Detour

September 4th 2024 – Arica, Chile

On our last day in Cusco Fin showed up to keep us company. We gave him a tour of the town and invited him to stay the night in one of the extra bedrooms at our apartment. It was nice to catch up.

We spent a relaxed morning with Fin. Before Kat and I took off, we agreed to meet up again a couple of weeks later. By that time we should both have something the other would need…

It was great to be on the move again. Traffic was light as soon as we left the Cusco area behind. The riding was great on fast flowing roads surrounded by typical Peruvian grandeur.

We decided to call it a day when we reached Espinar. It was a lively town but the polar opposite of Cusco. We didn’t see a single person who didn’t look local.
Our phones had been acting weird for a couple of days even though our Claro plan should be up and running. After we had checked into a hotel downtown we dropped by the nearest Claro store to see if they could solve the problem.
At first they were a little skeptical because the SIM cards and our plan weren’t registret in our name. The attitude changed completely when a little investigation showed that the girls who had sold us the cards and the plans in the Claro store back in San Ignacio, when we first entered the country, had sold us their own SIM cards, rather than going through the correct process of registering the cards to foreigners.
The girls in the store in Espinar apologized for their colleagues’ laziness or incompetence. Our phones worked again after a phone call and some keyboard magic
With that out of the way we took a stroll around town before having dinner at a pizzeria where we could sit right next to the wood fired oven. The warmth was welcome after sundown at 4.000 meters altitude.

A pile of Alpaca blankets kept us warm during the night. But the room was only a few degrees above freezing when we got up in the morning.
Even with Espinar’s location at 4.000 meters we started climbing as soon as we left town. We traveled at high altitude on deserted roads all morning reaching almost 5.000 meters at one point. We ran out of asphalt at that altitude and had to make due with gravel for a while.
The traffic intensified around noon when we turned onto the main highway connecting Juliaca and Arequipa.
We stopped for lunch at one of the many eateries along the highway.

We encountered numerous convoys of semi-trucks heading in the opposite direction as we followed the road towards Arequipa. As we came around a bend, what seemed like a setting from Star Wars was revealed to us. It turned out to be Cemento Yura – the source of all the semis.

We arrived in Arequipa not long after – or rather in the barrio Tio Chico west of town. The GPS got a little creative guiding us to our destination by taking shortcuts between fields rather than following the proper roads.
Our destination was Casa huerta Stuber, a small guesthouse run by Barbara. When she admitted us through the steel gate to the property we entered a small oasis. It was a very nice place and Barbara the perfect hostess.

Casa huerta Stuber ended up being our home for a few days.
We had to sort a few things out before we could continue. First of all we had to figure out how to get some medication for Katrine. She suffers from a couple of chronic diseases and her drugs are vital for her. Up until now she has received a package from Denmark with what she needs every 3 months or so. It has sometimes been a hassle to get the package through customs but in the end it has always worked out.

The plan had been to receive the next package in Chile where Katrine has come in contact with a guy called Julio. She was introduced to him by Tiffany Coates who had responded when Katrine asked for help in the Facebook group “Panamerican Highway Riders Association”. Just as the package was about to ship a few days earlier, we learned that getting medication into Chile is a very complicated affair – so much so that we decided to cancel the shipment and look into other options.
Julio turned out to be a real gem. He put in an effort to find out how to get what she needed in Chile and even supplied us with a price list. With that in hand Katrine would try to see if she could get some of it cheaper in Peru before we left the country.

While Katrine was sorting out her drugs I managed to get liability insurance on the motorcycles that would cover us in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. Carolina Mercosur from Mercosur Insurance helped me get it sorted. Everything was done over WhatsApp and went very smoothly. Carolina was a pleasure to deal with (let me know if you want her number).

Aside from doing practical stuff we also spent time exploring Arequipa. Framed by 3 volcanoes, it’s filled with baroque buildings constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone. It is the second biggest city in Peru, after the capital Lima. The 332 hectares historic center is an UNESCO World heritage site.

We used the app “inDrive” to get downtown. It is similar to Über but more popular here in Latin America.
inDrive works like this: You write where you want to go. The app will suggest a price. You then write what you are willing to pay. That offer is put out to nearby drivers – they can accept or ignore. If no one accepts you can increase your offer until someone bites. You pay in cash to the driver. It works like a charm for significantly less compared to Über or ordinary taxis.

Most of Arequipa was just another big city, but the historic center took us by storm. It was beautiful, interesting and very lively.

One morning we received a message that a close friend back in Denmark had succumbed to cancer. She was only in her forties. I would have liked to be there for her husband and children during the coming weeks and months but that is not an option in our current situation. It was not the first time something has happened back home during this journey where I felt I should have been there for people I care about. It’s a sacrifice (at the expense of others) that Katrine and I are willing to make for a while, but the price for being absent keeps growing. At some point it will be too high. I feel privileged to have that kind of relationship with other people and a sense of belonging.
The loss of our friend was also a reminder of how fleeting life is and why we should live to the fullest while we have the opportunity. Being on the road like we are now is the epitome of that.

The pharmacies in Arequipa supplied Katrine with some of the drugs she needed. The most vital medication required a prescription. Julio had managed to procure one. We had to get to Chile to make use of it. It was time to leave the mountains for a spell and make a little detour.
We lost altitude and the bikes gained power as we dropped towards the coast on fast well maintained roads through an arid landscape.

The engines purred effortlessly when we reached the Panamericana that would guide us all the way to Tacna.
The ride was uneventful but pleasant. There were a few sections with curves and fog to break up the monotony. I can’t remember when we last spent the majority of a day in 6th gear..? The scenery was like nothing we had seen before. It felt like we were on another planet.

We checked into a small family run hotel on the outskirts of Tacna – a desert town 35 km from the Chilean border. It would be our last night in Peru. It was time to burn our remaining soles so we treated ourselves with a delicious dinner that evening.

We had the undivided attention from a Chilean/Peruvian family while packing the bikes in the morning. They were inexplicably fascinated by us being Danish.
A short ride, through the desolate wasteland that is coastal Peru, delivered us at the border to Chile.
It is beyond me why some people chose to ride the length of South America on the Panamerican Highway…

I kept an eye on the bikes while Katrine visited the required offices and handled the paperwork. It gave me time to reflect on the time we had spent in Peru.

It has been a unique and diverse experience. Riding south through the Andes for another 2 months since we arrived from Ecuador has changed my perspective. None of the mountain ranges in Europe will ever seem big again. Even the Rockies doesn’t seem that big anymore. Katrine and I have exclusively spent time in the Andes since we entered Peru but more than 60% (almost 200 million acres) of the country is covered by tropical forests. Peru is huge and the scenery can rival anything I’ve ever seen.

The riding has been an adventure in itself. You’ll never run out of spectacular dirt roads in Peru. On several occasions they have been unavoidable in order to get to where we wanted to go. The country is putting a lot of effort into improving the infrastructure. The geography makes it a challenge. Many roads are in very bad conditions while others are immaculate. It has never been boring.

I have mentioned the trash before. The amount of it everywhere is appalling and at times almost incomprehensible.
Another negative is how many Peruvians behave in traffic. They are not aggressive as such but a fundamental lack of skill, consideration and foresight makes them unpredictable and a liability behind a wheel. You learn to deal with it, but you can never afford to let your guard down. Safety rule #1: Any time you encounter an oncoming vehicle expect someone to pull out from behind it to overtake.

What really made Peru stand out for me was the people. They have been unusually amiable and charming. Their cordial straightforwardness has made me smile and put me in a good mood countless times.
The result of a poor educational system was often apparent. Spelling was a challenge and simple calculations a mystery for many. A map made no sense to the average Peruvian. The lack of what I would consider common knowledge and their inability for logical thinking was striking. In many regards it was like dealing with children – and I mean that in the kindest and most respectful way for the positives traits far outweighs the negatives.

Everything went smoothly at the border and there were hardly any lines. It still took the better part of 3 hours to acquire the 6 stamps required to enter Chile. From the border we only had a 20 min ride to the port city of Arica. As we approached the city we had our first view of the Pacific since we arrived in South America more than 4 months ago.

I had booked a room at a hotel downtown. Initially they tried to charge us the price listed at the reception. When I showed them the significantly reduced price I had agreed to on booking.com (almost a 50% discount), they could do nothing but smile and accept that.

With the bikes securely tucked away we went for a walk to get a feel for the city and the new country.
After a quick lunch we dropped by a pharmacy. They accepted the prescription Julio had sent to Katrine and easy like that Katrine had all the medication she’ll need for the coming months. It was a big relief for her.
We celebrated with a walk to the top of Morro de Arica. From the top we had a great view of the city and out over the ocean.

From the viewpoint we had noticed some dancers at a parking lot near the harbor. Back down in the city we went to have a closer look. What had been a small group was now a couple of hundred people given it all they got. They were preparing for the yearly Tumba carnival and having a great time. We stayed and watched them until the sun dropped below the horizon and it was time to hunt down something for dinner.

After a few hours in Chile, it was evident that it was a very different country compared to Peru – or any of the other Latin American countries we have visited.
Everyone seemed to know the traffic rules and followed them. No one honked their horns. All the 3 wheeled vehicles were gone. The same applied for the Chinese car brands. There was hardly any trash. Credit cards were accepted everywhere. Less pleasant was that children again became a nuisance and behaved like dysfunctional brats in public – a thing that we haven’t seen since we left the US. There is something about modern western culture and parenting that fuck up the kids.

We had decided to spend a few days in Arica. It would allow us to come to terms with the country and get things sorted.
Finding myself suddenly at sea level I wanted to check out what 4 months of altitude training had gained me in terms of fitness. On our second day in town I went for a 10k run around Morro de Arica. The result was incredible. I used the first 3 uphill kilometers to warm up. The last 7k I pushed to my limit and kept turning up the wick. I’ve never in my life run that fast for that long. I was flying. It felt amazing!

One morning Julio and his wife Giovanna picked us up at the hotel. They wanted to say hello and show us Arica and the surrounding area. They were both well versed in the history of the place and shared generously. It was an interesting day and we really enjoyed their company. We paid for lunch at a good restaurant as a sign of gratitude for the invaluable help Julio had provided with Katrine’s medicine. By the end of the day, we stopped by their house – that Giovanna had designed (she’s an architect) and Julio built 10 years earlier. Giovanna prepared wine and snacks while Julio showed us his collection of vehicles.
When they dropped us off back at our hotel we had gained new friends. Katrine was moved to tears as we said our goodbyes.