Strange days with road kill of a different kind.
After the surf it was time to make a dash for the border. Mike certainly did himself proud with his GPS route finding this time. Somehow we missed a rather large town almost entirely and ended riding around some rice paddies for nearly an hour. Scaring the naked local men, as it appeared to be bath day for the men of Peru on this particular Thursday, we got to see a rather different side to the agriculture. Beats riding through a mad city with crazed drivers anytime though.
On our last morning in Peru we had rather disappointing breakfast, no, actually, a totally disgusting breakfast, that fortunately we didn't eat much of. Half an hour out of Piura, we were slowed down by a bus in front of us. When we passed around the obstacle on the road causing this delay, we saw, much to our suprise, that it was road kill of the human kind. Almost covered completely in blankets, just the bare right foot was sticking out. Now we've seen a lot of road kill, mangled dogs, a few cats, rodents, birds, llamas, armadillos, not forgetting Larry the lamb and even two rather large horses have been left to rot by the side of the road quite often with faces distorted by tyres and inards spewed all over the road. But this one made our empty tummies turn. No entrails were smeared over the road, but what was clearly a brain. I've no idea what would have casued the accident to leave the body in one peice except for the brain as the only vehicles around was the police car, a mototaxi, which barely had enough power to carry the driver and one passanger, and a donkey. Could have been a hit an run in the night maybe considering it was early in the morning, but either way we're glad we didn't have much for breakfast.
So on we go, another half hour up the road when we take the bypass around Sallinas to head for the border. Just after crossing a cause way, Mike pulls over. 'Hmmm what's up now!' Great, we kind of have a long day ahead and Mike gets a flat tyre. A rather large nail straight through the tyre. We've been stopped for less than a minute and I'm thinking that we'll need to take the wheel off, strap it to my bike, Mike can ride it to the tyre repairman just up the road (there is aways a tyre repair man just up the road) and get it fixed while I stay with his bike and the luggage. Great plan, but within that minute of stopping, we have a taxi stop his car and hysterically indicates that we must keep moving. I'm thinking we're not in the way, people can go around us if needed. Then a local bike pulls up shouting, 'Peligro, Peligro, vamos, vamos!'
'Why, what's dangerous? We're not on the road!'
The response, fingers turned into a gun pointing at us 'Bang, bang'!
Oh! We're not in danger from other vehicles but in danger of getting shot. Great! The local biker gives up and is out of there. Next a police motorcycle turns up.
Same again, 'Vamos, vamos, peligro, peligro!'
Mike's response, 'You've got a gun, you can stay here and protect us cause I can't go anywhere with this'.
Mr Policeman reluctantly agrees that yes he does indeed have a gun and so he sticks around, in a rather nervous manner. But none the less, restoring our faith in policemen.
So it's at this point in time that I'm glad it's Mike's tyre that has a puncture. Out comes the nail, in goes a sticky rubber thingy, and yes, that is it's technical term I'm sure, and he pumps up the tyre with his little mini electric pump. You've got to love a tubeless tyre. Mine's not and would have involved taking the inner tube out, unpacking a pannier to get to the spare and putting the new tube in then trying to get the tyre back on. So in under 10 minutes we were back on the road again. The locals had calmed down. Turns out, after chatting to the policeman while Mike sorted his tyre out, that the 'peligro' was only 'poco' rather than 'mucho', and we remained unscather by the banditos.
A dead body and this, all within the first hour of riding. Fortunately that was enough weirdness for the day and we crossed into Ecuador and made it to our first night's stay with out further drama.
On our last morning in Peru we had rather disappointing breakfast, no, actually, a totally disgusting breakfast, that fortunately we didn't eat much of. Half an hour out of Piura, we were slowed down by a bus in front of us. When we passed around the obstacle on the road causing this delay, we saw, much to our suprise, that it was road kill of the human kind. Almost covered completely in blankets, just the bare right foot was sticking out. Now we've seen a lot of road kill, mangled dogs, a few cats, rodents, birds, llamas, armadillos, not forgetting Larry the lamb and even two rather large horses have been left to rot by the side of the road quite often with faces distorted by tyres and inards spewed all over the road. But this one made our empty tummies turn. No entrails were smeared over the road, but what was clearly a brain. I've no idea what would have casued the accident to leave the body in one peice except for the brain as the only vehicles around was the police car, a mototaxi, which barely had enough power to carry the driver and one passanger, and a donkey. Could have been a hit an run in the night maybe considering it was early in the morning, but either way we're glad we didn't have much for breakfast.
So on we go, another half hour up the road when we take the bypass around Sallinas to head for the border. Just after crossing a cause way, Mike pulls over. 'Hmmm what's up now!' Great, we kind of have a long day ahead and Mike gets a flat tyre. A rather large nail straight through the tyre. We've been stopped for less than a minute and I'm thinking that we'll need to take the wheel off, strap it to my bike, Mike can ride it to the tyre repairman just up the road (there is aways a tyre repair man just up the road) and get it fixed while I stay with his bike and the luggage. Great plan, but within that minute of stopping, we have a taxi stop his car and hysterically indicates that we must keep moving. I'm thinking we're not in the way, people can go around us if needed. Then a local bike pulls up shouting, 'Peligro, Peligro, vamos, vamos!'
'Why, what's dangerous? We're not on the road!'
The response, fingers turned into a gun pointing at us 'Bang, bang'!
Oh! We're not in danger from other vehicles but in danger of getting shot. Great! The local biker gives up and is out of there. Next a police motorcycle turns up.
Same again, 'Vamos, vamos, peligro, peligro!'
Mike's response, 'You've got a gun, you can stay here and protect us cause I can't go anywhere with this'.
Mr Policeman reluctantly agrees that yes he does indeed have a gun and so he sticks around, in a rather nervous manner. But none the less, restoring our faith in policemen.
So it's at this point in time that I'm glad it's Mike's tyre that has a puncture. Out comes the nail, in goes a sticky rubber thingy, and yes, that is it's technical term I'm sure, and he pumps up the tyre with his little mini electric pump. You've got to love a tubeless tyre. Mine's not and would have involved taking the inner tube out, unpacking a pannier to get to the spare and putting the new tube in then trying to get the tyre back on. So in under 10 minutes we were back on the road again. The locals had calmed down. Turns out, after chatting to the policeman while Mike sorted his tyre out, that the 'peligro' was only 'poco' rather than 'mucho', and we remained unscather by the banditos.
A dead body and this, all within the first hour of riding. Fortunately that was enough weirdness for the day and we crossed into Ecuador and made it to our first night's stay with out further drama.
posted by Michelle at 10:56 pm
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