South American tour

[gbags]

Great report. Lovely pics.

[ErikGustav2]

I slept at a hotel 30 km before Lima center.
I started to drive at 5:45 in the morning. I was hoping that the traffic should not be that bad.
But it was. Totally chaotic. And very aggressive. Busses, cars, trucks. All just pressed on. A motorcycle is just to press away.
2 hours of pure horror. I would choose the road of death in Bolivia, any day before Lima

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If you look at the picture, you see a dark black area. Where there is no dust.
A car that gave me a push. So I was wobbling around for some time

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Rest with fresh bread. Direct from this owen

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The bike got a much better place to rest than what I got.
Marble on the floor. And a sofa.
But I got my shower and a bed. What I needed

[gbags]

Hi Eric,

That Americano sounds like Hell.

How about heading inland up to the mountains on the route Huancayo, Ayacucho, Cusco, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia?

[ErikGustav2]

Pan American in general is not a hell. It has been a positive surprise.
It was the city Lima.
The road is the main highway and the local main street at the same time.

A detour is clearly good.
I am sure that your proposal is good.

But South America is huge. And I want to reach Patagonia.
Bolivia probably on the way North

And also in general. Do the exploring on the way up. To keep control of timing, money and..

[ErikGustav2]

Hola gente.
Como andan ?

The escape from Lima ended in the city Ica.
According to some, the start of the Atacama Desert.
Acoding to others, it is a separate desert and Atacama is in Chile only.

Whatever. I have spent 3 days riding Pan Am in the Perubian desert.
So here is a summary.
Before I continue into Chile.
Were I have no other choice than to spend two days riding Atacama.
Then I have to decide.
Continue south in Chile as planned. For riding Argentina back north.
Or turn out of the desert and Santiago. And use Argentina to continue south.
Some parts will than be used in both directions. But so what. Very interesting area,
And I start to have enough of desert. Even it have been very interesting. And perfect MC weather

In general it has been a very good surprise.
I have seen so much of nature, culture and much more that I have never seen before.
And everything has been diverse and very changing.
Forget a straight highway going in a flat sand desert.

One different thing compared with my path in Colombia and Ecuador is that I have seen some long distance touring bikes.
(With an Ushuaia sign in the forehead)

First thing I came to was the Nasca Lines.
You do not see anything from the ground level. Small airplanes passed over with tourists.

[ErikGustav2]

The lanscape had it all.
Flat sand parts and beaches.
Rocky hills including salt in many colours

[ErikGustav2]

The road was of all kinds.
Passing cities, As local road with speed bumps and local life.
One problem was the amount of road work. On MC, I could bypass the km long lines. But when arriving to the stop, I had to wait.
Some times very long. Until the magic person turned the sign from Para to Siga

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Anyone that can see the balcony road and the tunnel in the picture ?

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Twisty roads (Hair pin style) in the mountains.
Not many pictures from that. You do not stop in a blind corner on a narrow road to take pictures

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And some parts where the road dissipated into the horizon.
And also some parts where the wind blow sand into the road.

[ErikGustav2]

It was surprising and depressing to see the living conditions outside the cities.
In the good areas, there were stone houses. Like Lego pieces, placed an the sand,
In the more poor areas, the houses were made by some bambu frame. And some wood #rugs# as walls.
I did not see any life in these areas.

Maybe not much has changed for these people since 1952, when Ernesto and Alberto passed.
And concluded that some improvements were needed.

I have to agree with them, 70 years later.
At this point, I had no idea about what was going to happen in Peru from mid of December

[ErikGustav2]

Some picture to show some of the typical things that I saw

[ErikGustav2]

Atacama next