Around the World in 800 Days

SUPER VIEW!!!! just loving it!
nice report again! keep on going mate!
cu in Belgium.

I had an amazing day yesterday.
It was the ride of my life.
Probably the best day so far.
People ask me along the way if I am taking the PanAmerican highway south.
I always have to laugh.
That would be like taking I70 across the US.
Sure it is faster and safer, but unless you like looking at a bunch of big rigs, you'd be missing all the good stuff.
So I am trying to take as many back roads as possible.
And Pato Canyon is one of the best roads in the world.
It's in Peru and heads up in to the second highest mountain range in the world.
It's dirt for most of the way.
It is literally carved out of the side of the canyon. There are no guardrails and if the plunge in to the river below didn't kill you, the wild waters in the river surely would.
I took a lot of pictures and video.
Of course they don't do this place justice.
I am glad I was able to experience this place on a perfect day.
And when I arrived at my destination just before dark in Caraz, it began to pour rain.
Perfect day
I will post some pictures soon

Sounds like a lot of fun.
By the way that last night I couldn't have any beer for you after each of us had a bottle of graet Grappa.
So the beer is still here waiting for ya, before we go and taste some great local wines

Glad you back up and posting reports and of course wonderful photos. I was getting withdrawal symptoms. Now I have an idea of what cold turkey is to a druggie. Some good trout fishing in Peru.

Turkey
Not the country
And not the Thanksgiving bird
I am talking bowling
As in three in a row.
That is what I have had here in the Cordillera Blanca mountains in Peru
It is the second highest mountain range in the world.
There are over 20 peaks over 6000 meters
That's 20,000 feet
Yesterday I rode my motorcycle up to almost 14,000 feet to Laguna Peron.
The dirt rocky slippery road started in Caraz at 7000 feet and went up to an Alpine lake surrounded by 6000 meter peaks.
It was 20 miles up there and I was the only one for miles and miles around.
Just walking around the huge lake was breathtaking in more ways than one.
There were waterfalls everywhere cascading down the shear faces in to the canyon.
On my ride out, it rained on me which made it even more demanding.
As I was riding out in the rain and slippery conditions, I was wondering how many other adventure riders would do this. Most ate blazing down the panamerican highway.
And I know there are others that are taking even more treacherous roads.....but how many of them are doing it solo? And doing it on a fully load GSA?
Probably not many.
When traveling in a group, you always have the comfort of knowing that there is someone there to help. It might be a false sense of security, but nonetheless, it helps knowing that you are in it together for better or worse.
And any case, everything went well and I made it to Huaraz before sun down (even though it rained on me the whole way).

Huaraz is at 10,000 feet. It sits in the same river valley that I followed up all the way from the ocean.
Today the sun shined brightly on the town. I was able to rent a mountain bike and took it up to 4200 meters for a 4000 foot downhill ride on some extremely challenging single track.
I crashed a couple of times and thought I should stick to motorcycles.
But it was three great days here in the mountains of Peru.
Now it back to la Playa and the big city of Lima

Wondering if you were starting the trip over, would you go with a lighter bike?

I like my 950, but the 250 is a lot of fun as well.

That is a great question
And something I have thought about a lot
And the answer is........no!
Most of the riding I do, the bike is perfect.
That is long stretches of highway
Even in the dirt it is ok
But a lighter bike would be much more fun.
But I would not want to ride a lighter bike this far.
If I make it to India, I want to get a much smaller bike. And I am looking forward to packing less stuff and riding something smaller
And in Australia, I want to get a sportbike like a Honda VFR750. That has always been a bike that I have wanted.
And then when I am finished with my GSA and I have been everywhere I want to go, I would do another trip with a much smaller bike like a dirtbike and go to a lot of places that I missed with my GSA.
But I love my bike. It is has been great. No complaints other than I hate the clunky transmission and it does get heavy at times in tight places.
But otherwise, no regrets

Hi Lalo, great report, great pics, thanks for sharing and the work you put in, much appreciated.

I think you carry too much stuff and your video camera is bad. Why don't you approach some dealer for a GoPro or Drift for a sponsorship? Would produce much nicer videos and they would get good mileage out of your advertising? And for yourself, you would have nicer memories.

Just a thought.

If you come past Johannesburg, give me a buzz, I'll provide the wine, food and shelter. Would like to hear some of your stories and as much as the pics give us superb feedback of what you see, we all know that the real thing is so much better and the pics can not really do justice.

Keep 'em coming.

I wish I could carry more stuff.
I think I have a good balance.
Yeah. I have 3 sleeping bags but I have all this stuff so I am comfortable for the duration of my trip in all the various climates I am experiencing.
Think about it.......I am a riding a motorcycle that probably weighs 600 pounds and then I have another 100 pounds of gear. If I brought only half as much stuff, I would lose only 50 pounds and I probably wouldn't even notice the difference.
And all that weight hasn't kept me from doing anything along the way. The motorcycle is more of my limitation not my gear.
So to each their own.
Some people like to see how little they can get by with
Me......I want it all
I wish I had the room for another 100 pounds of woman for my ride
As for the camera and sponsership
That's a great idea
I want to finish with the Americas and then maybe hit up some companies
Maybe get a fourth sleeping bag
Lol
Thanks for your comment
I will see you in SA soon
Get that wine ready
Lalo

As I was riding today, I was thinking
My contour camera works fine
It is photobucket that I use to upload the pictures is the culprit.
When I upload the videos, the resolution us never as good as what I have on my computer.

But there is always room for improvement.
Right now, I am just focused on staying healthy, seeing the sights and making it safely to my next destination

Trust me.......I understand withdrawals
And I have never done drugs in my life
I have been doing some 'fishing' here in Peru.
and I think my luck is about to change

careful........I May never leave

Why not upload video to Vimeo or You Tube. Both will allow HD uploads? Leave photobucket for pics. Just a thought...

Because I don't know how and I am too lazy.....I mean busy.... to learn how
Are you getting ready for Baja?
Wish I was leading the charge
You will have fun, but it won't be the same without me

Now here is a restaurant worth trying.
The name has a nice ring to it don't you think?

After traveling thru all of Mexico, Central American and northern South America, I cross the border in to Peru. And everything changes.
I went from tropical forests to desert as soon as I crossed the border in to Peru.
And the further south I rode, the drier things got. Here I am cruising thru a barren desert.......a sea of sand dunes with nothing growing anywhere.
and strangely, I was feeling more at home.

riding thru the Secaura Desert just south of Piura has to be one of the driest placest on earth

As I was riding thru the Secaura desert, I was looking for a place to camp before Chicayo. I noticed a powerline road that ran parellel to the highway. I was planning to camp there but I ended up passing Chicayo and almost made it to Pacasmayo before dark.
I was pulling off the highway trying to find a safe secluded place to spend the night in my tent. Each time I pulled off the highway, the road would go to someone's shack or to a garbage dump/ And I wasn't going to camp at a dump.
Here is the place I found. It was an old adobe building in the middle of a rice field. It was perfect!

That's just lame...it's just as easy as PB. As for Baja I am so geeked. Worried about my thumb which I am having surgery on right when I get back, just hope it holds up. It certainly won't be the same without you and Barbie leading the way. But that just means I'll have to do it again when you get back and make you do the summit with me!

I will give BA-HA your best!

And the place had a bunch of fruit trees surrounding it.
For breakfast, I had bananas, figs, some kind of fruit that tasts like passionfruit, avocados and other fruit. There were tons of rotten mangos on the ground. It looked like I missed the season by a few weeks.