Around the Block 2007

Up early (what else was there to do in little Marcapata?).  I had a flat, but there was no nail so we pumped it up and I was ready.  Luke´s moto would not start, but since there was alot of down hill, he pushed off.  30 min later he was back, it had taken that long!  Small jets and high altitude do not like his bike????

Loaded up and off.  My tire went flat once and I limped along until a 3-house village where a man had a bicycle pump.  Cranked it up to 30 psi and off again.  Down, down, down into the mountain jungle town of Quince Mil where we had the tire fixed while Luke and I took off our carburetors and put back in the larger jets for lower altitudes.  A few crackers and off again.  Beautiful mountain jungle scenes and rivers.  We wanted to stop and swim, but we had to make time.  40 min later - a road block(pix) : ¨They are dynamiting and the road will not be open until 5:30 pm."   And we still have 4 hours of riding beyond this point!

Nothing to do but go back 5 km to the beautiful river to cool off and wait!  Exactly like the ¨Boquerón¨ river in Peru of my childhood.  We swam and laid out on big rocks to sun.  But just like the ¨Boquerón¨ the knats attacked (forgot about that part!).  So we headed back to the road block.  At 5:26 pm they let us go first.  Thru road construction for about an hour as it became dark, then IN THE DARK; river crossing after river crossing as deep as the saddle bags.  We reached the relatively flat dusty part past Mazuko and now there were not even the lonely light every km!

Big trucks and buses every couple of minutes and bridge after bridge.  I know how dangerous this can be and I was humming a tune claiming God´s protection....  Then the accident. 

Luke was ahead and a big bus was coming straight at us.  We couldn´t see a thing!  As it got closer, it moved into the middle of the road!  I pulled over in the ditch to wait while Luke kept his pace and just pulled way over to the right.  When the dust cleared a bit all I could see was Luke´s tailight in the air and no Luke!

Luke had come upon a narrow bridge just as the bus passed over it.  His front wheel disappeared into a hole at the edge of the bridge which bent his front forks back and threw him and the moto into the air.  The moto landed hanging off the edge of the bridge (no sides on these bridges) and Luke went over the edge into the unknown blackness!  He landed in 2 ft of water between logs and boulders (we went back to look the next day).  As I arrived on the scene, he was scambling back up the bank yelling ¨I´m OK, I'm OK!¨ to make sure I didn´t fall in the same hole.

Moto all bent up, but Luke is OK!  What a miracle!  And only 200 yards away is a 6-house town with accomodation (sort of!).  We would figure it all out the next day............

Next Day: day10accidenttopuertoma.htm

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