May 16th, 2007.  9:30pm Lima time
Huames, Peru
GPS: S10 06.141, W078 15.732

Distance Traveled: 930km

It's not chilly, it's Peru!

&lt;Pause for laughter&gt;

It's surprising how acclimatized to 30 degree weather we've become over the course of a few short days.  Right now it's about 18 degrees out, and we were actually cold while sitting on the patio of the restaurant across the street.

I forgot to mention a couple milestones we hit on the 14th.  One: we crossed 5400kms on our odometers, which means we were 10% of the way home.  Two: we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at 11:20am that morning.  I actually looked up when we passed the sign, but of course there was nothing in the sky.

We got a bright &amp; early stop today, and there's a new contender for lead in the Bike Laydown Pool.  Here are the standings:
1st place: Ryan: 2 slides, 2 drops
2nd place: Rob: 0 slides, 5 drops
3rd place: Sean: 1 slide, 4 drops
4th place: Justin: 0 slides, 0 drops

As you can see, Rob is in the lead for the drop-your-bike portion of the pool. When we stopped for gas this morning, there was a car wash right next door, and we figured it'd be a good time to get our bikes polished up and finally get the stickers for our sponsors on the bikes.  The washer-guys actually knocked Rob's bike over when they were washing it, and had a very hard time getting it back up again.  Rob and I had to run over before we were able to get it back up.

The second time he dropped the bike, we were going through a toll booth.  I should mention here that motorcycles are exempt from paying tolls on roads, so we always get shunted through a little quasi-lane that often isn't very wide, or requires us to cross opposing traffic to get through.  This particular time, we were shunted across opposing traffic and through a narrow cattle chute.  Rob managed, somehow, to drop his bike right at the end of the chute.  He was riding in the rear, and as the rest of us took off down the highway, the police officers we were waving at kept making this weird 'go back' gesture.  I looked behind me, and there's Rob's bike, laying on its' side.  

Today had quite a bit of varied terrain – started off canyon-y and desert-y, but soon we dropped into a large series of valleys, each one it's own little oasis of green and life.  Quite a lot of the day, too, was spent riding along the ocean, which is always really nice to do, when the road isn't punishing you for doing it.  

We have to be moving pretty much contstantly to make our mileage goal at the end of each day – this means very rarely do we get to stop for photo opportunities, and in fact Rob and Justin both have been practicing their hand at photography from the back of a motorcycle.  Justin, so far, is better.  

However, sometimes this have-to-be-moving mentality can lead to some frustration and anger.  For instance, today marked the first time that I was furious at my brothers.  We have a rule for riding: always keep the guy behind you in your mirrors.  Rob decided that he didn't need to do this anymore, for whatever reason, and just booked it across the desert.  Justin was in the lead, and was doing his job, keeping Rob in his mirrors.  

They left Sean and I far, far behind.  The longer I went without seeing Rob and Justin – at ALL – in the distance, except for the rare times when I'd crest a hill and could see for miles and miles and miles down the road, the madder and madder I got.  I got so frustrated trying to keep up with them that I started taking stupid risks to try to get around trucks faster.

I was only able to catch up to them after we hit a very long straight section, and I was able to pin the throttle all the way open.  Apparently Rob (used to – we talked about this) doesn't like to look in his rearview mirrors, so he didn't see me flashing my lights at him to try to get him to stop.  For miles.  I flashed for so long my thumb ached.

Fortunately, Justin ran out of gas about that point and we pulled over to the side to fill up from our jerry cans.  I stopped my bike as soon as I could and ran over and smacked Rob on his big dumb helmeted head.  I admit to being quite emotionally distraught, but unlike when Justin and I were separated from the other two, I didn't quite break down and lose it completely.  

Sean provided a calming influence, and he explained to Rob just how scary and frustrating it had been for the two of us to keep up with them.  Even though he'd been 'keeping an eye on us on his GPS'.

Anyways, I apologized immediately.  Then when Rob was strapping his jerry can back to his bike, his bungee cord let loose and popped him but good smack in the nose.  I couldn't help but laugh.  

Today also marked the first time we had a negative encounter with the police.  Streets are generally poorly marked, and highways feed directly through the centre of every town.  Imagine if Highway 2 made you drive through downtown Innisfail, Bowden, Olds and Airdrie on your way to Calgary.  Only it's a two-lane road, with about ten times the amount of heavy truck traffic on it.

Anyways, poorly marked roads on the highway/downtown.  Every time that we see a school zone sign on the highway/downtown, we immediately slow down.  This time, we managed to not see it, and got flagged down by a member of the friendly policia.  

He didn't speak much English, and we (of course) don't speak much Spanish.  Once we understood why he'd pulled us over, and that only Justin would be getting a ticket, we were (somewhat) relieved, but still a little choked.  We explained to him what we were doing, and why, and that we were very sorry and just didn't see the sign, but he insisted on writing out the ticket.

When we started talking about the amounts of the fine and such, though, he apparently became fed up with the communication problem – either that, or he realized that he could be a really nice guy today – he threw up his hands and said 'vamos – bye'.  When we realized we were free to go, we all shook his hand, said 'gracias', and were on our way.

Lima was a nightmare to get through.  Santiago has a freeway system much like Calgary – we were able to get through Santiago in about half an hour, without even really seeing much of the city.  Not so with Lima.  We were lost almost from the moment we entered the city.  Imagine, if you will, another hypothetical Highway 2 scenario.  Highway 2 runs straight into downtown Calgary.  If you're travelling from north to south through calgary, HWY2 takes you straight downtown, and then ends, or fades.  And there's garbage and roadkill everywhere, and slums scattered all over the city.  And the drivers make the ones I talked about in Buenos Aires look like old grandmas on a Sunday drive.  Then, as i said, HWY2 ends on, say, the west side of downtown and doesn't start up again until south of the east end of 17th ave (Red Mile).  

So we got lost.  Took us an hour and a half to get out of Lima.  One of the nice things about leaving Lima is that we crest a canyon as we leave the city, and we got a really beautiful view of it.  Unfortunately, as I said, our schedule doesn't really allow for photo stops, so we'll see if Rob and Justin managed to grab any snapshots of it as we left.

We decided to call it a night when we hit this little wide spot in the road called Huames, but it's got two hotels, and one of those has rooms and private parking.  So yay.

I'm beat, and we gotta get up pretty early tomorrow morning so that we can hit the Ecuadorian border before 9pm (that's when it closes).  Tomorrow we'll also cross the 30% completed boundary.  

Good night.  I miss you, Natalie.  Can't wait to see you.
Ryan Noble
Huames, Peru