Alex Around the World - Episode III - Peru

All right, welcome to episode three. This time we're going to go through Peru, that's where it's at on the map, and I've been getting a lot of good feedback from the people, so let's keep it up. We're going to go from Ecuador across the border into Peru through San Ignacio, and then we're going to head east into the Amazon region through Peru, some tough stuff, and head to Cerro de Pasco, all the way down through the Andes, all the way to Ayacucho. And like I said, the road from Loja de Vicabamba in Peru is absolutely awesome, but there are a lot of hazards and a lot of difficulties getting there, but it makes for quite the adventure either way. As you can see, the Andes sometimes have clay, but with water it makes it quite terrible. How's that for nasty? That's right, nasty it was, and as you can see by these videos, is almost losing control a few times because how slippery and slip and slidey it was, but the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. And as you see by this line, David did fall victim to slippery road conditions, as you can see. So after a good laugh, we got a proper leg technique to lift up the bike, and off we went again, only to watch David almost completely lose it in front of me. I'm going to film you, go ahead. I'll be right behind you, buddy. So stupid me was trying to take a U-turn, and I didn't quite make it. So I'm stuck here against the wall, doing nothing. So we're about to go under this bridge here, well it's a little thing before the bridge, because some lazy guy doesn't open it for us, so we're going to go under it. That's right, crossing from Ecuador to Peru, there was nobody to open this gate for us after much honking and trying to get people's attention, and nobody decided to come help us, so we just went under it, which was a very tight fit. As you can see, we're trying not to decapitate ourselves trying to cross. So here we are at the, just crossed the border from Ecuador, exported ourselves out into Peru, at a pretty remote place, there's really not really much, and unfortunately the immigration guy in Peru decided just to go out on his bike for some reason, and hasn't returned, so we're stuck here. It's almost four, and the sun will be going down in the next few hours, so we hope he'll get here soon. But it's amazing that, yeah people just do whatever they want, yeah just go on their bike, whatever, leave the immigration office unattended, so it is what it is. Then, yeah, there's a donkey by the way. As you all know, I love border crossings, and all the wonderful procedures that go with it, so just sitting there, getting piped up, and headed off after that. So what obstacles in the road might I encounter in such a journey, you may ask? Well, this. A horse in the middle of the road, that's a new one. I must have picked the like, craziest off-road, most desolate areas, because I mean, how the heck do you know where to go? You just don't. Taking a little lunch break after a much crazy six-hour off-roading adventure, as you'll see by the bike, which I'm about to give you a tour of how beautifully clean it is. And my favorite part is you can't even see your license plate. That's when you know you've been through some rough stuff. Ecuador cookie, good stuff. So once in Peru, we continued onward through some of this amazing, amazing scenery, and even had a chance to get some brake fluid, but going to some of these very remote places, people are very always interested in what you are, who you are, where you're coming from, and they always initially ask the same three questions, is where are you from, where are you going, and how big is the engine on the motorcycle? And everybody's real nice, and they try to give a helping hand any way they can. So getting into Peru, we noticed our forks were leaking, so we had to find a place to have them change the seal on the forks, and we're taking the whole bike apart. That's right, this is probably the nicest Peruvian family we've met so far, and they were very interested in our journey after they fixed our bikes for us, and here I am showing them our route, where we're going, where we're coming from, and they were all very enthusiastic to meet us. That's right, they're going to be famous on the internet, and they're all very excited about that. So onward, we continue through this amazing, amazing scenery through the Amazon in Peru, and basically it looks what I would think driving through Vietnam would look like, even though I've never been through Vietnam, but there's a bunch of rice paddies, and see people work on the fields. Some pretty tough jobs, but it's what I imagine Vietnam would look like. And onward, we continue through the Andes, which we hit and got the camera nice and wet, but basically enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and it was amazing, I must say. So I have no idea what we're eating, but it's a banana with cheese in it. I have an idea what we're eating. And chicken feet. I know exactly what we're eating. So we skipped out on the chicken feet, so we're having this banana with cheese. There's nothing to eat in this town except banana with cheese in the middle. I love Peru. So just like loving Peru, we're going to love this next parking spot. It was quite interesting. It wasn't too far into the hotel, the hostel I mean, but it was kind of fun driving in. So just another interesting parking spot to add to the list. And what do you see in Peru at 8 in the morning? That's right, a lot of people on the back of a truck. So we continue onward to the amazing Amazon region of Peru, checking out the great rice fields, and doing some good interesting camera angles. Trying to hide from the bike as well, as you probably can't see me, got a little bored. And tried a new chest strap for the camera to kind of give you a first person perspective on what it is to drive the bike from this point of view. Welcome to Peru and the Amazon region, where the roads are not the best, the mosquitoes are big, it's deathly hot and humid, but the adventure is great. That's right, the roads are quite dangerous, got to watch out for big trucks like this. And through these awesome roads, you also have to try to get on this boat, because bridges are out and they're reconstructing and doing all that fun stuff. But the biggest danger through these Amazon regions has actually been dehydration. I actually found poor David passed out on the side of the road from dehydration, and got to get him some liquid right here and try to get him back on the road. Dehydration, quite a bitch. We're somewhere in Peru, in the Amazon-ish area, and apparently the bridge is out. They're building a bridge here, some other things, so we're putting all these cars and things onto this thing that takes us across to the other side. And you know it's been a very dirty day when your shirt is black on the inside, and on the outside, it's like almost gray. So that's a dirty day. Look at that. It's like a different color, just from one day of dirty driving. Made him with the poor lungs go through. So probably the most, one of the more interesting aspects of motorcycle travel is where you find where to park the bike at night, and today we have quite a doozy, and we're going to see that. It's this little place over here. So this was quite interesting, basically driving into what looks like a house, all the way in, going through a poker game, going through a small little door, and trying not to run over the poor children. So that's the end for the episode, thanks guys for watching. Again, leave some comments, let us know what you're thinking, it's going pretty good, so let's keep it up. So stay tuned for the next episode, where we'll have fun with the Peruvian police. We'll try out some new camera angles. We'll sleep in this crazy room that looks like a jail cell. And we'll have probably the best meal that we've had all this trip. And we're going to face every traveler's worst nightmare of having surgery in a foreign country. And guess who it is? Yeah, that's right. Poor David's the unfortunate soul who will have to endure surgery in Peru, but he's okay now. But stay tuned for the next episode.