The love, what a fantastic place to ride what is the best of the Andes thus far, there is no dispute the Peruvians are the Zig Zag kings.
The Peruvians across the board were great, some a little long faced (indigenous mainly for some reason) and some outstanding so a normal cross section of people.
Mr Whippie at the protests also took things too far, looking back on it it was unnecessary what he did, maybe I am getting softer in my old age as I think back a few years I would have hoped off the bike and clopped him one, understanding their protest it does not give him the right to whip us with sour intentions...especially to a lady (Pau), brownie points lost there.
There is actually a strong moto syndicate within Peru and you do not have to go for for help.
Our two very big thank you’s are to Toby and Sara (around the block tours) in Huanuco and Alex in Peru Moto Tours in Cusco, both guys took delivery of stuff and helped us along the way, Tobys local know unmatched by anyone else for moto knowledge, few day stay at their B&B will enrich your trip.
The hate, two big aspects to this, firstly the rubbish, they simply do not respect their beautiful country and just throw rubbish anywhere and everywhere which is a crying shame, they just don’t give a crap, education has fallen short here big time.
The second hate is the drivers, I simply can’t grasp the concept of having a nice and friendly human being talking and enjoying a chat then getting into a car and having no bones about running you off the road .... WTF comes to mind, total Jekyll and Hyde.
On top of that we had the lite head on with the small moto completely on our side on a blind corner, we saw first hand damage to two other adventure riders bikes from wanker bus drivers not respecting others which is unnecessary.
Remember these fellas complete with safety T shirt
The use of horns is one thing but the overuse of horns pisses you off in a short space of time, I found myself getting angry with them which is frustrating, again dog eat dog and you just have to turn into an arsehole or fail and likely get run down, heading into Chile was a night and day refreshing difference with respectful drivers, come on Peru, it isn’t that hard and will cost you nothing.
For me these two things really took the shine off Peru for what is otherwise an awesome country, I know that others think the same way.
On a positive note the Huascaran National Park stole our hearts with outstanding beauty and reminders of New Zealand, I guess when it is close to your “home heart” it tends to mean more.
Also to ride from sea level and 38 deg C and and hour and half later be at 4800 meters with snow setting on you was a different experience one of which we really enjoyed.
While we can ride from beach to snow in New Zealand we simply don’t have the elevational changes that Peru offers and given we were constantly 1.30 km higher than the highest point in New Zealand that was kinda cool for us and have a new appreciation for heights.
To sum up, barring the arsehole drivers Peru for us was outstanding and I would recommend it in a heartbeat, stay away from north west Peru, dive into north east Peru and start loving it, Kuelap was outstanding and we preferred it to the mighty Macchu Picchu, there are also magic waterfalls in this region.
The scenery is stunning and will warm your sensors without doubt, get off the main drag and enjoy it, we did and it made our trip
.
No comments:
Post a Comment