Day 38 (Moho to Juliaca) "Crazy Town"
Morning found us on the 5th floor of this bizzare hotel in the little Quechua town of Moho. Nothing here (not even breakfast). Lukeīs moto REALLY wonīt start so after 1/2 hour of pushing it (with my moto) we push it down the steep str
eet we entered the town by. It just barely starts at the bottom, but we are off! Two blocks out of town MY rack and hard saddlebag hit me in the back (meaning it broke). Luke comes back and we tie it to the seat behind me. Now I canīt move on the seat, but it is ONLY 38km (read: 2 hours) of dirt before the pavement. The Peru side is somewhat better than the Bolivia side and we are just happy to "back" in Peru.
Just as we pass Huancane and start the pavement, Lukeīs moto dies. Same fuel filter problem. Same temporary repair (thot we fixed it last time!). Here there are HUGE square-edged holes in the pavement and you have t
o be VERY alert. It is dangerous to pass a truck or bus as they may be swerving left to miss a hole just as you are passing on that side (so much we take for granted in the USA!).
Juliaca by noon, but it is a crazy disorganized town. We wind our way to the main square and find a hostel to drop our stuff in. Then itīs off to look for the airlines office. We need to make up time so decide to "cheat" by "jumping" via air to Lima with the motos. Then we can be back on schedule for the guys to meet us in Aguaytia on Saturday...
Juliaca has 80,000 little "triciculos" (bicycle-based 2-person taxis) all adorned with colors and riff-raff running all over the place (usually against traffic and paying no attention to traffic lights). There is no control and every sidewalk is a marketplace reducing every street to less than one lane. We take a ride in one just for fun (remember that this is at 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) above sea 
level), so the "driver" has to have lungs and legs of steel !!! 20 blocks of this for 60 cents!
We find an Aero Condor office and they are willing to take the motos as cargo, but tomorrow. OK. We get tickets too. The motos must be emptied of gas and oil, "packaged" as best we can and brought to the airport early. Much to be done. We get the racks welded while we eat at a little "menu" place, then it is back to the hostel to strip the motos, but by nightfall it is mostly done and we have a pickup coming in the morning to take them to the airport....
No time to wash clothes, but we are almost to Lima.....
NEXT DAY: day39juliacatolimavia.htm
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