After crossing back over the Huascarán National Park – in the rain and snow again, but this time on tarmac – we spent the night in Huaraz. The next plan was to visit René, a friend of Flo’s Dad in Lima, who had invited us to stay at his place. The ride there first lead through beautiful highlands at around 3’000m followed by a descent to the coast back into desert landscape. The coast was similar like up in the North. Pulling into a really rundown town it was difficult to find a hotel. Eventually we found one, which offered hourly rates.. and after seeing kitschi heart shaped dolphins on the walls and the plastic bedsheets our suspicion was confirmed – we where in a love hotel. But they had safe parking 🙂
The ride through Lima was one of the worst so far – driving was appalling, with people pushing and driving very close to you. One guy drove into Flo’s saddlebags twice and nearly run him off the road. We decided that you definitely had to be suicidal to ride a motorcycle through there. Although nobody died Flo would mess up his shoulder pretty bad – more to follow on the story. Arriving on the outskirts in Cienguilla at René’s place felt like arriving in heaven. We ended up staying for a whole week, chilling out by the pool and being spoilt with Swiss food – including Fondue and Cervelats! We had to go back into Lima though to get our suspension revised and buy some moto parts. On the way out of town with new tires crossing a busy intersection Kate gasped “I’m getting run over” into her intercom. Flo made the mistake to look back to see what’s going on, and taking the focus off the road for a fraction of a second. Unfortunately he didn’t see the big gap in the concrete in front of him. Hitting the gap in a slight curve the front tire lost traction immediately, and just before the bike hit the ground the tire found grip again, throwing Flo over the bike, trough the air and onto his shoulder. As he slid down the road next to his bike for almost ten meters Kate was in utter shock and did not expect Flo to get up again. However, after grinding to a halt he got up right away, moving out of the traffic. His right shoulder was hanging down pretty bad but Flo decided to get right back on the bike and ride home before the adrenaline wore off and major pain set in. We made it home about half an hour later, by this time he could not even lift his arm anymore or get off the bike by himself. His collarbone did not look like it was broken, but something must have been torn quiet badly. This one will need a couple of days and beers to heal!
The next day René took us to explore the region. We visited the ruins of a pre-Inka village which is surrounded by many open graves. In Peru the archaeological sites are not well protected and often are subjected to grave robberies. You could see sculls and pieces of ancient fabrics lying next to the recently plundered graves. It was quite sad to see that nothing was being preserved. We also visited Pachacamac, one of the most important religious sites in pre-Inka and Inka time, even more so than Machu Picchu. Many temples in this area are still waiting to be excavated. The main one you can go an look at to get a feel of what the town once used to be like.
The weather forecast predicted heavy rain in the mountains for the next week. Also Flo’s shoulder was still hurting; he needed assistance to get on the bike, open panniers and whatnot. So we decided to head down the coast on the nice road, instead of up into the Andes again direction La Paz/Bolivia also Flo became subject to endless bad jokes. The coast south of Lima was really stunning with the road leading through massive sand dunes and along steep cliff sides dropping down into the pacific. After a quick stop in Naszca to see the famous Nazsca lines we crossed into Chile. But just for a day!
