It's Time To Move On - A BugsOnMyFace Global Sidecar Adventure

Day 100-102 in South America: Puno, Peru to Colca Canyon to Arequipa, Peru



We’ve come to the point in the report where there is sure to be some finger pointing and name calling. We’re prepared for it and, look us in the eye when we say this, it’s really okay. We (almost) deserve it.

...alright...

...here goes nothing...

...we decided to skip Machu Picchu, one of the new seven wonders of the world.

I know, I know. It seems ridiculous but hear us out.
Getting to Machu Picchu is a severe pain even when you have your own vehicle. There are essentially two choices: get fairly close with your own vehicle and walk or break the bank and take a train and bus. After finding that we legitimately could not buy train tickets for less than $250 a person (the cheaper seats were sold out) and getting rejected again and again by hotels and hostels in the area, we gave it up. We are just here at the wrong time - high season. Plus, seeing as my Mom is a major history buff, I have a feeling a trip to Peru is in our near future with my family.

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Instead of heading North from Puno to Cusco, we moved NorthEast towards
Colca Canyon. Because of the great height of the surrounding mountain peaks, Colca is legitimately TWICE as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA! It is 13,650 feet deep. Absolutely mind blowing.



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The winding, quality pavement made it a really pleasurable ride. What made it even more pleasant was knowing that we left the crowds behind at Machu...


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Ah, the joys of riding a motorcycle in the mountains of Peru in winter.


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As we summited before dropping down into the canyon, the landscape became other-worldly and harsh. As we rode along in complete isolation, the nice pavement, looking as if it had been ripped to shreds by the elements, a certain excitement grew in my stomach and I realized that THIS was a big part of the reason that I love to travel: to see parts of the Earth that will never be tamed by man.


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Finally we came to our first glimpse of the canyon. It took nearly an hour to wind our way down to the humble town of Chivay.


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After paying a hefty fee to enter the park, we rode around Chivay for awhile before realizing that everything was severely overpriced. We instead rode to the tiny town of Achoma and found a spacious hostel for half the price of what we were seeing in Chivay. Plus, there was some serious action going on...

We walked into the square to find that a music video was being shot near the fountain. Bad lip-syncing, frantic dance choreographer, mouthy director = good times. The town was exactly what we were looking for. Hardly any tourists, quiet streets, lots of locals milling about.


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After a seriously freezing night (even though the hotel provided 3 floor heaters, it was frigid!) we headed off for a failed shot to see the endangered Andean condor. With that behind us, we decided to move on towards the colonial town of Arequipa.


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It was on the way to Arequipa that my South American confidence got us into trouble. We were winding our way down a curvy mountain road, all the while passing a herd of big trucks, when the traffic stopped dead. A huge number of trucks lined the side of the road and I did what felt natural: I continued riding along. All of a sudden, a police car came round a bend from the opposite direction and began honking and flashing its lights. It stopped right in front of us with a skid and an officer jumped out and began screaming curses at us. He ran up to the sidecar and began pushing it backwards. Not wanting a fight, we jumped off too and pushed it to the side of the road. He gave me a bit more finger-wagging, jumped in his squad car and sped off. 15 minutes later, traffic began to move as usual and we went on our way. I’m still not sure what happened...

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After a dusty, curvy ride in which Kristen literally got car-(bike)-sick, we arrived in Arequipa. After only going the wrong way on a one-way once, a serious accomplishment in this town, we found a decent hostel near a monastery and went out to explore.


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Arequipa is a cool place. Surrounded by 4 volcanoes (one active) and with the entire town center declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we really enjoyed the feel. It is definitely a bit touristy and a bit cramed with traffic but it does have quite a few things to do.


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Probably the biggest attraction in town is a highly preserved, 500 year old mummy affectionately known as Juanita the Ice Princess. This Incan girl was sacrificed on Ampato Mountain and was hidden until 1995 when nearby volcanic activity released her from her icy prison. She is kept in a museum in a glass case under freezing conditions to keep her preservation complete. Photographs are prohibited, although I tried to get some spy shots with my iPhone (too dark), so I’ll have to borrow a picture from the internet. Disclaimer: not our photo!


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The whole atmosphere of the viewing chamber is pretty creepy. Low lights, very quiet, dead body. It was here that we had a serious laugh. In our group was a couple of kids, maybe 10 or 12 years old. The boy was looking carefully into the case with his sister peering over his shoulder when a loud banging sound came from behind the curtain to their left. They literally ran away, screaming - we hope so badly that some of the staff play tricks every once in awhile...

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All this talk of mummies is making me hungry. Food in Peru is CHEAP. Like really cheap. We paid $3 for the meal pictured to the left. In the bottom right of the frame is my love - caldo, a soup with a huge hunk of beef, potato, and veggies. Yum.


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We toured a spectacular cathedral on the Plaza de Armas:


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And spent dusk at Santa Catalina Convent which was stunning. I think Kristen may be contemplating becoming a nun if she can live there...


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After having an altogether great experience in Arequipa, it was all topped off when this guy drove by:


As a child of the 90s, any fan of Transformers is a friend of mine.

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Next up: the sand dunes of Huacachina.​

I've seen ya'll's dance moves in your videos. I'll be severely disappointed if you and Kristen didn't make a cameo as backup dancers in that music video....

^ this...

As always, great update and beautiful photos!

There is a hotel in northern Chile that clains to have the worlds largest swimming pool. Spending a few days there would surely be more fun than Machu Pichu. Anyways I have seen enough pictures of it now the worlds largest swimming pool hell ya.

love this read, I like turkey chili

Copy that. I too can drag my alternator down at idle with the aux lights on, on both my bike and tub (stock bike battery). A larger Amp hour battery (as in car battery) should provide a bit of "reserve" or "cushion" prior to the alternator being "drug down" or straining to keep up with demand. In the long run its the alternator that has to keep up with the total demand.

I wouldn't worry about the battery in water crossings until the water level exceeds the top of the battery.

Sorry for the loss that inspired this journey, but what a journey!

Great ride report and pics, thanks for posting, for the rest of us.

Hi guys,
Just seen your thread and wanted to say hello. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful report and and photos with all of us. I'm really enjoying reading about your travels and adventure.

I wish you both a safe and happy journey. If ever you might pass by my neck of the woods, I'll be happy to buy you a cup of coffee and point you in the right direction. I live in the North coast of Spain and we have some fantastic roads and scenery here.

Adios and ride safe.

kristen has legitimate moves - as a 6'5" white guy, i know my place...

hahah - dang it. i missed the coolest thing in South America. although, i'd say the ocean is a pretty decent sized pool...

i'm definitely going to do some battery research when i get back stateside because the thought of being stranded in the middle of a foreign country because of a bad battery is not a happy thought. and seriously correct me if i'm wrong, but for some reason i figured it would be a bad thing to get the connections on the battery wet. is that an unfounded fear?

you know, every journey has to have a beginning. although i wish we could have been prodded by something less painful, i'll claim this story as my own.

thanks for dropping us a line!
i don't know that we'll be in Spain anytime soon, but we're discussing shipping to Africa from here and heading north into Europe so... we'll let you know!

Day 103-105 in South America: Arequipa, Peru to Huacachina, Peru




Walking through deep sand was way more difficult than I imagined. As we summited our first couple of dunes, a heavy sweat drenched us both and our shoes suddenly became three or four times as heavy. The sand began to cling to our bodies - our legs, arms and face became lined with grit as the wind swept against us. But without discussion, we continued further and further into the isolation of the desert. Hours later, we sat silent at the peak of a huge dune watching the sun set as clouds of sand played across the landscape. And as I looked over to see the dune beginning to claim Kristen as its own, I recognized a look on her face that I knew must be present on mine as well: pure gratitude.

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After making our way down from Arequipa and the mountains (whew, we can breathe again) we headed up the coast and into the desert.



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After being in the mountains, riding along the PanAmerican was pretty dull business. Luckily, the cops were out to play and kept us busy enough to keep us from boredom.



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We made a failed attempt to see a cemetery where many bodies are buried above ground... Kristen wasn’t too keen on the idea so I have suspicions that she may have “accidently” not been able to find it.


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We eventually made our way into Ica where I had a pretty serious clash with some mototaxi drivers and with the layout of the city in general (main roads lead directly into street markets over and over). Kristen thinks they’re cute, I personally see them more as giant mosquitos...


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Right outside of town, we spotted a community of woven shacks. Seeing as the wind was continually sweeping sand across the ground, I would imagine that it is a very difficult way to live.


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After rolling into Huacachina, we had a quick lunch and wandered around to find a place to stay. Huacachina is a bit of a tourist magnet. Lots of foreigners come to sand board and dune buggy so the majority of the town caters to out of towners. The first hostel I walked into reminded me of being on a college campus but not in a good way. The guy taking me to see a room literally caught a frisbee, took a chug of a beer and told me that he was throwing a “420” party that night if we were interested - all on the way to the room. After seeing the skanky beds they were offering, I realized that I was literally too old to mess with people like that and headed directly after the nearest tourist bus full of senior citizens.


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After dropping our stuff off, we walked straight out of town and into the sand.


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It is unbelievable to think how a magnitude of tiny particles can make up such enormous dunes.


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I've never walked in anything like it. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was not lying.


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As the temperature dropped significantly and the sky became colored, we sat and waited to watch the desert transform.


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With the last slits of sunlight breaching the horizon, we ran back to town from the chill of the night.


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Our reward for the hike:


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Up next: mountain roads are muy peligroso!​

BOY!!!! If You guys liked those dunes, your are going to love North Africa & Senegal

Sittin on a Gasplattform near Karratha in West Australia, I like to see your photos. Hopefully I`m back in germany when you both visit Europe.

My best regards to you and your wife.

Battery terminals can get wet without shorting out, it happens all the time when I clean the engine compartment of my truck, or when driving through heavy rain storms. While water is a conductor, there is enough resistance for a 12 volt battery shorting is not an issue. However, completely submerging a battery is not a good thing, as even a "sealed" battery has a vent that water could intrude from. I'm told that there are some marine batteries that can be submerged without any issues.

About the dunes, were they composed of "singing sands" that squeaked or "sang" as you walked along??

My. Sweet. Jesus. I don't think I have ever looked at photographs of sand and been speechless before. Absolutely beautiful work. Nothing else i can say really.

What he said!

South America is a really beautiful place; i am seriously beginning to wonder if I should skip Alaska and do South America first instead. Nice pics!

On the photography side of things, how do the cameras deal with all the sand in the air? I usually stick with primes when in a dusty area as zoom lenses often move large amounts of air as they expand and contract. How have you managed to have them cleaned (lenses and sensor)? Id be hesitant to trust camera places down there as id be afraid of the sensor getting scratched, especially with sand.

And not only the sand ones! what about those skyes? And the Santa Catalina convent, and the salar, and the glaciers, and roads, and lakes, and all the rest!

What a journey, thanks or taking us along.

For whatever reason, they just really spoke to us. Neither of us had ever really seen anything like it before and I'm sure that we're both going to freak out at bigger dunes like in Africa... loved it!

The internet is an amazing thing. So cool that it connects us across the globe. I hope you're in Germany also - I'd like to buy you guys a coffee or something!

I guess it's common sense that they can get a bit wet - it's not like cars or bikes have water tight containers around the terminals. Good to know about a complete submersion though - either way, I think I'm going to be moving my battery higher off the ground. It may not be as convenient but it's just too low at the moment. Something to talk to Claude about...

And I'd say the dunes were full of super powdery sand. Not much squeaking. I think that's what made it even more surreal. So hard to walk through...

Hahahaha - awesome response. Pretty much the same on our end when we got there, to be honest...

I don't know what's better. I haven't spent a ton of time in Alaska but it is stunning. We're talking about trying to spend a chunk of time there at some point. We're huge fans of South America though too...

The dunes were a bit of a challenge as far as the cameras go. We always keep a clear filter on all of our lenses, which helped tremendously, and the Canon bodies are amazingly weather proof. I brought a cleaning kit with us and cleaned out both bodies and lenses afterwards but they were both fine. I am a bit paranoid about letting people service my stuff so I try and do most of it myself as is - I'll let my shop do a full service when we get back to San Antonio at some point. I'm sure I could find a place, but I'm not leaving our cameras with someone down here...

Many thanks!