Day 164-166 – Miraflores, PE

Day 164-166 – Miraflores, PE      02/01-03/11       Mileage: 0

I spent the last three days running errands, getting a haircut, laundry, working on the blog and giving the KLR some much needed TLC. I’ve been riding mostly dirt for the last 10 days through southern Ecuador and northern Peru and in the last few days especially the bike has really taken a pounding. I changed the oil and filter, changed both front and rear brake pads, adjusted the chain, cleaned the air filter and a few other odd and ends.

NOW I feel like I’m back in civilization…a Starbucks!

Next time I’m taking this rig. You don’t have to pack light and local parts are always available!!  🙂

Wednesday night I met some fellow bikers and (ADV’ers) who have been stranded here in Lima with two dead bikes.

Alberto (aka – betitolara)and Naomi (aka – svensmanager) started from their home near Vancouver, Canada on their new BMW F800’s who’s engines both essentially self destructed north of Lima. Bad gas is suspected, but nobody can say for sure yet. They’ve been working with the local BMW dealer, their Canadian dealer and BMW in Germany to get their bikes fixed, and BMW Canada finally came through for them and is going to pick up the tab for repairing the bikes. That is great news for them! I hope they are back on the road soon so perhaps we can share some miles down the road.

Day 163 – Lima, PE to Miraflores, PE

Day 163 – Lima, PE to Miraflores, PE      01/31/11     Mileage: 26

This morning I worked on the blog and got caught up on my email. At noon I went to go watch the changing of the guard at the Government Palace which was pretty cool.

After that I packed up and relocated to Miraflores which is a nice section of Lima south of the downtown.

Along the way I stopped in at Barbacci Motors…a great shop if you need any gear or parts in Lima.

 I dropped anchor at the Hitchhikers hostal and then went to run some errands. I brought dinner back to the hostal and worked on the blog before calling it a night.

Day 162 – Recuay, PE to Lima, PE

Day 162 – Recuay, PE to Lima, PE      01/30/11      Mileage 234

This morning I had the bike packed and was on the road by 8:15. Just south of Catac I pulled off for gas and went to pay with the 50 sole bill I got from Andrzej the day before, and sure enough, the attendant said it was fake and refused it. Damn! Oh well, I’ll get rid of it somehow. Back on the bike the road continued up and over the pass and it was a nice canyon carver all the way down to the coast.

I hung a right on the Pan Americana and continued rolling south for Lima. I passed two cops on the opposite side of the road and they were frantically waving me over. Shit! They had a car, but I decided to just pretend they were waving at someone else and kept going. Well, soon I could see the flashing lights coming up behind me…damn. So I pulled over and Abbott and Costello started in on their good cop bad cop routine.

Bad cop said it was a 500 sole ticket that I would have to pay in Lima. Good cop said, because I was a tourist and they didn’t want to inconvenience me, I could pay them 250 soles right now! So there it was, a bribe is what they were after. I of course have cash squirreled away, but I said that I didn’t have that much and that all I has was 50 soles…which was of course the counterfeit 50 sole bill in my dummy wallet! So, I took out the fake 50, folded it over and handed it to good cop. Bad cop practically through my (expired) license back at me and after a quick half-assed lecture on the dangers of speeding, they said I could go. Well, I didn’t wait around for them to realize it was a counterfeit bill, so I thumbed the starter and rolled out of there. I was laughing in my helmet for the next 10 miles thinking of those two bozos going to pay for a nice steak dinner with their spoils only to be told it was a fake 50 sole bill. That was worth every (fake) cent. AMF! The rest of the road to Lima was over rolling sandy desert scenery and it was an interesting change from the mountains.

I made my way to center Lima and found a room 3 blocks from the Plaza de Armes. They let me park the bike in the lobby, and after a shower I went out to explore the city center.

The Plaza de Armas is spectacular and the Moorish influenced Spanish architecture is really cool.

At night I had a dinner (trout ceviche) at nice restaurant just off the Plaza.