Toby was told today that the paperwork may take less than the expected 2 weeks. If the paperwork is turned around faster, then I can enter Brazil sooner. 

It turns out I lost more items than realized to Colombian security. While changing planes I had to pass through security and they confiscated the dangerous tweezers and nail scissors. It turns out the checked the luggage that wasn’t transferred to my connecting flight was inspected (probably by x-ray) and the zip ties that I secured the luggage zippers pulls were carefully opened, and then put back in place! A large can of chain lubricant was removed. A sticker was slapped on the outside of the luggage stating there were dangerous articles inside.

I didn’t think much about the sticker when I first saw it at the airport in Peru because the zip ties were in place. The crafty security personnel in Colombia loosened the zip ties, removed the can of chain lubricant then put the zip ties back in place. This is not an easy task. While I was disappointed to lose the lubricant, I was impressed that they managed to reconnect the zip ties.