Finally back on the
road, six weeks in Arica waiting for a starter clutch and it's still
giving the occasional grating sound.
I'm glad to see the
back of Arica, not that there's anything wrong with the place but six
weeks is a long time and there isn't really a lot to do there. The
only bar near where I was staying was in the bus station, you can
imagine what that was like and the only local places to eat did
varieties of chicken and chips. Basically, I spent the time on an
off license bender, letting everything slide and checking a Royal
Mail tracking number every minute or two. Fat lot of use that was,
it told me when the package had left the UK and nothing more.
There was also a
marching band that practised in the school next door to the hostel in
which I stayed. I had no feelings either way about marching bands
before Arica but I hate them with a passion now.
After finally getting
the bike back, it was difficult to leave. I'm not used to riding any
more. Or blogging. First day, I took it nice an easy. About 200km
up to Moquegua, met an Argentinian lad on a Honda Sahara. We found a
cheap hostal, had dinner in the market (only to find out later that
Lonely Planet describes it as extremely dangerous after dark. I
didn't feel at all threatened anywhere) and tried in vain to find a
cold beer. Only one shop had beer and they didn't have any in the
fridge.
Somewhere around 330km
the next day up to Camara. Stayed in a small beach resort hotel for
a very reasonable price just before town, I was the only guest but
they were happy to open the restaurant for me. By “open”, of
course I mean they were happy to cook for me.
An early start and then
430km to Nazca. The first 100km took me about 4 hours. There were
roadworks all over that part of the panam, Eventually, I came across
a long line of stationary trucks. Being on a bike, I nipped round
the side up to the front to see what was going on. As I understand
it, they'd closed off the road to resurface an entire section. Some
of the truck drivers had been waiting for some time and were getting
quite agitated. Eventually, a couple of the trucks blocked off the
other side of the road to prevent the dump trucks carrying hardcore
to the roadworks from getting through and things got quite heated.
The police arrived and there was much shouting but eventually they
opened the road and let us through. I was first of course, being on
a bike.
Fantastic bit of road,
when it's open. Ocean waves and a steep drop on one side, desert and
dunes on the other. Every now and then some twisty bits dropping
into a green valley.
430km took me around 9
hours. I'm knackered. Need to eat, drink and sleep. More blogging
in the very near future with a bit of luck.
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