13th Dec Sat

We are going to be leaving Chile today after about 3 weeks travelling. We will not be sorry to say good bye to plastic processed cheese for breakfast and melted in sandwiches, and the very thin loo paper which has to be chucked after use into a bin beside the loo. We have found the people to be very friendly and helpful, have made great use of free wifi in almost every hotel of any kind, and better signs in towns than Argentina. We travelled about 3800kms(2375m) in Chile ,the equivalent of going from John O Groats to somwhere in the Sahara!....The final road to the border is very scenic, going up and up to 4660m to pass into Bolivia with 3 volcanoes covered in snow, lording it over us, one active! Pale green marshy altiplano valleys play host to flamingoes, llamas and alpacas. Indigenous indians, living in tiny mud brick built houses with grass roofs, are herding their flocks. The women in their huge wide colourful skirts and top hats often carrying a child on their backs wrapped in a colourful blanket.The border is busy with trucks but we finally get through, change money with a colourful lady and get on our way again. There is no where to stay between here and La Paz, 300kms away. We remain on the altiplano at about 3800m. Its fairly barren but fertile in the wetter valleys. The grass is pale and very tussocky. Not much traffic and its good going. Clive is not on top form...his bike`s new front tyre does have a slight leak and his hydraulic clutch seems to be playing up. Is that the altitude? We also got stopped in a police check and had to pay a bribe to get going again. He does not fancy La Paz either.The Bolivian driving is going to be more interesting..plenty of overtaking happening on double lines, more people on the road verges, dogs and some very slow old vehicles.We did quite well getting settled in La Paz in the end. We kept asking for a certain district which took us in the right direction. Lack of street names and signs makes things difficult. However found hotel that Steve and Deborah had stayed in and though that was full are staying in one next door.At first glance it would seem that there are many poor on the streets. It would also seem that most houses are only half built before being lived in...concrete frame in-filled with red bricks and you have your walls. Flat roof and there you are.

14th Dec Sun

We both slept badly...too hot under 3 thick heavy blankets, plenty of street noise and maybe the height was to blame. In the morning there was no hot water so we were happy to leave this hotel. Only highlight was an excellent `charque kan` (kind of empanada)from a streetseller doing a roaring trade near the hotel. Weather warm as we negotiate our way very successfully(Clive with map) further down town to check out the BMW place. Having got that lined up for Monday and got his front tyre seen to we find a much better hotel in a better spot. I think we are just `absorbing` La Paz as opposed to sightseeing! The height makes some exertions hard work . Clive and I are huffing and puffing a bit, Clive in particular! Warm weather gives way to a tropical shower in the late afternoon.One real change from Chile is the number of soldier like police around. They seem to be on every street corner, even in the petrol station. There are security people everywhere too, around the hotel, shops etc.15th Dec MonUp early so Clive can get his bike seen to. However as we get ready in the street this smart guybin a suit walks across `to help us` speaks good english and is obviously an affluent Bolivian in his slightly old Mercedes sports car. Tell him we are off to Elite Motors. `Oh no, I know somewhere better`. Off we go, him leading. Not so far... He then says goodbye. Very kind, and not after anything. Clive`s clutch is behaving better anyway so all that is needed is a further bleed of the brakes. No great improvement is noted because to do a proper job means tank off again ( according to to this guy).Off we go to Coroico by about 10.30am. Its about 100kms on an interesting road. Until they made a tarmac road it was called the `road of death`. The original `road of death` is still in use, mainly by mountain bike riders. IF it was not rainy we would do it ,but it is raining and very foggy. As it is our road has its moments with dirt bits due to rock falls. Weather clears as we drop in altitude. After La Paz we went up through a high pass and then down at least 3000m.We somehow miss the correct road after dropping to the valley bottom and end up climbing up to this small town on a single track old cobble road. It was deteriorating in parts and had lots of hair pin bends. Up and up we went, with vegetation spilling on to the track. Find Hotel Esmeralda clinging to the hillside. Fantastic views over green mountain sides..the Youngas.We have gone from high barren altiplano at 4000+m to tropical jungle at 1800m. Pretty birds, warmth, humidity and flowers etc. Town is not that great but full of locals sitting on the pavements trying to sell their wares. Several europeans in our hotel...it is a centre for treking. They trek down the country route we came up! Tomorrow we will leave by the correct route..we are not doing `road of death` back up...too wet. Done our off road for the day.

16th Dec Tues

Good breakfast, much better than Chile. I don`t think we saw an egg in Chile. Off we go to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Its a 300km ride. We have an amazing motorbiking day. We go from tropical 22c, sunny/cloudy but dry 1800m Coroico, down a winding cobble ( twice the width of the `wrong` road) road ,dropping 800m and getting hotter. We have waterproof trousers on plus quite warm tops in preparation for the next bit. Tarmac now, but broken in places due to rock falls. We get wonderful views until we enter cloud/fog and rain. Up and up, bend after bend , one hour plus uphill only, until we break through the rain /cloud and reach the top at 4670m (15,177ft)and 5c. By now in all waterproofs! Down to La Paz , 3800m,where we manage to pick up a road taking us round the rim and eventually on to the right road to Lake Titicaca. Road signage is bad. We manage a stop in a café where I sample the one and only dish of stew and Clive has a coke because he is not feeling too great. Whilst there we watch the local bus start up by being pushed by 3 large ladies in their big skirts and bowler hats, and one man. It slowly lurches off! Soon we reach a place where we have to catch a little ferry. Its entirely wooden and takes one small lorry and us...on planks with gaps. The whole boat flexes in the swell...why doesn`t it leak?? Or sink??We hang on to our bikes on this very open deck. We make it..it costs £1 each. 35kms still to do but it involves another climb and we go from 3800m to 4200m(13,650ft ) and down again before reaching destination. On the way it hails on us. Before entering town the police need `paying`! Copacabana is small and full of young tourists but we find the Hostal Leyenda. Final biking skill is to ride down 3 steps into a small courtyard. We shall worry about how to get out in the morning!Clive feeling weak and takes to bed while I look at the main street and the lake which our hotel is very close to.So we went from 1800m to 1000m, to 4670m to 3500m to 4200m and back to 3800m. From tropical and 22c to barren altiplano and 5c.We are acclimatising. Even so you feel you need to take deep breaths at 4600m ! That`s only sitting on the bike!

17th Dec Wed

Clive is feeling better and after breakfast takes on the job of riding both bikes up the three steps of the hotel successfully. I have problems on such occasions of my feet not reaching the ground at all! No excuse...I took the photo!Bolivia/Peru border was very quiet and it was pretty straight forward. Onwards into Peru...a country I have dreamed of visiting since studying it for A level geography a very long time ago. Goodbye to all those police on every bolivian corner. Friendly people whilst very poor. We are following Lake Titicaca round to Puna. Plenty of villages by the lake, either fishing or farming. Everyone is pursuing a subsistence living. No shops or industry in any of these villages,just houses dotted everywhere amid their little fields. Sometimes divided by stone walls depending on the nature of the countryside. Mudbrick houses with tin roofs. Plenty of animals by the verge but mostly tied with a rope. Pigs, sheep, llama, alpaca,donkeys and cows. And dogs! People at work everywhere,..ladies in their big skirts and hats working on the land sowing ,weeding (would have thought the skirt would have got in the way as they bend over). Men with wooden ploughs and cows pulling. Donkeys as beasts of burden too. We did see half a dozen tractors so times are changing.... All busy growing a vast array of vegetables and more.Stop in a town with shops and a café. Busy place and pretty...ladies very colourful and buildings now more interesting. Arrive in Puno by lunchtime. We have gained an hour again which is good as it gives us time to take a boat ride to the floating islands. We are surprised to see Tuk tuks ( as in asia) scootor powered and cycle powered. Ferry to the islands was in an old wooden boat that reminds me of the old ferry in Overy run by Tiddler. The good old engine needs coaxing along and cuts out at one point! The floating islands are worth a visit. A different life out there on your reeds in the lake. About 2000 Uros people live there. Puno is a good town; nice interesting streets with character, hustling and bustling. Storms threaten and it rains as we go to bed ( as it did last night).

18th Dec Thurs 

Still raining as we pack the bikes. They were under a roof which was useful. My back brake better after I adjusted it again. Clive`s tyre still has mini leak where the tyre lever damaged it. We stay with Lake Titicaca till Juliaca, a very busy but also dirty town. Filthy industy on outskirts and then, because it was raining, all looked dirty. Dirty water on the streets, muddy side streets, muddy `pavements`. Masses of Tuktuks, bicycle taxis, minivans, trucks and us.The weather clears up and we make good progress following a river that feeds Lake Titicaca . Pale green tussocky grass verging on brown covers the big hills on either side, and flat valley that we are in. Snow capped mts are glimpsed now and then.Herding is the main occupation...sheep, cows and a few llama. Mud brick houses are still being built with their tin roofs. The ladies in their full skirts, their hats and their wool footless socks are quite a sight. Their long wool socks have no feet but just a loop that goes under the foot. They seem in a perpetual state of falling down.We reach 4400m and the watershed for lake Titicaca . Now down to Cusco. This valley is much more fertile. Intensive vegetable production is taking place on mini fields with hand/animal labour. We stop and have a bowl of soup in a café. It is really good vegetable soup with all sorts of unknown vegetables in it. Best dish I have had so far.We think of stopping short of Cusco but place no good so on to Cusco which is not as bad to enter as we thought. In fact it is very attractive, having a real spanish feel with lovely big buildings around a central plaza. We find a good spot in the Casa Grande and bikes are brought into a court yard. Have a drink in the Norton Rat pub which serves Greene King beer and Abbot Ale.! Run by an american.We start planning the Machu Picchu trip. Whatever way, it is going to cost a silly amount of money. It is the monopoly on the train that does it. However, they even charge $60 to those who decide to walk it (4 days)!. 

19th Dec Fri 

We decided yesterday to get to Ollantaytambo on our bikes and then take the train for Machu Picchu from there the next morning. So we book an eticket on the internet not realising that we have to go to a station in Cusco to exchange it for a real ticket. We did this by taxi this morning. Constantly plagued by sellers and ticket touts we take some photos of the Plaza des Armes and its magnificent buildings and slowly get ready to move off to Ollantaytambo .Its about a 2 hour ride up . Ollantaytambo has its own Inca ruins up on the steep hills behind the village; for that is all it is. Very pretty with original cobbled streets, water channels and very old houses round a plaza. Very touristy and infested with tourist buses which I feel should be banned from entering the village. They are too big for the narrow cobbled streets. Been lucky with weather and hope we are tomorrow. The idea is to catch an early train from here (halfway) and beat the trains/tourists from Cusco by a couple of hours. We have also begun the Inca tourist bit by seeing this place!! 

20th Dec Sat 

Machu Picchu day! Up early to have breakfast (very basic) before catching the Vistadome train to Aguas Caliente. It crept along beside the river Urubamba through great gorges constantly tooting. We travel downhill which seems strange as my idea of Machu Picchu is of being very high up. The river is muddy coloured and rushing down hill to the Amazon! We are on the east side of the Andes!The tropical vegetation comes right up to the train. It runs on time and takes 1 12 hrs from Ollantaytamba. The only hang up to the day is that it is not just low morning cloud...its raining!Aguas Caliente is nestled tight amongst high mountains. It has no connecting road with Ollantaytamba or anywhere else, just the train. This however is where you then catch a bus to travel 8kms up to Machu Picchu , a climb of about 500m.It is raining, but with our motorcycle raingear on and my umbrella to help keep cameras dry, we are fine.Machu Picchu is about 3400m high. It does seem a lovely spot to live though some of the terraces are literally hanging to the side of some very sheer drops. It is more compact than the classic photo of it leads you to believe. Not too many tourists since this is low season. It is impressive. After 3 hours of exploring the siteI decide to walk down the very steep mountainside on a special stepped path back to Aguas Caliente, whilst Clive returns on the bus.The bus route is a series of hairpin bends down the mountain side. I get very hot !At Machu Picchu there is one hotel. It is very expensive , $800 per person per day! The railway from Cusco to Machu Picchu is privately run and the same company owns the hotel. That company is Sea Containers who also own the Orient Express, whose finance director was a friend of Clives We catch the train back. The weather has cleared and we spot high mts covered in snow. 

21st Dec Sun 

It is funny to think of everyone back home getting ready for Christmas etc. This hotel has no decorations up though there are some about town.Hard to spot...more than in Africa,where there was virtually nothing.The sun is shining! Got the wrong day for Machu Picchu perhaps. It didn`t spoil it as far as seeing. We could have had some better photos I guess with more scenery in the background.It is cold if the sun does not shine. Last night, though dark, all the restaurants had their doors open. It was like eating in a barn. Perhaps they think its warm. Breakfast here is eaten in a room with 2 doors wide open. We have all our biking clothes on to stay warm. Its hardly cosy!We ride our bikes up the 2 steps from the dining room through which they had gone to reach a patio out the back where they have been parked the last 2 days. Off to Abancay and beyond in the direction of the coast. Do a wee bit of good dirt road to cut a corner but then take a wrong road (no signs and misdirected!) and do some more. It takes us on a bit of a loop but its interesting!The country people are very poor. The older people are subsisting on their little holdings. Their children are no longer traditionally dressed but probably are helping out. Few bicycles, some small motorcycles and some cars. Local taxis in the form of tuktuks in the towns and minibuses between villages ferry the poorer around. Donkeys , of which there are plenty by the road, seem to only carry loads, not pull carts. Every village has piles of homemade bricks made from the local clay. Houses are still being made and repaired with them.The area all around Cuzco is very fertile and all sorts of crops are grown in tiny fields. Later, after the first pass of the day (3900m) it becomes drier looking and more barren. Always there are wandering animals...later in the day we cope with wandering goats and pigs as well as cows, horses and dogs.The scenery is spectacular today. The road is very twisty but good. We go over two passes of 3900m and in between down to 1800m. After Abancay the road sweeps up a river valley with many gorges. We end up in Chalhuanca where, luckily, there is an hotel.A chance meeting with 3 bikers as we ate in the restaurant next door was very informative. Firstly there are road works ahead which means part of the road will be shut for several hours; and secondly we have 2 more passes of over 4000m to do tomorrow! We told them about Machu Picchu ! They also told us it had snowed on them on one of the passes. We look forward to tomorrow!On the bike front my radiator pipe clamp has moved again and Clive`s back mud guard has nearly fallen off (and eventually will). 

22nd Dec Mon 

Up for a timely start. Rained in night. Breakfast was papaya juice (great) and tea and coffee. We never got any bread...could have been language mixup. Coffee is interesting here. They bring a cup of hot longlife milk and then you add coffee essence from a bottle. We tip some of the milk into my tea before Clive adds the essence. If you ask for tea with milk then its all milk!The roadworks ahead mean we want to reach Puquio by 12 noon. Its 185kms including a pass of 4500m.We reach the top..its cold 8c, its barren, not a tree in sight, rocky with tussocky grass and yet here is a village of tiny mud brick houses with little thin wooden doors,straw roofs and single windows. Many with no electricity , none with heating or bathrooms! Why do they want to live here? No wood for a fire, no comfort, just alpaca fleeces! No soil to grow veg in, just tussocky grass for their llamas and alpacas. The children look weather beaten . Everyone is very short. Why live here?The snow from last night is still lying. This pass is no up and down job; we ride for ages at this height getting colder until we stop and put more clothes on. Finally its down to Puquio at 3200m. Very poor and a dump of a place, all dirt roads.Our road works never materialise! Possibly doing work on Sundays only? Road is in a bad way, masses of potholes and bumpy. Up we go again, all the way to 4500m but this time its soon on the way down. This time we are going all the way to 590m at Nasca. Down and down, twist and turn and bump, bump. Dry arid country gets drier and hotter as we descend. Take off some clothes! Amazing the difference height makes. Now we are in Nasca famous for the Nasca lines. We are dirty ( last 3 hotels had hopeless hot water supplies) tired of hairpin bends and hot, so choose a better hotel than usual, it has a pool so Clive goes for a swim to cool down.! The road from Cuzco to Nasca is 560kms (350 miles). It is an absolutely brilliant motorbiking road,like riding through north Wales but on a far grander scale. Bends,good surface mostly, gorges and passes (4 up to 13,000 feet and down to 4,000),verdant valleys, dry barren desert, high barren plain and very little traffic .

 23rd Dec Tues

 For a while the road was fine and interesting , crossing barren hills and then plunging into green valleys. We vaguely saw some of the Nasca lines . After Ica the traffic got heavier and the roadside busier. Not so nice. Eventually the busy road nears the coast and we can see the Pacific again. The desert comes right up to the sea. Small coastal strip and then barren rocky hills covered by sand; sand dunes as well. Strange but messy with human activities. Shacks and abandoned shacks, battery houses (poor hens) and other strange businesses trying to survive in the sand. Whilst I question why people want to live at 4400m, I also wonder why they want to live here in this dirty looking desert. Gone are ladies in their big skirts; now its more modern. We are nearing Lima! Its dirty, messy, struggling roadside life. Big trucks, large modern buses, fast large pickups, crazy fast drivers and little tuktuks .We are trying not to stay in Lima so stop about 140kms south of it in a good surfing place called Cerro Azul. Called a beach resort but you could say under developed. Some young surfing and doing well on good waves giving them a long ride; all watched by a pelican from his rock. We have an hotel on the beach. It will not be full for Christmas but will be for New Year says the owner. Its still being repaired so they are cutting it fine! 

24th Dec Wed (Christmas Eve) 

Make our way to Lima. Road improves and becomes duel carriageway which makes things easier. More old volkeswagon beetles on the road. We have seen really quite a few. Peru must have bought up all the worlds old beetles.All goes well getting around/through Lima except for one thing. In the traffic I notice that my bike is not freewheeling easily; a brake must be sticking. It gets worse and then in stop/start traffic in a concrete underpass with nowhere to stop,it gets really bad. The brake is on so hard that the bike engine really struggles to move the bike. Just manage to get out and to the side to stop. The back brake pedal needed adjusting! Now realise that height (metres above sea level) has a quite big effect on the brake fluid pressure. I had adjusted the back brake pedal play in Bolivia...up high. What we do not understand is why does it take 30 hrs or so to alter ( we hit sea level 2 days ago). Both of us have noticed that the front brake lever play is less and that the brakes are working better. Also height affected Clive`s hydraulics....again gradually. The engines have both run well, coping with the height and bad petrol (85 octane). Today we found 98 octane and we had better performance!On then ,to Barranca, the only spot on the coast north of Lima and within today`s reach . It looks awful, no beach, just rubbish, very busy main street. But we find a fine Hotel Chavin.

It is not that hot, mid 20`s, very misty. In these cloudy conditions the desert looks horrible and dirty. It has not been a pretty ride; dirty desert, dirty squalid housing, poultry farming in dirty looking low long sheds, belching trucks etc!

We go out in the evening to celebrate Christmas Eve. It is very low key. There are decorations but no special meal or food as far as we know. Whilst eating we see several cooked turkeys being taken through the restaurant and given to customers. The restaurant has cooked turkeys and other large joints for those people who do not have an oven big enough. Each turkey is in a pan and is then covered by a plastic bag and the happy family carry it out and home. We had some langoustines tortillas! Town busy shopping and shopping till they drop.

   HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL XX       

25th Dec Thurs (Christmas Day)

Decided to move on. This is not quite the kind of spot to have a few days in. Made some Christmas phone calls and left about 11am to do a 4 hour ride to Huaras in the mountains . Huaras is at 3100m but guess what...up we go to 4100m from sea level in 75 miles. At the top in a little village we stop at a café. Its 8c, door is open , no heating, and there is the family having Christmas lunch of chicken with all their outside clothing on. They are tough! Pretty high altiplano;local cheese from cows or sheep which are herded on the plain. Very unspoilt. The road wends its way downhill. Its tarmac, just, with large potholes in parts.

Huaras is not quite the lively place we thought it might be. Our hotel has 83 rooms and only 3 taken tonight. Winter time is more high season than now. A mountain guide starts chatting to us...he takes people treking on the high cordillera. The highest mountain in the tropics in the world is here above us. The film `Touching the Void` was based on a true happening that happened near here. Our christmas meal was a chinese one. Our drink was some Peruvian liqueur bought yesterday. Peruvians have their main Christmas meal on Christmas Eve and it is traditionally turkey followed by Panetoni cake with chocolate sauce. We are going to take a tricky road tomorrow and head back to the coast.

26th Dec Fri

Its a lovely sunny day and we can see Mt Busscaran (6760m), the highest mt in the tropics in the world, and all the rest of the snow capped Cordillera Blanca.

We set off gently down this pretty valley of the River Santa. (rather apt for Christmas!). No boxing day drinks for us; instead we have an arduous time ahead. But for now we admire the ladies in their hats and plaits and brightly coloured (red/pink) wide but short (to the knee) skirts and woollen leggings. The fertile valley growing sugarcane, veg, fruit and all sorts. People are busy.

We reach the dirt road bit. We have been told its rough, that its narrow, that it goes through a gorge, that it has swampy parts but importantly that it follows the river...that is downhill for us. Thus we do not expect a pass!

We have dropped down to about 2000m so we also hope things are not too steep. It begins with the Canon del Pato. Single track rocky road, about 10 foot wide, lots of tunnels (35 or so at this point) and sheer drops to the river way down below. This is where the Cordillera Negro and Cordillera Blanca nearly touch. Don`t look down and all is well, make a mistake and you have one yard before you are over the edge.After about 20 miles we got light relief in the form of some highly colourful characters with masks and musicians. We stop , take photos, Clive is coerced by the single large lady to join in and duly obliges still with helmet etc on.We take photos in return for a bit of money and on we go. Next excitement is meeting a big bus. Not sure it will go up the gorge...we don`t think the tunnels are big enough. However it stops for Clive and then waits for me. In front of it is an enormous puddle. In I go with plenty of throttle and soak myself. Must have looked good from the bus. Vision clears and there are some more red mud puddles still to get through. Slow down with thoughts of being not only wet, but covered in red mud. Make it past the bus.

Then there see a small dwelling with outside it a mass of donkeys all over the road/track. Wend our way through. What are they doing here amongst these barren rocky mts? Further along we notice opencast coal mines. There seem to be many black seams in the rock.

We are going downhill all the time. We go pretty slowly, second gear, dodging around rocks and stones. Next hassle for me is a lorry that did not stop. Clive has already passed him so we sit there facing each other. I am not going to budge out of my track into some very rough looking rocks near a drop of 200 feet to the raging river below. I get off the bike and walk to him, show I am a pathetic female and tell him in my best english that he will have to go back! He slowly reverses and I pass when I like the look of the ground!

By the time we have covered about 40 miles out of the 50 or so, we met several motorbikes. There were 5 of them,all rather spread out. We talk about the road. The last 2 look fed up already but hopefully they make it....especially after seeing a female! There were some more bits of water, more road that looked like a river bed, another gorge and then we got to tarmac again. It was only 50 miles or so but took us about 4 hours.

We then sped down the rest of the valley, still with the river. Fertile with plenty of rice growing, cotton, maize, sugar cane and various other crops.Reach Santa, a smallish place but it has an hotel, 2 star for £6 the night. We eat in one of the many little restaurants. They all serve the same food! Chicken,chips and salad. Difficult to get a beer but we got one. No wine, no pisco sour. Meal cost £5 for two. It is our cheapest night! Now hot again, windows open, constantly barking dogs and tooting horns,crows crowing, and turkeys gobbling.

28th Dec Sat

Dawn chorus of sparrows, turkeys,dogs, cockerels , cars and people ensured we woke early. We actually managed to stay in bed by watching the musical `Cats` thanks to cable tv! Nevertheless off early to Trujillo and then on to Huanchaco just north of Trujillo. Saw centre of Trujillo where we got our boots polished watched by the police! u

Found good hotel in Huanchaco and will stay here 2 nights.

 28th Dec Sun

Cleaned bikes, washed clothes, tried body boards in the surf (sea quite cold), generally relaxed. Not that warm really because very hazy plus breeze from sea. Late morning walk by me, saw locals in the sea, mostly in their clothes, arms down in the shallows, gathering a fine kind of seaweed. This was put in big bags.

29th Dec Mon

Off we go again....heading ever northwards. Reach Chicklayo near the coast. It has many museums nearby . We try to visit the `Museo of the Royal tombs of Sipan . But very unfortnately it is shut on Mondays. I would have liked to have seen the history of the tomb. The mummified body is decorated with gold. The Mocha people used to bury their royalty like the egyptians ,in pyramids. Trouble is that they built the pyramids of mud bricks (adobe) and they do not weather so well! But we see an old `pyramid` at Tucoma, a little further on. This is a Sican site, not Moche. (but they both used adobe pyramids).Over a large site they have 26 pyramids . However, imagination does have to play its part, as these pyramids have been very weathered.We take a road that skirts the Sechura Desert rather than straight across. Clive would have prefered the straight across route. We could each have taken our separate routes and met at Piura . The road is flanked by very dry looking trees and vegetation . It is hot...rises to 34c. But the road sweeps along and as long as we keep moving we are fine. Many animals are wandering free on the verges, donkeys, horses, goats and sheep. Donkeys are being used here to pull water bowsers. To our right we have mountains where we see tropical storms in the sky, to our left is dry scrub where the odd scrub fire is burning. We speed on in between with minimal traffic but several villages.Piura has a nice central plaza . We should have settled for the hotel there but instead find one a few streets away. The lady receptionist is the only unfriendly person we have come across in Peru. We should have given up on her but it was hot and we had parked and half unloaded the bikes.We leave Peru tomorrow. I have enjoyed the colourful ladies with their hats etc,we have enjoyed eating fresh fish, vegetable soups and nibbling fried salted sweetcorn` kernels`; the amazing high passes and the barren rocky desert. Clive enjoyed the sheer motorcycling...so did I.!We didn`t like the lack of hot water which was often promised but also often disappointed .

End of this section....new entry under ¨¨Ecuador onwards¨¨