Another border and a bunch of mountains.

We arrive in Porto Velho more or less on time in mid-afternoon. The docking process is prolonged by first pulling up to one side of the dock then backing away and pulling up to the other side. Once tied off the process was very fast and we are soon back on two wheels. Well for about 15 minutes until we get to the hotel. After 5 days of no a/c and the time of day we had planned on staying for the night anyway.

Our hotel is ideally located across the street from a gas station one way and a fruit market the other.  After all the rice and beans on the boat we eat a bunch of fruit for supper and are content with that. Air conditioning and a bed you can roll over in never felt to decadent.

The next couple of days are back to the routine of overland travel as we parallel the Bolivian border until we reach Peru.  There is a tour group in the hotel parking lot that are crossing the Amazon in a slightly different fashion than we are, but adventurous all the same.

We are also surprised by how terrible the road is, it reminds of the Paraguay road from the Bolivian border. We do our best to dodge as many holes as possible but we can’t dodge then all, fortunately we do not bend any rims or get any flats. We also thought we were done with boats but there is another ferry crossing rather uneventful and short but still a bit of a time consumer.

The road through town was a disaster.

The border crossing is straight forward on the Brazil side, stamp the passports and we are finished. The Peru side was a little less organized. We had forgot the process for Peru. First get the passports stamped, then make copies of the passports photo page and entry stamp page, also make copies of the bike registration and both sides of the drivers license. Take those to the SUNAT office in order to get the bike paperwork needed for entry. We are finally processed and shown to the gate.

Brasil border station.

The road gets markedly better on the Peru side so we can make up some lost time; there are a few maintenance issues once again. It is time to change Brenda’s chain as the master link seems to have worn the connecting links on both sides to the point that it does not line up with the teeth on the sprocket anymore. Both bikes are due for oil changes and Puerto Maldonado is the place for that. We find a nice little lube shop and the helpful owner does what he can as I change the bike oil. Brenda’s dash has been having condensation issues again so that also gets attended to.

It is nice be back in Peru, the little things make it very different from other countries. They put a lot of effort into keeping the edges of the road clean and neat, and the work crews usually wear high visibility clothing so that it is easy to see them. There are numerous little restaurants offering Menu del Dia, which is drink and a two course meal of soup and rice/meat/beans, usually for $7 or $8PEN (about $3CAD). Then there are the speed bumps, every little town has at least two and sometime they are in the middle of nowhere, sometimes marked and sometimes not. But the most unique thing is their ability to build the most spectacular motorcycle roads through the never ending lush green Andes.

We made the decision to stay on the East side of the Andes following Rte 3S and 5N to the Ecuador border. This will allow us to see a portion of Peru we have not seen in our previous visits. Most of the towns we stay in for the next week are just pit-stops along the highway, one town did not even have a name as far as we could determine, no sign, not on the GPS or Google maps, but they did have an interesting hostal and a friendly host.

We arrive in Tocache ahead of a violent thunder storm and heavy rain that lasts all night long. When we go down to the bikes in the morning we realize that Brenda’s bike was not under the cover of the eve and is a bit wetter than expected. Not a big deal as they are pretty much weather proof, today being the exception. For some reason Brenda’s bike battery was completely dead. I tried to boost with my bike but that did not work either.  After a couple of hours of trying different things including taking the battery to a service shop to get charged and buying a new battery we discovered that the new battery was underpowered to turn over the bigger motor. All the bikes here are 250cc and smaller so the batteries do not need to be very powerful. The other detail is that it will take two days to get one here from Lima. So we have no choice but to wait.

Today is Jan 20^th, meaning we have just over a month to get to Colombia, should be easy enough to meet that schedule.