Peenie Wallie

« Calling Peru from USA | Main | Day 54 [Fri 1/5/2018] - Miraflores, Lima, Peru »

January 4, 2018

Day 53 [Thr 1/4/2018] - Miraflores, Lima, Peru

Day 53 [Thr 1/4/2018] - Miraflores, Lima, Peru

Update: I am alive and well and resting peacefully in our apartment in Miraflores, Lima, Peru.

So, today, I decided that I've ridden far enough, and I'm ready to return to the United States. My reasons for this decision are many, but primarily, it has to do with the fact that I've been on the road for nearly 2 months, and I'm tired of riding. At this point, for me to continue the ride, it would just be a 4,000 mile dead run down to Tierra Del Fuego just to say "I made it", and then turn around and drive 2,000 miles back to either Santiago or Buenos Aires to ship the bike back.

My problem with that ride would be that, it's mostly through the Atacama Desert, and I just rode through the Sechura desert. So, I'm sort of burnt out on deserts. I'm not overly excited about running through the desert for 6,000 miles just to say "there, I did it". I wanted a motorcycle adventure, and I got that in spades, on my ride through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Somehow, out of all of those countries, I only saw 2 countries that were new to me (Colombia and Ecuador).

But it's been an amazing ride, and I'm glad that I did it, but whatever I hoped to get out of the adventure at the beginning, I got out of it. It was crazy fun, and I'm sure that as soon as I get home, I'll miss the Andes and the road. But for now, riding through the Atacama desert just to say I made it seems to me to be a bridge too far.

So, we went to the jorge chavez international airport today, and dropped off my bike. They're building a crate around it, draining the fluids, etc, and in the morning, I ride out to the airport in a taxi, inspect the crate, and then they fly it back to Denver. I fly back to denver on a flight that leaves late saturday (tomorrow) night, connects through Atlanta with a 4 hour connection, and then gets into Denver some time on Sunday.

So, that's sort of my plan for winding down my adventure in Latin America.

After we went to the airport and got all of that sorted out, then I rode on the back of David's bike, and the three of us (David, Johan, and I) went to the Dakar rally kickoff in Lima. What was funny is that we're all there in our riding gear, with our costcos (helmets), and no joke, we're signing autographs, people are taking photos with us, because they all assumed we were racing in Dakar. Lots of fun.

And then, we see this guy at Dakar, and he starts talking to us, and I'm like...where do we know this guy from? It turns out, when David had a rock in his front tire, [2 days ago int he desert in Chepen, Peru] and we stopped at a gas station and fixed it, this guy pulled up, and he got out and talked to us. And he gave me the Dakar sticker I have on my bike. And, at the time, I was thinking...why does this guy have a Dakar sticker with his name printed on it? Like...some people are so egotistical, right? Only now do I realize that he is racing in Dakar, and that's why he was coming down here....to race. Still, I'm surprised that we ran into him, as there are thousands of people at this event. Dakar is no small event. It draws....who knows how many spectators. There were certainly several thousand people at this event tonight.

Then, we ride back to the apartment. I copy my photos off for David and Johan, so that they have all the photos I have of them on our ride through Peru. And there are some pretty cool shots of them. That's what happens when you're riding with a photographer that rides beside you with no hands, shooting a DSLR camera in the Sechura Desert. They could have picked worse people to ride with. ;)

So that's kind of my plan. Get to the Lima airport in the morning (early), sign off on shipping the bike to USA, then fly out late tomorrow (saturday) night, getting into Denver some time on Sunday. (I'm not really clear what time on Sunday, as there is a 4 hour connection in Atlanta, etc.) Also, I'm currently in Eastern time, if I'm not mistaken.

I've been getting some leads on projects, and I think that probably now I'm ready to go back to work. I had a nice little 2 month vacation, riding through Latin America. Maybe it's true that the globe is a little larger than it looks on the map in my bedroom in Colorado. But that's OK. I had a nice little ride. When I would tell people that I rode my motorcycle down from Colorado, they'd choke and cough and laugh.

This is the furthest that I've ever ridden my motorcycle in my life away from my home. (When I rode to Deadhorse, Alaska, I was only 5,000 miles away, at best.)

Tonight, I've ridden over 9,000 miles on this journey, without ever turning back. Now seems like a good time to regroup. My back hurts pretty bad. I have a hard time standing up from riding all day for so many days.

Posted by Rob Kiser on January 4, 2018 at 9:58 PM

Comments

Posted by: Nevada Joe on January 5, 2018 at 4:30 AM

Posted by: Rob Kiser on January 5, 2018 at 12:34 PM

Posted by: Rob Kiser on January 5, 2018 at 1:51 PM

Posted by: Enrico on January 5, 2018 at 2:27 PM

Posted by: Bud on January 6, 2018 at 1:22 PM

Posted by: Rob Kiser on January 6, 2018 at 3:51 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:(this will not be displayed)

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Type the word Alabraska to verify you're a person and not a program. This is not case sensitive. Note: It will take 1-2 minutes to post your comments. After that time, you must refresh your browser. Please do not double-post comments or I will kill you. (required):

NOTICE: IT WILL TAKE APPROX 1-2 MINS FOR YOUR COMMENT TO POST SUCCESSFULLY. YOU WILL HAVE TO REFRESH YOUR BROWSER. PLEASE DO NOT DOUBLE POST COMMENTS OR I WILL KILL YOU.