Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride

Stunning. Looking forward to following some of your tracks.

Sorry to see that your doing this section of the road in the rain, because it is so nice to do when dry. Hope the weather gets better and no leaks. Still following along and love your RR. Keep up the good work and I can only wish to still be there.

Jeff

Awesome. I hope you have a great ride! The scenery is amazing. S & D

We have been pretty lucky with timing the weather and I think we have had less than 20 days of riding in the rain since we left Vancouver June 22 2012. This was the worst day of the trip so far, but luckily it finally stopped raining... after the snow. Thanks so much. We are home for the summer to work and back on the road at the beginning of November.

SP


Sara

Now we were finally back on the pavement, but again headed up to 4200 m. As we watched the temperature drop rapidly we got worried. Luckily it did not go below 0 and we just had to deal with slush on the road and being pelted with freezing rain. This is probably the most worried we have ever been on the trip.




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We gave up on our plans to get to Ayacucho as it was now 5 pm. We made for the next town Andahuaylas. Arriving just at dusk we were exhausted took the first hotel that luckily had hot water. Our helmet pads and gloves were soaked, but our feet dry in our Daytona GTX boots! We were again disappointed in our Revitt H2O over suits and neither of us was dry, especially the underwear.




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Well rested we were up and out early at 8 am and back on the 3S.




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The road was good for the first 250 km on amazing winding switchbacks again to 4200 m.




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Driving along here I was trying to get a photo when my Contour fell off. The glue gave up at 2.5 degrees. Luckily there was deep drainage ditches so it was no too hard to find.




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Arriving at a small town the GPS said go straight, but the construction crew said no way. There was again a detour to the highway of about 30 km of dirt on a windy mountain “road” that dumped you back at the 3S, but this was onto about another 30 km of construction. There were several stoppages of 20 min where they were clearing the road of slide debris and piles of gravel.







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Then there was 100 km of paved 1 lane road hanging on the side of the cliff, that actually had 2 way car and truck traffic. Luckily on the bikes we could pass. The hairpin corners were nerve racking with oncoming vehicles. What was the most crazy was the number of significant river crossings on the “ highway”. We were again racing the sunset to get off the road.




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Happy Belated Canada day ! Other than the Contour (helmet cam ?) falling off it seems to take really good pics. Is the focus angle adjustable?

STOP taking all these awesome pictures. Makes me want to hit the road today !

Thanks so much!!

The contour has a laser to adjust the angle so even though it is on an angle on the side of the helmet the pics and video on Dan's are great. We also use them under water and they work really well.

Sara

We eventually found some no name town we would like to forget, with a “room” next to the pig sty (literally) about 40 min after dark and 400 km. This would probably be one of the worst places we have stayed in, but what can you expect for 8$. The one highlight of the day was a pretty good dinner we had. We just followed the police officers to the restaurant they were eating at.


After 2 days where our schedule had been decimated by weather, construction, and road conditions we were bagged and hoping for an easy day. Not so for ADV riders. After actually not a bad night sleep we decided to get an early start and were out the door at 720 and headed 45 min to Huancayo for breakfast and gas.



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Then we hit construction again and the road was actually closed, but they said the motos could make it. This said there was very rough “road” (more like a washed out river bed), several sections of mud, and twice we had to wait for the fresh deep gravel to be flattened for us by a machine so we could make it at all.


Then we had 2 mountain passes over 4200 m to arrive at Junin, which is at 4000m for some lunch. The red stuff is quinoas. There are an amazing number of different kinds of potatoes here.



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In Peru many towns have these elaborate squares with crazy cartoon like themes.




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Farther up the Carretera Central we drove thru Cerro de Pasco, which is one of the highest cities in the world and the highest city in the world with over 50,000 inhabitants at 4330 m.







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Here is where our GPS led us astray again. We had lost our good paper map of Peru and so were relying on the GPS on the road. We should have made right at Cerro de Pasco on the 3N to get to Huanuco in 100 km, but instead we ended up on a private dirt road to a mining site.



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Leaving this first mine site there was one of the deepest mud puddles we have seen and in fact the water was half way up the doors of the car in front of us. Luckily there was a dry patch to the side “blocked” by rocks that we could get over. The dirt road then got even rougher and narrower.


After this we were on a mud “goat track”, which eventually became a dirt/mud track up the mountainside. We ran into some locals at the mountaintop who asked us where the hell were we going. They did confirm however that we could keep going this way to get back to the highway, so we did.



Farther down the road got much better and we ran into a mine worker who said if we keep going down all the switchbacks several thousand feet to the valley floor there is a gate thru which we can access the route to the 3N. Some of the hairpin steep curves were a bit much with large rocks and deeper dirt to negotiate. Once the road was dry it was no real problem.


The guard at the gate congratulated us for getting down the “road” and said that we were the first bikers he had ever heard of or seen there! Hey maybe we were the first to do something!


After leaving the mine property there was about another 10 km down the mountain to the 3N. The first few km were 4 tunnels basically bored thru the mountain. We were so happy to have our Rigid lights for the pitch-black riding on the rough road inside the tunnels.




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Arriving at the 3S 2 hours after we had left it we were now still 80 km from Huánuco. This stretch of the 3S north is in the worst condition of any road we have seen. There is intermittent dirt/gravel with a very few patches of good pavement. It is mostly very badly pot-holed pavement requiring total concentration. Our poor bikes! That and there are tons of trucks and locals driving like maniacs all over the road and at speed.


We finally managed to break free of the pack after a town crowded with people in the street market and were able to pass a bunch of trucks. Again we were fighting the sunset and arrived just after dark and another 400 km. We spotted a hotel right away with good parking and hot water for 16$.

I know I said this yesterday, but we do need a break today. The first plan was to get to La Union 130 km away on the 3N. This took 4 hours.



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The very curvy road up the mountain was again mostly 1 lane and a lot of it in very poor condition with wash outs and potholes. There was several water crossings too. It takes a lot of mental and physical strength to drive the curves, avoid the holes, not get hit head on in the tight corners, and pass trucks on the verge of the narrow road for 4 hours.




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The last 25 km of the road is full of mud sections for an added challenge. Arriving for lunch at la Union we were bagged at 1 pm, but we had 260 km to go to Caraz.


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We finally got a break! The 3N north of La Union is smooth pavement and two real lanes wide. The views are awesome and we crossed a pass at 4600 m. The road heads southwest until Conochoca where it finally goes north.



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Gssus. I hope that you keep your gps tracks alive for a while. I want to do some of these in December as I travel south. Great pics. As always - awesome report.

Yes we use base camp so we have them stored. Thanks so much!! We will be back and in Brazil in December! Have an awesome summer!

Sara

From here we had 111 km to go at 415 and we decided to go for it. The road from here is smooth, two lanes, with actual yellow lines down the middle and everything. That said with more civilization there is more traffic and more towns with speed bumps and so we again were arriving at dusk at 6.




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We punched hotel in to the GPS and a lodge came up. Feeling like we deserved a break we headed there. Ahhhh comfy bed and hot water for 2 nights is heaven. Caraz in a picturesque little town with nice restaurants.


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We also had some time to look over the bikes and Dan found that his pannier rack was broken. This was either too much rough road or one of the deeper mud patches had a big buried rock. The hotel owner went with him to a local welder who fixed it up in no time. These are the bare wires he put in the socket to weld.



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Well today is the big day we spent 4 days to get to. The famous Canyon del Pato. It is a short drive up the 3 N on the pavement until you hit the canyon. The final destination for the day was Huacho in 460 km.

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Dan’s 800 hit a big one today!




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We were sadly under whelmed. There is about a 20 km section with cool narrow tunnels, but not much else. It is not even in our top 100 rides let alone top ride as others have claimed. It is lucky however that the 4 days to get here were epic. The canyon section is now paved, but covered in a layer gravel for added danger. If I did it again I’d go up the canyon and back to the 3 and continue north to meet the Pan Americana at Trujillo instead of continuing past the canyon to Chimbote.



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