Chachapoyas (cha cha poi as)

It’s a new day, no rain, clear, there is a promise.  I make a pilgrimage to find an ATM for some Peruvian Sols.  I gather this is pretty normal, first town get some local money.  We were going to meet the Germans but for some reason the timing wasn’t right.  We pack and by the time we get going the Germans have already left.

The roads out of San Ignacio where not bad, not the mud we had experienced the night before.  But still dirt and winding back and forth.  We had ridden about 15k when we saw some bikes stopped up ahead.  It was the Germans.  And they had stopped with the French guy in the RV.  We visited for a while and then we took off.  The Germans followed and we road with them until Jaen or about 50k, where they stopped for lunch.

From Jaen to Chachapoyas the road is paved.  Not a lot of difficulty so there was some time to relax and enjoy the scenery.  In Chachapoyas we went to the town square.  There were several Hostels on the square and as we circled to pick on, I saw a couple who were obviously not Hispanic.  I stopped and asked if they had advice for a place to stay.  They said they were German, Stephan and Emma and driving a range rover.  They had just arrived themselves.  So we said we would keep looking but meet up with them later somewhere for a beer.  They did ask if we had seen three German motorcycle riders on the road … small world eh?

We drove around some more and stopped off the square.  Chuck said he would go look for a hostel if I would stay with the bikes.  Everywhere we go we get people coming up to us, asking about the bikes, we try to explain the best we can with our limited vocabulary.  This time, I think Chuck left me with the local drug dealers.  There was a lot of money changing hands for what reason, I don’t know.  At the same time they were trying to get information from me; size of bikes, how much they cost, where we were going, lots of laughing and hand slapping.  Eventually Chuck returned from a hostel where he had booked a room, so we left, unloaded and parked the bikes. 

As we were parking the bikes in a secure parking lot, Stephan came up.  They were staying in the Range Rover in the same parking lot.  We agreed to meet later for a beer and we went and finished unpacking.  We got out and walked to a restaurant the owner of the Hostel had recommended.  It didn’t open until 7p.  As we walked around we ran into Stephan and Emma.  We invited them to come along with us, back to the restaurant.  We had a great meal, some beer and good conversation.  We agreed to buy pastries if they made some GOOD coffee the next morning.  We met them at the Range Rover where they had the coffee on.

After a while they came and used our shower, with the electric heater (death heater) in the head.  It actually worked.  We packed the bikes and left for Cajamarca (Ka ha mark a).  Before we left, Emma mentioned she had heard from other friends that there was some road construction that had the road shut down all day between Chachapoyas and Cajamarca.  Oh great!