Yes border problems again!

Our journey this day was from Cuenca to Huaquillas on the border with Peru. The road to Huaquillas was fraught as it gripped the steep mountainsides and, although largely paved, it frequently changed to dirt where landslides had washed it away. Even as we travelled, rocks came tumbling down. Susan held tight each time I gave her a millisecond warning as we careered over dirt and hit pothole after pothole.

On one section of paved road we both gasped in shock (well Susan gasped, I was more like ‘fu*k me!!’) when we just missed a pothole that had no bottom. It was an eerie deep black hole with a crust of tarmac and everything underneath had been washed away. It was a frightening sight.

Thankfully, there was no rain for the road would easily have been impassible. As it was Susan got her first taste of high wind on the bike as we travelled through steep canyons. It was a good experience for what will, no doubt, come later in the trip in Patagonia.

Huaquillas is a border town that you wouldn’t want to visit. The hotel was bareable but the staff were lovely. Outside it was like a living dead wild west. That night it was takeaway pizza and beer in the hotel room and we went to sleep with a chair propped against the door. For extra deterrence I hung my bike socks on the chair. It would be difficult to get past them without choking and retching, giving me a few extra seconds to react to the intruder. I’m an ideas factory!

The following morning, we skipped breakfast and rode to the border about 06:30hrs. Bike through Ecuador customs, 20 minutes. Susan and I through both Ecuador and Peru immigration in 10 minutes (same building how convenient). Then bike temporary import permit (TIP) into Peru, 30 minutes. Then buy compulsory motorcycle insurance for Peru, 20 minutes.

Then we were in Peru and on the road to Mancora with only two hours travelling to reach our destination. We were as happy as two llamas.

Ten miles outside Mancora we got pulled over at a Peru Customs post. I think it’s a secondary check because the main border wasn’t that secure. Anyway, no problem, we had all our paperwork in order. Or so we thought!

An hour later we were still sitting by the side of the road. ‘Nice Young Customs Man’ at this stop check discovered that ‘Dopey Customs Man’ at the main border had wrongly completed the forms. My bike registration was listed as STSS … instead of ST22. Effectively our temporary import permit (TIP) was invalid.

Oh yes I know what you’re thinking and you’re absolutely right!! Why on earth did Susan not check the TIP before we left the border? Well hindsight is a great thing so I’m not going to blame her – sometimes we just have to work with the limitations of the team we have. So let’s move on and not cast blame! I mean, it’s completely irrelevant my signature was on the form!

Regardless, ‘Nice Young Customs Man’ eventually sorted it. We now have a second customs stamp that will, hopefully, allow us out the country. Time will tell.

We eventually got to our hotel on the beach and Susan went paddling whilst I relaxed with my good friend Mr Beer.

The following day we were up before sunrise because Susan wanted to go on a boat trip to look for humpback whales. As I’m a supportive partner I went along to accompany her.

A 15 mile taxi ride in the dark later and, as the sun rose, we were bouncing across the Pacific Ocean on a speedboat looking for big black mammals.

Actually, the tour company, Pacifico Adventures, was excellent and big black mammals were everywhere. That said, do you know how difficult it is to get a few pics on a bobbing boat? Yes I should have brought a camera with a zoom lens but when your travelling light on a motorcycle and your clothing includes only two pairs of pants then camera equipment is completely out the question.

So here’s mom and junior.

And here’s junior having some fun.

So what did we learn about big black mammals. Lots and lots but I know your attention span isn’t great so I will keep this short.

Well, we all know mammals evolved from fish. Then some mammals adapted to the sea and that includes big black mammals, naturally. They reckon the indohyus, about the size of a cat, is the long time ancestor of the big black mammal mom we saw. And did you know, big black mammals actually still have some fur/hair. It’s unbelievable what evolution can achieve so there’s hope for your future generations yet!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable boat trip and we returned to the beach hotel before lunch. Did we relax? Nope. We spent two hours at the local insurance office trying to sort out a little problem.

We discovered that because the customs temporary import permit (TIP) had the wrong registration number then the temporary insurance also had the wrong details – the insurance lady had taken the incorrect registration number from the TIP rather than the correct bike registration document.

Unfortunately, the Mancora insurance office couldn’t sort it as we were gringos. We either had to return to the border (two hours in the wrong direction) or try the head office in Piura. We were advised to leave the motorcycle in Mancora and travel by bus to Piura. Coincidentally, Piura was on the road to our next destination at Chiclayo.

Now the policia in Peru have road check points absolutely everywhere. To date, in South America, we’ve been stopped six times and I would say in Peru they’ve been the least friendly. It’s very risky travelling without the right paperwork.

So the following day the helpful staff at the insurance head office in Piura sorted our insurance in minutes. How did we get there? We got the bus of course! You wouldn’t catch me making a convenient journey on a motorcycle with no insurance in a country with police check points everywhere. No, you certainly wouldn’t catch me 🙄

That night we celebrated in the ‘Mood Hotel’ with some local food and beer. As the neon says ‘live more, worry less’ – that’s not easy to say when you have invalid TIP and insurance!

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