Day: November 27, 2008

It was great waking up with the ocean right at the doorstep of the room. Went out early in the morning to take some pictures and a quick dip in the ocean then the swimming pool – felt really good after such a long day yesterday.
After breakfast we hit the road and immediately saw that this region of Northern Peru along the coast is a big desert. The roads are quite good and quite scenic.
We took a quick break around 1pm and kept on heading south towards Chiclayo.
At one point we went by a gas station and Marc looked back to see if I needed to fill up. Judging by the frequency of gas stations we had seen so far I thought I’d be OK until the next one. Big mistake.
Yes – today I ran out of gas – the only complain I have about my KTM Adventure 990 – the tank is a little too small – 5.1 gallons.
We were in the middle of the desert and I just knew that I was going to run out of gas – we slowed down to see if we could make it but after 60km with the reserve light on the bike simply shut down.
We signaled a car and he stopped but unfortunately it was a diesel pick-up. He told us that there was gas half an hour down the road and would be glad to take one of us – the other should stay with the bikes watching them. We decided against that because it would be faster if Marc went on the bike and brought some fuel back.
Fortunately there was a lady selling gas 4km down the road! So Marc brought one gallon back and we then put another gallon each.
We arrived in Chiclayo pretty early during the day but the next town that had hotels was 3 hours away so we basically had to stay here.
Not a very attractive town but from we have seen along the road here it’s quite nice.
We attracted quite a crowd when we were unpacking the bikes – they are always amazed at the size of the bikes, how fast they go and always want to know how much they cost. They are also quite surprised when I start talking in Spanish to them… they always assume that we are language-deficient gringos 🙂

From Motorcycle NY to SP

LOOOOOONG day – started at 9am and ended at 9pm!
Good riding this morning along the mountains of Ecuador – quite chilly
– and high up – we could notice that the bikes had a lot less power
and consumed less gasoline at these altitudes.
Around noon we started the descent towards the coast – the sky was
gray the entire day but fortunately no rain.
We had around 300 miles to cover today since between Riobamba and
Mancora there isn't much in terms of tourism at all – it is quite a
rural area with poor villages along the way.
The border… well… I was expecting the worst since we never
officially left Colombia or entered Ecuador.
A pair of helpers aided us through the whole process. After about 3
hours and some expensive bribes we were able to get the exit stamp
from Ecuador to get into Peru and the documentation for the
motorcycles to enter Peru, which only came after the Ecuadorian
customs also got a bribe. We were at fault but some good negotiation
of the fees were necessary – their initial figures were always cut
down substantially…
In any case – we got to Mancora at night – well worth the trip!!
There were so many hotel options that we had a hard time deciding
which hotel to stay in. We finally decided on one and it turned out to
be the best in town – very nice.
Slow internet so you'll have to wait for the videos of the past two
days 🙂

From Motorcycle NY to SP