Today had it all, the good, the bad and the ugly. Since chronological order is the least confusing, I will start with the bad. The border crossing, what a mess. It took 4.5 hours to make it though. Three hours to get my passport stamped by broth countries. and 1.5 hours to get the motorcycle though. But I was though, and on my way to Peru.
When I first crossed, I thought that just possibly I had gone though a wormhole, not a border. As soon as I entered Peru I encountered poverty beyond compare to any of the other South American countries, especially in contrast to the relative riches of Ecuador. It was akin to crossing from Nogales, Texas to Nuevo Nogales, Mexico. The clean to the dirty. The town of Tumbles, Peru was a mess, rundown buildings, missing walls, people begging in the street, garbage everywhere. I was a bit stunned. After a couple of miles, I felt as the wormhole had dropped me into Vietnam or Laos. There was nothing but 1,000s of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled open air taxis) and rice fields. I was hoping that Peru, just like Mexico, would improve as I increased distance between myself and the border.
Now the good, wow, this place turned into paradise. The road started weaving along the coastline, and I felt as though I had been wormholed to the stretch of the PCH just below Santa Barbara. Just beautiful. The waves crashing along the beach, surfers spaced sporadically along the shoreline, the temperature a very agreeable 80 degrees. I pulled into Mancora, checked into my beach bungalow, and here is where I now sit. listening to Pink Floyd, and typing this entry as I gaze out over the Pacific. And as luck would have it, the whales are running this time of year, and two humpbacks just went past my door, about 100 yards off the beach. Ahhhhh. All for $23 a night. If you never hear from me again, and I owe you money, you may want to send your hit man here to find me :-).
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| The view from my porch |
Now the ugly. I went down today. Fell. First time in 30 years. Riding along on a sand road (5 mph), came around a corner, and hit deep sand, front wheel starting digging in and twisting to the right, tried a hard left and hard power to try and pop out ,,, no luck, back end just kicked, and down I went, front wheel buried to the axle. No damage to the bike, the only thing that got dinged up was my ego. Blah! I was unable to free the bike, and just as I started unloading it, a car stopped, two guys jumped out and assisted me to get Bertha back on her feet. Seeing the whales managed to make it all better :-).
Trip Summary
Today's Leg: 115 miles
Total Distance Traveled: 7,189 miles
Total Borders Crossed: 10
Total Countries Visited: 11
Total Times Stopped by the Police/Tickets Issued: 10/0
Shaken Down by the Police/Total Paid: 3/0
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