hey all, back to the land of the living and though i havent met montezuma, i have felt his revenge!
sorry ged no pics of waitresses or dancing girls.
rosco, we are to date at -55k not too shabby at all, and the next few days will put us in the plus category and over 12000k total. yes we are following the route planned, which was basically no route! and so far its working well floyd had waypointed some high lights here in peru, from a site he had visited "the short way round"
the southernmost town is Usbuia Arg.
Wow! we as you all know blitzed our way thru central america as it was the path to the real adventure and we certainly have found it here in Peru, unreal scenery, we have crossed over three passes that were each over 15000ft and the pass mark and I crossed the other day (a must do on marks checklist waypointed on g-earth) was 16000, an impossibly steep zig zagged road to above the andean glaciers, way cool we ever got snowed on a bit. I'm running a set of kenda k270's and the front tire has worn out way before the rear as a result of the braking required on the endless corners, it wouldnt be a stretch to say we've rounded well over a thousand switcback corners on dirt and pavement. We have had some challenging mud sections as well in the construction areas, one one section we passed a bus being dragged up a hill by a large haul truck and at one point i passed a bus (opposing) in mud that was actually oozing down the slope of the road, great stuff.
time for some pics as its been awhile, and as stunning as the scenery is here, the pics run a little behind the times. i mentioned a while back about some wild goings on around new years, everywhere we went, well whaddaya think.
every town we passed thru the roads were blocked by dressed up people looking for small change and way too may men dressed in drag, which is meant to be the wife of the paper mache puppet which will be burnt at midnight 9and leapt over) to bring good luck for the new year
you can be sure that floyd loves his "Crystal" seven day a week
when clearing out of bogota we stayed at a "motel" which in latin america is the place you go for an hour or so, for, "relations" nudge nudge wink wink, and even spend the night if yu like each room has a garage, for discrectionary purposes. it actually was a pretty nice place to stay and they even made us coffee in the morning.
for some reason there is a window for looking into the shower, why would anyone want to do that?
i got "lucky" and had a regular bed the other guy beds were heart shaped, i did however get heart shaped pillows and a condom placed on the towel beside the bed, and dead sexy mood lights over top
and speaking of sexy how bout those boots, hubba hubba, this was in panama city where it dumped utterly torrents of water for a couple of minutes, stopped and then again in the next couple, so we hid out at a gas station for a bit.
we came across a blocked road, where we proceed to ride up to the front of the line where robin would answer the questions that we get asked at every occasion, where are we from, where are we going, and how much does the bike cost
in equador we pulled into a gas stop and were suddenly swarmed by a bus load of very exuberant and semi drunk young men who were very happy to meet us and were offering some sort of clear booze in little shooter glasses, "but we're riding and can't drink" they said its ok as they were all police recruits
yup, a family of four and not a boot glove or helmet or even a sock between them
how else are you going to deliver glass in a town that revolves around moto based deliveries
at the equador peru border where we ate while waited (and waited) for the intermittent internet to catch up with our paperwork
the wires are covered with air plants that survive on the precipitation that hits it, and seem to thrive.
i was asked about language and communication, well heres a couple of spanish phrases for you.
"zona instables 100mts" a highway sign that roughly translated means, hang on because in 330 ft there is a good chance you are going to launch that big fat Klr over the uneven road ahead.
"toque claxon" , honk your horn as the corner you are about to round is so tight you need to give/receive warning to oncoming drivers that you are there.
"no addelantar", which means no passing, a sign that can be seen on a highway beside a double solid line, or a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, or as you approach a switchback corner on a scant one lane road, in reality each sign was bought and placed at fiscal year end as a way to spend money and in fact means nothing at all because you can pass or be passed anywhere anytime, and at any speed.
all for now more pics next time.
wayne
and now for some domestics, Mom glad your home from the hospital. And a huge thanks to those that are repeatedly shoveling my sidewalk.
