Lima

The next morning we woke and Max was in front to help us with breakfast.  We must of misunderstood about breakfast because we thought it was included, however as we left the clerk came out to ask for payment for Daysenuno.  12 Sol or about $5.  No big deal.

The ride to Lima was uneventful, except to say, it was surprisingly cold, it was about 65 F.  For being on or near sea level, near the equator, we ended up having to put on more layers to ward off the cold.

People here work very hard and are tolerate of conditions that we in the US probably would not understand.  Here is a taxi that pulled up as we were sitting having a coke.  The person in red just got out of the back, paid the driver and one of the others is actually climbing back in.  There had to be 5 or 6 people packed into the back of this very small vehicle.

Lima is a very large city, I was told there are 20 million people in the metropolitan city.  There are no real freeways like we know.  There are roads with lights and intersections but it doesn’t flow like our freeways.  There are also toll booths.  Motorcycles get through free but you have to be in the right hand lane; which usually meant we had to cross four or five lanes of traffic, mostly trucks, bumper to bumper.  We would weave at walking pace in front of cars, trucks, whatever to get right then have to get back across traffic to get left again. 

When you came to a light, it is apparently ok to turn from any lane.   You must watch out if you were going straight, anyone could turn in front of you.  We had put the location of the KTM dealer in the GPS and followed the direction.  The location that KTM lists in their web site is wrong,  it shows it in the 2600 block of Av. Separadora Industrial where the location is actually closer to the city in the 600 block.(gps S12’ 4.300” and W76’ 59.125”).  We don’t have a cell phone so we couldn’t call.  Eventually we stopped and talked to a woman who looked like she might speak English.  She was so helpful, even though she was having an open house for her business.  She called KTM, got the address, gave us maps, and directions to lights to cross the freeway. 

We finally made it to KTM, and met Jesus Parades Cantreras manager of marketing at the KTM shop. 

The building is huge, bigger than anything I have seen in the states for any dealer.  He gave us a quick rundown of what was needed asked us if there was anything else then began helping us find a hotel.  It turned out that there were no available rooms for the evening so Jesus took us around to look at Hostels, which we picked from and then helped us the following day to find a better hotel.  Thanks Jesus for your real southern Hospitality.

I just got a note from Jesus who said it was 631 Sols for repair or about $233 per bike.  I am pretty sure we could not have had seals replaced with parts and labor in the US for that price.

Now we plan for our escape from Lima tomorrow.