Skip to main content

Motoventure Day 6: Can We Leave Already?!

We've moved downtown to the center and into rooms at Los Balcones today near Plaza Constitucion. Yay for internet and being centrally located to all the happenings. Boo for dealing with noise again.


I'll make this update quick since I've just uploaded two long updates from the last few days:


- Edited some video this morning while chilling and have a pretty cool ~3min vid of some mototaxi action. Conversion is taking quite awhile though, hopefully I'll be able to upload it tonight.


- I spent most of the day with the guys from Mayan the force be with us and even more wandering about with Rob & Will from Valsava Victory as we had a bit of a common bond being in the middle of nowhere for the last couple days.


P1030830 - Spent a long time walking and driving around to find parts with Rob & Will. Ended up with a replacement tube, a patch kit with ~20 patches, a tire iron thingie, and a pump. Good stuff. I apparently still need a couple wrenches and the mechanic recommended some replacement clutch cables.




P1030795 - A cool mechanic showed us all sorts of bits on the mototaxi, including how to change the wheels, tighten the chain, adjust the air/fuel for lower altitude, when to do maintenance, etc. Good tidbit: We need to tighten up all the spokes on the wheels after 80km. Sad thing, only around 10 of us paid attention to this lecture.


P1030762



- The mototaxis are STILL ARRIVING and being assembled. What… the… I will be amazed if they are ready on time. We helped strip the wrapping from one and it took 20min for two of us to just get the cardboard off. Sick.


P1030819 - Had an assembly down town in the town square complete with fireworks and ceremony where the city of Huancayo formally welcomed and thanked us. Was quite awkward actually, they called each team up and it took quite awhile.


- The table I'm writing this on shakes and rattles a lot. This is uncomfortable.


Right, so… tomorrow I get a helmet, some cables, the paperwork, and some t-shirts. Then I suppose I should also start planning my route. Hrm.


Let's get this bloody thing started already!!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

5 Things that Suck about Traveling Solo

I find it telling that it seems a majority of the interesting travel blogs I run across are written by solo travelers, most often women. I think there’s a reason why we write more than people who travel with friends or in groups and that it’s pretty self evident: it’s an outlet for our loneliness. In the last year and a half, the vast majority of my time has been spent away from home, alone. As I write this, it’s been over a month since I’ve conversed with anyone in my native language, and I can remember every single conversation in English for the month before that. The truth is, I don’t think I could have done this without the internet – without a blog to share my thoughts, without Facebook to see what my friends are up to, without the occasional e-mail to provide a façade of normalcy… without these things I’d likely have driven myself insane with my internal dialogue. Now, I grant, there’s a reason I travel alone and I do love it, but lately it seems all I run across in the blogosp

Gear Review: Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks

In the past couple months on the road I think I’ve spent more time riding my scooter through rain than I have in the dry – this is clearly reflected in the fact that as time has gone by I’ve invested more and more money in things to keep my stuff dry, since wet gear sucks. One of my favorite purchases for this trip is the pair of Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks I picked up just before leaving, in 13L and 20L sizes. They cost me around $20 each and are one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in years – extremely durable, effective, and simple to use.

Tiger Muay Thai – Full Review

After spending six weeks training and living at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand, I wanted to write up some of my thoughts on the entire experience, the gym, and the trainers.  This will be a long winded post with a lot of detail – I encourage anyone considering spending time in Thailand training Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and/or Muay Thai give it a read, but anyone else may want to skip it. Background:   I visited Tiger Muay Thai (TMT) from February 22 to March 23, then returned again from April 15 to April 28, 2010.  I had no previous MMA or Muay Thai experience, though I did grow up wrestling.  I came into my visit with above-average fitness but definitely not close to elite level. The Gym Facilities: TMT is amazing, and they finished a big expansion while I was there.  There is TONS of room, with seven+ massive separate training areas of various sizes, tailored for MMA, Muay Thai, weight lifting, and crossfit style workouts (kettlebells/etc.).  Sometimes they definitely nee