Lima.Have you got a gun ?

Joe and I met a Peruvian guy at breakfast who said we should contact his friend in Lima who was a motorcycle enthusiast for help finding parts and motorcycle shops.A good start to the day.We made our way down to Lima. The coast was dry and the scenery nothing to get excited about I ended getting a head of Joe and I was stopped by the Police for allegedly speeding. I stopped and had a wee chat and they let me go.No fine. So I stopped at a Police checkpoint just a few hundred metres on and spoke to the Police there and waited for Joe.

Mean while Joe managed to have his Peru map blow away and then had to go back and retrieve what he could. He started to worry that he had passed me so he chased a another motorcyclist down and they told him I was up the road.

Sugar cane.

We stopped in a city which I wouldn't recommend called Barranca and sat beside a drunk in the restaurant who had a stall outside quite entertaining.

We headed onto Lima and decided we would pass three slow moving trucks but to do that we had to cross double solid yellow lines.They were going so slow and you could see up the hill for miles. So we passed them.  The next thing we were being pulled over by a  Police vehicle.
 Two Police got out and started to speak to us in Spanish. I told them that I couldn't understand anything they said in English. We gave them our licences which was a mistake. I told them to write the ticket out it wasn't a problem.
They were demanding we return with them to the local Police station I refused. Having done some reading on the Adventure motorcycle websites I knew they were going to demand we pay a bribe at the station, the boss would be there and they would refuse to give us back our drivers licence tell we payed.
We had a stand off and I told to keep the drivers licence and we were going. In the end I was poked in the chest a few times and told off and they gave the drivers licence back we left and paid nothing.

 Our journey into Lima couldn't have been timed much worse we arrived just after 5pm. Joe had made notes which he had in his tank bag. The part of the map we needed was floating around 250 km further south somewhere on the side of the road. My front steering head bearing was starting to go and my steering had become very stiff and locking up. Combined with three and four lane traffic and poorly sign posted roads the pressure was building. Lima drivers also like to cut across lanes in front of you. But they will warn you with a toot that they are close. I had two vehicles so close to me that if I had moved closer to them they would have been touching my pannier bags . So we had Joe in front as we got closer to the turn off on the motorway looking at signs ,traffic, his notes and trying not to leave me behind. We pulled off near where we thought we should be.

We waved a passing motorcyclist over and Larco was able to lead us in the right direction. We pulled in the Plaza in Milflores and a women who spoke very good English wanted to know if we had a gun. Just as well we didn't because I felt like shooting some of the crazy Lima drivers.
I was exhausted.

This women thought we should be carrying a gun with us.

After trying a number of hostels we found a small hotel for a reasonable price with parking. Downtown Milfores is expensive compared to the rest of Lima.

The next day we contact Edwin a local man who has a Kia dealership not far far away. He has done quite a bit of motrcycle touring and and was very helpful he took us to a local Suzuki dealer and we were both able to buy new front tyres. We came to his dealership and used his workshop and cleaning bay to clean the bikes change the tyres and oil on my bike.

 

 We went out for tea that night and had a few beers . Our last night together. I was a bit slow getting going the next day. It was sad to be separating but I have to get back to New Zealand to my long suffering wife and work. .