Tue 18 Nov 2008
We´ve been riding on the moon or at least thats what Peru feels like. On the coast, huge dunes give way to bare red rock mountains and nothing grows. Not even weeds. The wind blows sand and dust and mist and gives the whole scene a washed out water color look. Heading south we turn left up dirt roads and ride half lost into the Andes. Following river valleys higher and higher we ride through little towns of ten or twenty buildings made of mud brick. There are no road signs so when we come to intersections we wait for someone to come by and ask them which road we should take. Sometimes we get where we´re aiming and sometimes we get somewhere else.
Like the day before yesterday. We were aiming at a town called Huancayo but ended up about 150 miles north. The road up was a full day of single lane dirt cut like a step into the side of the mountains. With two way traffic and thick fog. After a trying day, like Hanzel and Gretel, we found ourselvs in front of a hotel with a trout pond for our dinner and a hot springs for our tired bones.
Luck runs big both ways, and for balance, yesterday we were making good time on a paved road and set to get to town with time to walk around and take in the sights. But not thirty miles from our destination all traffic was stopped. We rode past cars and buses pulled to side and found some police. They said there were problems ahead. Some kind of protest with angry people armed with guns and rocks. They said if we went back a few towns there was another route through the mountains to the west. We hooked up with two other adventurous cars and struck out through farm fields and gravel roads, and then struck out all together. The tracks were a maze going nowhere.
Shannon and I gave up on that route and went back down to a small town perched above the paved road. We could see a good dirt road going in the direction we wanted and on it we could see groups of locals around roadblocks. We stopped and talked about what our next move should be. Go back and look for a place to stay and hope we could get through tomorrow or roll the dice and see what we could make happen?
We´re gambling men so we rolled the dice past rocks in the road and around trees cut to block the passage of cars, but we were on motorcycles. Arriving at the first group of locals, we rolled in with our engines off. They said pas on by, the guy we needed to talk to was at the next blockade.
Coming to a group of about twenty men behind a tree cut across the road, one stood up and said You can´t pass here! I took off my helmet and walked around the tree to introduce myself. Shaking hands all around, passing out cards with my picture and a map of our trip, and being as respectful as I could, I explained that we were in a bad way. With darkness falling we had to make Huancayo fast. We had no place to stay and the roads are dangerous at night. He thought about it for a minute and said we could ride the paved road and take our chances there. But another guy from the group argued that it was safer to take the back roads. I agreed and after some conversation, the boss man said OK.
Riding up the good dirt road, our two adventurous car loads of friends could still be seen in the red dust of sunset looking for a passage out of the fields.