Skip to main content

Motoventure Day 1: Arrival!

(note - this was written last night on arrival)


What a weird day, though of course mostly anticlimactic. The nutshell is that I made it to Lima without any problems and am happily chilling in my hotel room at the Gran Bolivar trying to unwind and get some sleep (it's always hard to sleep after long travel days for me).

Other random bits, since I don't feel like writing cohesively:

- Travel is boring, no interesting pictures or video really. Bummer.

- Even though I have a full CDMA 1xrtt signal on my 8830 and can apparently receive SMS messages, I get rejected trying to send them. Bummer.

- No internet at my hotel, I am writing this on live writer and will have to upload it later

- Not sure if my SPOT was able to get a location message out via satellite during the trip from the airport, and my hotel room is very blocked. I will definitely head outside in the AM to get it set.

- Lima reminds me a lot of Bogota. Weird combination of modern and old, "civilization" as we Americans think of it and pure insanity. One thing is for sure, you can turn any direction from any lane at any time heh.

- My Spanish works! I've already used it more tonight than I have in the last fourteen years combined I think. Everyone has complemented me. The problem is that I can get what I want to say across fairly well but my brain is still very slow interpreting it when someone talks to me. Sometimes I'll final realize what someone said a minute after moving on in the conversation. Rusty. Hopefully this will get better fast.

- My laptop acted funny when I plugged it in. The adapter is supposed to take 110-240v but it blinked really fast then turned off. Hrm. This could suck. At least the hotel has a 110v plug in the bathroom so I can charge it up here. P.S. the battery in this thing rocks, I watched video for at least 6+ hours today and it still has 2 hours of charge.

Okay, so, tomorrow I explore Centro Historico and chillax, then Friday it's on to Huancayo. Victory!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Days 94-98: The Struggle for Beauty

In which Pete nearly loses Red and gives up once again, before crossing an ice field to spend the night with the Bolivian army at Laguna Colorada and returning to Uyuni for supplies.

Jury Duty: Not Like TV (or: Longest Post EVER)

Prepare yourself for by far the longest blog post ever – if you’re at all curious about real life jury duty or enjoy all those cop & lawyer shows then give it a go - this recount of the trial and details given for evidence will blow your mind, make you think twice about the effectiveness of our police officers and the impartiality of our juries… Shortly before leaving on my trip in January, I was summoned for DC Grand Jury Duty .  I was able to have it rescheduled to begin on June 7 and made it back to the US only a few days before it was due to start.  After thinking about it I really felt that I would not be comfortable spending 27 days of 8:30AM to 5PM in an “office” for $30 a day, especially with the changes to the economy going on right now – I’d rather enjoy that time. Upon arriving at the courtroom for Grand Jury Duty, I quickly noted that there were over 40 people in the room, considerably more than the number required for the Grand Jury.  Once we were checked in, the c

Days 61-62: The Little Engine that Could… Not?

In which Pete returns to Ruta 40 with a shiny new front wheel, struggles against mysterious engine problems, has an argument with a police officer in the dark, and survives a desert of prickly thorns only to get a flat at Walmart. Day 61 Begin: Santa Rosa, Las Pampas, Argentina @ 10:30AM End: Unknown Location, Ruta 143, Las Pampas, Argentina @ 6:15PM Distance: estimated 350km (218mi), no odometer and GPS datalogger failed I was pretty stoked this morning. Red was shiny and clean, his new front wheel was incredibly stable, swapping out the fat and loud MT40 in back for a normal road tire made him more quiet and docile, and all that ash and gunk was cleaned out of the intake system. The temperature was so warm (upper 50’sF) that I felt free and agile wearing less layers than normal and the wind was blowing straight south while I would be traveling mostly westward – incredible luck that I wouldn’t be traveling straight into the wind the entire day.