Options:

Playa Hermosa to Huacachina Oasis: Good Times in the Dunes

Sunday, February 8 We ate a breakfast of yogurt and fruit from the convenience store and were happy to leave Playa Hermosa behind. The ride continued down the desert coast, which was the home to all of Lima’s suburban beaches. It was mile after mile of playas and unusually for us, we didn’t feel any […]

Caraz to Playa Hermosa: Descent Via Misery

Saturday, February 7 We stirred in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy rain, but by the time we woke up, it had stopped raining, which pleased us greatly. We had planned on doing another excursion on the Cordillera Blanca to the pass of Punta Olympica, which has great vistas and dirt […]

Central Andes, Cordillera Blanca: Lagunas Llanganuco

Friday, February 6 Our plan for today was to take the side boxes off the bikes and visit one of the highlights of the area, Laguna Paron. Unfortunately, we discovered that the road into the mountains was closed, so we decided to ride to the next village of Yungay and take a dirt road to […]

Chimbote to Caraz: The Tough and the Beautiful

Thursday, February 5 Today was one of the most difficult and beautiful rides of our trip. We were venturing east off the coastal road into the heights of the Peruvian Andes, the Cordillera Blanca. Our destination was a small village of Caraz where we planned on staying for another day to take a day trip […]

Chiclayo to Chimbote: More Desert Grind

Wednesday, February 4 Breakfast wasn’t included in this hotel, so we had a quick breakfast next door for $6 total. Peru was much cheaper than Ecuador if you avoided the obvious tourist places. We were on the road by 9, only to go park ourselves back at the Yamaha dealer. I had decided overnight I […]

Macará, Ecuador to Chiclayo, Peru

Tuesday, February 3rd It felt like it had been ages since we crossed into Ecuador so anticipation was high for a border crossing. I actually felt rusty about the procedure, but we’d read this was going to be a very chill crossing that wouldn’t take too much time. We had breakfast at the hotel, went […]

Cuenca to Macara: A Spectacular Run to the Border

Monday, February 2 I have really enjoyed Cuenca. It is a very neat and orderly city with stunning architecture set in the beautiful rolling hills of southern Ecuador. It was time for us to move on and try to get as close as possible to the border with Peru. After the usual jumble of trying […]

Cuenca: Urban Gem

Sunday, February 1 I was very happy with our selection of hostal Chordeleg. It was a converted colonial home right in the center of Cuenca. Not only did we get to park our bikes in the lobby, our room was clean and spacious with a little balcony overlooking one of the churches. The included breakfast […]

Baños to Cuenca: Clouds are Full of Water

Saturday, January 31 We did the impossible and actually were up and out of our hotel room before eight. The staff of the hotel had been fighting or partying or something all night, so we had not slept well. Our efforts were rewarded with every single breakfast place we had picked out the night before […]

Quito to Baños

Friday, January 30 We were ready to be out of the big city and our goal for the day was only a modest distance to the town of Baños. With good directions from the staff at our hotel, we managed to navigate out of Quito without too much trouble. The freeway we were on didn’t […]