The Race Thus Far

The past week seems like so long ago. On Thursday I got to get my first taste of what driving the mototaxi would be like. It took some practice. The whole key was the gas to clutch ratio. We got to know the ends and outs of the bikes. By the end of the day I felt like a motobike mechanic.

Saturday we moved to the San Jeronimo Hotel in San Jeronimo. San Jeronimo is a municipality of Cuzco. The reason we left from there was because mototaxis are banned in Cuzco. The hotel was really nice but it stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the shanty homes and buildings of San Jeronimo. That evening we had a party in the plaza thrown by the mayor. They had a live Peruvian band and even a beer tent. It seemed like the whole town was there to see us. The night was capped by a homemade fireworks display. It was one of the best Ive ever seen.

Sunday was the launch of the race from the same plaza. After getting the bike loaded up and our superhero customes on we left from the hotel to fill our extra gas can. That was the first test of driving the bike. Before it was just in circles on the hotel´s soccer field. It wasn´t too hard getting down to the gas station. The trouble was getting up. We had almost made it to the square when the chain fell off. I thought at least it happened before we left instead of on the road. I would eat those words later on in the day. It turned out that the chain had one extra link so we removed it. When everyone had arrived the mayor said a few words and then we got a blessing from some Quecha priests. It was really cool. When the race started we were 3rd for most of the time. We managed to pull ahead and lead for 3/4 of the way. Then James wanted to drive. He hadn´t driven really because he arrived Saturday. He was doing really well until he decided to vear off into the opposite lane and go into the ditch. Another team was on the opposite side stopped and they ran over to help us push it back onto the road as a semi came around the blind curve. Nothing bad happened until about 10 KM outside Sicuani. That was were the chain came off again. I was fixing it but a local guy stopped and helped us out. That night us and a few other teams managed to find a hostal with secured parking.

Monday started out bad. First we couldn´t get the bike started. Some guys helped us try to push start it but it didn´t work. We managed to get a local mototaxi driver to tow us to a mechanic. There we spent 4 hours. They fixed our choke, tailpipe, rear brake pedal, and spokes on our wheel. When we were finally off things were starting to look up. About 40 KM outside Juliaca our chain fell off again. After I got it fixed and back on we attempted to leave. We weren´t going anywhere. One of the local boys at the gas station pointed to the same tire. It was flat. Now I had the wonderful opportunity to change my first tire tube. Another team stopped and helped us out. It took 3 times to get it right. The first two we knicked the tube when we were putting the tire back on so they didn´t hold air. Since it took so long getting the tire fixed we now got to drive 90 minutes in the dark to Juliaca. This was one of the most scarriest things I have ever done. First off all it was freezing. Secondly the other cars don´t allow much room when they are passing you. I almost got ran off the road a few times. When we got to Juliaca I had to drive in the local traffic weaving in and out of them. That was an experience that I pretty muched aced. When we got to the hotel I was exhausted. That drive had taken so much out of me.

Yesterday I felt the same way. James drove almost the whole time because I was just so haggard. I mananged to take a nap in the taxi for awhile. The drive was amazing though because a good amount of time was along Lake Titicacca, the worlds highest lake. I couldn´t believe how big it was. We arrived here in Desaguadero yesterday afternoon and found 8 other teams waiting. The paperwork we received was incorrect. There were too different signatures instead of just one. We stayed in a shit hole hostal with no running water and no working toilets. I ended up going to bed at 7:30 because I was still so tired.

This morning I awoke at 5 and felt like a million dollars. We were told that we would have the correct paperwork at 6. Then 6 became 8, 8 became 10, 10 became 12, 12 became 2, and now 2 has become 4. At this point I hope we are able to leave today. La Paz is 3-4 hours though. Its looking like more night driving. Hopefully my next update doesn´t still find me at the border. Cheers.

J

Busses Are What Makes You A Real Traveler

Imagine getting on a bus with a bunch of strangers you can't communicate with and getting stranded in the middle of the Andes Mountains with 8 hours left of the 22 total. Well thats what happened to me on my way to Cuzco, Peru. First I almost missed my bus from Ayacucho. It was leaving at 7 AM and I must have not heard my alarm on my watch and woke up at 6:30. I freaked. I knew that I had to make that bus because the rest of the next week sorta depended on it. Thankfully I packed everything the night before so I could just get dressed and leave. There were no cabs outside so I started running. Previously the night before I walked the route to make sure I could get there in enough time and that I wouldn't require a cab. That helped tremendously because I knew the route and the amount of time it would take me to walk it. But I still chose to run most of it just because I didn't want to get left behind. Hell for all I knew if all the locals were on the bus why would they wait for one lowely Gringo? I did manage to get there with plenty of time to spare.

The first leg was supposed to take 10 hours. Amazingly it only took 8. When I got there I had 2 hours to kill so I just walked around the city. The bus basically left on time. I had a bad feeling about getting on that bus just because of the way it looked. The seats weren't in the best of shape and it just looked like it had been around for a long time. You don't really sleep on a bus completely. Its like a dream almost. You fall asleep for a bit and then wake up not knowing where you are it and if you are any closer than you were before you fell asleep. Combine that with the most curvy, bumpiest gravel roads you can imagine and you've got a hell of a bus ride. We made our first stop around 10 for the bano (bathroom), and snacks. At around 11:45 PM I was suddenly awoken by people running by me to get out of the bus. "Cuzco", I asked? "No" he said. Then I noticed a lot of black smoke comming through the bus and the bus struggling to start. I got up and got out just before the driver opened the engine cover located next to him by the seat, and saw massive amounts of smoke and steam come out. At first I thought he poured water on it to cool down the engine. But then after he tried starting it and nothing happened I knew we were in for a long night or even the next day. I'm assuming the radiator blew. We stayed outside for sometime while the driver and everyone else tried calling the bus people. I couldn't understand them but I'm sure it was nothing but profanity.

After about 30 minutes it had gotten rather cold. I'd say it was easily in the 40's. The bus driver had turned the lights off but put a cone well behind the bus so no one would hit us and a bucket some feet ahead too. At that time I decided that I could either stand there and freeze my ass off or get inside and be somewhat warm. The factor was that there were guard rails on the side of the cliff and the bus was in gear so it would have to take a lot of force for a vehicle coming up the hill to hit us and push us off the cliff. I woke up around 6 with nothing but people yelling. It was rather comical to hear all the old ladies yelling and pounding on the windows. Even though I wasn't freaking out I couldn't help but wonder how long we might be there. I knew that the worst case scenerio would be 11 PM or so when the next scheduled bus would come through. Then it would depend on if that bus had room for the 30 of us or so that needed to get on. Thankfully around 7 a bus from another company came to pick us up. Im assuming it was send there by my bus company because it was completely empty. 5 hours later and we were finally in Cuzco. I've been on a lot of crazy bus rides in many countries but given the unusual circumstances this one takes the cake. I come to find out later that a couple from the UK that are doing the Junket were pulled off by gun point and ordered to lay on the ground during their bus ride from Lima to Cuzco. Thankfully the worst that happened was cash and a passport being taken. Now that is a bus ride.

Livin' It Up In Lima

I arrived in Ayacucho, Peru, at 8 AM this morning after an 11 hour bus ride last night from Lima. Somehow I came up with this great plan to party all night on Thursday and not sleep so I could sleep on the bus. Even though I had a blast with a bunch of people I met at the hostel, I'm still trying to recover from the festivities of that night.

Lima was much more than I expected. Lima is made up of 5 or 6 municipalities that are essentially different towns. They vote for their own mayor, have their own police force and fire department, and are in charge of their own utilities. I stayed in the nicest and richest one, Miraflores. It was very modern and clean but yet still had a charm that you only find outside of the USA and Western Europe. My first day I walked around Miraflores and ending up taking a tour of Huaca Pucllano. These ancient ruins existed from 200 A.D. to 700 A.D. There were many sacrifices there as the priests who governed a number of surrounding valleys wanted to show their complete dominance. The once great pyramid was built using 7 levels. The government is slowy unearthing it as well as trying to recreate it.

Thursday two hostel-mates and I went on a open air bus tour of Lima. It was a bit pricey but we got to see almost all of Lima. I expected downtown Lima to be the typical 2nd or 3rd world city, rundown and borderline desolate. But it wasn't. In fact it still has a great number of buildings from the 17 and 1800's. So that alone surprised me. We stopped by the Monastery of San Francisco towards the end of the trip to see the 16th Century church as well as the catacombs beneath it. While we were there we got to see a taping of either a commericial or promos for a show or movie. It had a number of Peruvian women dressed up in 17th Century clothes.

I had a great time in Lima. Like I always say though, you could be in one of the worst places in the world and still have a good time as long as you have a good place to stay and are surrounded by great people. Both of which I was once again so fortunate to have. I was going to post some pictures along with this entry but I have come to find out that my USB thumb drive for my memory card is gone. Im assuming I left it at home. SOOO Im going to try to by one in Cuzco as most of the stores here are closed. Until then, cheers.

Signs Of What Are To Come???I Hope Not

Whenever you start a journey, whether it be a big vacation to another country or as simple as driving six hours for a weekend romp in a neighboring city, you never want something bad to happen that could ruin the course of your journey before it even starts. Even if you don't believe in bad omens you can't help but tell yourself, "Great, what a way to start my trip." That's exactly what happened today after I arrived in Chicago.

First I open my bag to repack a bit. I told myself I was going to "travel light" this trip but it didn't turn out that way. So I was taking a few things out and trying to make my bag less bulky when the zipper decided to break when I zipped it up. It pulled apart behind the zipper head. This zipper breaking process has happened to everyone at least once in their lives. I wasn't too alarmed because it happened to me twice last spring in SE Asia but I managed to fix it. This time I wasn't so lucky. If the bag breaking wasn't bad enough now I had to fork out money for a new bag when my budget is already tighter than it needs to be.

Secondly we spent 90 minutes going in a circle trying to get to REI. First we went in a circle that took about 45 minutes before I broke out the GPS on my phone to get directions. To my defense it was the State of Illinois's fault. How was I supposed to know the exits on I-90 were going to stop at 89 A and then suddenly start over at 44 when the exit I needed was 49 A. I think anyone would have turned around in my shoes and went back the other way thinking they were going the wrong way because the numbers kept getting bigger.

Thankfully I don't really think that those are meant to be bad signs about my pending trip. You don't have a lot of control over things that happen on a trip but you have enough. The key is to use common sense and not loose control over a situation that could sway towards the bad side.

My flight leaves tomorrow at 9:40 AM. After a three hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, I arrive in Lima, Peru around 10 PM. I can't wait!



My poor broken backpack. You've been to 18 countries, 3 continents, Alaska twice, the Yukon once, and many, many other places across this great country. It was the best $250 I ever spent. R.I.P