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posted September 05, 2006 07:24 AM
 Edited By: spam on 5 Sep 2006 08:30
South America Part 2- A Gringo Show for the Palpa Locals- Nov 29/04
This post was originally an email sent to our friends and family during our travels in South America Nov 2004-Feb 2005- please see the "The next big adventure.... and the previous one..." thread for more details...
A gringo show for the Palpa Locals- Nov 29/04
Hi all,
Well, we are happy to be out of Lima. The traffic there was crazy. Leaving town, we opted to take the route from where we were staying directly towards the beach and ride along the low road along the beach to leave town. Reminded me of riding along the California coast. Stopped in the town of Pisco for the night in a really nice-looking secure hotel out of the main center of town. They even had a locked parking area for the motorbikes, but the place turned out to be very loud. There was a preacher in the church behind yelling into a mic until 11pm that night. Even I felt like repenting....
We left the next day, headed for Nazca and possibly Chala, this little tiny place on the beach I had heard was nice and relatively undiscovered. We were sort of on the fence about whether to go to Chala or not as it is a bit off course and could turn out to be a total dive but the decision was made for us when we stopped in Palpa for a cold one (cokes people, we're riding...). We came out to find I had a flat rear tire. But we couldn't figure it out because there was nothing on the tire anywhere. Anyways, the great thing about Peru is that the guy working at the fanciest grifo (gas station) in town (i.e. the only one with compressed air) does not care one iota if you want to unpack your bike and disassemble the thing in the front of his establishment. Hell, it actually drummed up business. 2 gringos in the heat heaving their own tire apart brought out many locals to his grifo see what the hell we were up to (we learned that gringo does not have the negative connotations here that are associated with it in Mexico).
Flat tire repair in Palta
It seems that we didn't get the tube in perfectly flat when we changed the tires before we left Canada and there was a wrinkle in the tube and it rubbed a hole that all the air finally had a chance to leak out of when we finally stopped after burning through the straightaway desert-like conditions all day. We got the new tube in without problem and the whole process went relatively smoothly. We knew that we were bound to get a flat at some point on the trip, but we were surprised to have it happen so soon (but in this case, it was our own pre-trip-rushed fault). We only have one spare tube between the 2 of us, and 17inch tires are relatively unusual here (not sure how soon we can access a new one) so we took it across the street to the llanteria (tire repair place)- no one actually replaces tires or tubes here- they just fix them. For 4 soles (Can$1.60), they made the old tube as good as new- no word of a lie. They put a patch on it and put it in a horizontal vice. The top of the vice has walls on the top so that they can put some fuel in the compartment on the top of the vice and set it on fire and vulcanize the patch so it becomes part of the tire. Yes, I was somewhat concerned to see what appeared to be the tube on fire, but it is a very good patch job.
This is my tube getting fixed?!?! (look for only non-dusty thing in middle of pic, the one getting clamped with a rusty metal thing.....)
So now we are in Nazca and have been hanging out here a few days. We will take a flight over the Nazca lines (landing strips for the aliens??) probably tomorrow- don't worry, hundreds of tourists do it every day and we checked out the surprising well-maintained light aircraft they use- they thank goodness do not share the same standard of quality as the taxis in Peru. We will then make our way up to Puquio- which is only 145kms away but 3000m in elevation (we are presently at 300m). Acclimatizing is something that is different for everyone and since we are on bikes, we are going to take it slow. There is another stop en route to Cusco, Abancay, which is only 2500m elev, so we'll have the opportunity to go down a bit before we go up again, which is supposed to be a good practice. We are expecting the roads and the views to be pretty amazing...
Cheers all,
Scott and Pam
PS- I forgot to mention that I got a very good haircut in Pisco for 4 soles (Can$1.60). Scott had a good one earlier when we were still in Lima, for 10 soles. But it is costing us twice as much to get our laundry done as it would at home- some of the prices here seem very strange in relation to each other.
Note: We didn't really tell the whole story in this email...While fixing the flat in Palpa, it was really, really hot and I had a camelback bladder in my tankbag with water in it that I had originally filled from the purified water dispenser at Hein and Ana's place in Lima just before we left. That night, we were camping at a resort across the street from the airport in Nazca and they gave us a key to a room to use the washroom. Scott came back from a trip to the can very early the next morning and was white as a ghost. He had pretty bad diarrhea all night long and his concern is visible on his face as he tells me that he thinks he had a bit of blood in his stool and that the trip might be over for him. Nonsense, I say, everyone gets the runs when you travel- this version is the Inca 2-step. I keep force-feeding him water out of the camelback bladder and his stomach pains were getting worse and worse. Finally I open the bladder and it smells foul. Just like Scotts farts. Uh oh. I went up to the reception at the resort and asked to book the room containing the bathroom we had been using and I moved Scotty in there, to one of the 2 single beds. Then I went up to the corner store beside the resort for some Sprite and water and packaged foods and then packed all our stuff from the tent to the room. I don't think I managed to get the tent down but got all the stuff in it into our room before I got sick too (I had been drinking the water during the night too). So we slept and did not dare venture further than 5 steps from the toilet for about 2-3 days. The TV didn't work in the room but we were too wiped to call anyone to come fix it. We slept all day. I read Scott the information about diarrhea from the Health Section of the Lonely Planet book without mentioning that in was in the Infectious Diseases section along with Amoebic Dystentery, Giardiasis and Cholera (all of which diarrhea can be a symptom of). Since I knew we were managing to get fluids down, I encouraged him to let his body purge the bug in its own way but finally, we called in the big guns- Cipro. Scott figured it started curing him within 15 minutes. I pretty much had most of it out of my system by this time (and I hadn't drank as much of the water) so I skipped the Cipro (I had been warned that it would affect the levels of my asthma medication in my system so didn't feel like messing around if I didn't need to) and waited a half a day longer before taking some Imodium. We slept through another whole day and then finally emerged and headed to town to email everyone and have a tentative meal. Next day we took a flight over the Nazca lines (spaceman, left side, under de weeng, under de weeng), then packed up and headed for a safe restaurant in town before turning inland to head up and over the Andes.
Airport Security- Nazca, Peru
Feeling better about this plane once we're safely back on the ground
First tentative meal-note the rockstar parking for the bikes, just inside the front door
  
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