Copacabana To Tacna

After our few day taste of Bolivia we headed back into Peru with Tacna in sights in the hope of finding a new battery for Maya, while our battery is not dead yet we have had warnings with little cranking time meaning its reserve capacity is dying.

To avoid more road blocks and punch ups we took a shortcut across the desert which led us to and unexpected tarseal race track before turning into a real proper shingle back road, no sleep along the way for me today.

The road was interesting, mum nature threw in a couple of twisters dancing on the desert and having a race which was kinda cool.

Part way along there are some stunning coloured mountains with orange that looked straight out of the KTM factory, not sure what minerals the base is but the colours were very cool.



The elevation changes saw us up and down like a yoyo and we crested out at 4800 meters (15750 ft) in a very sandy part which required throttle and caution ..... it was as soft as an undercooked cake and some having a crust on it masking the soggy bit underneath.



The sandpit finally finished only to turn into a rock garden, nice change just lumpy but soon enough we were back onto a rutted sandpit ..... can’t win today... what happened to a good old fashioned shingle road!!



The occasional clump of greenery .... looked out of place



Back to a soggy sandpit bulldust style track



Nearing the end of the sandpit/offroad section I was getting tired, Maya was obviously getting tired too and decided to lay down for a rest, she is a heavy tart with house and contents on board and a handful on this stuff.



A local taking a shine to us with a true blue Peruvian moto wave.



Righting the stricken ship we made it to tarseal and headed for Tacna with the final part of the ride quite relaxing.

Now to get our mission on track we checked out the autoparts and moto area of Tacna, every supplier, tienda and workshop said no go for Yuasa, only Koyo or Toyo which I have not had good luck with so we passed, the rest of the avo spent enjoying Tacna central which might have included ice-creams and coffees ... as ya do when in a big town.

Ellen spotted this thinking it was funny ... in engrish it is anyway



Next stop, Chile, looking forward to that hearing the drivers are totally different and even respectful!!!.