Milward's Millennium Motorcycle Ride

Simon Milward emails from the ancient Inca capitol city of Cusco in SW Peru. Here the Director General of Health for Cusco Region, Dr Wilbert Holgado Excalante, asks Motorcycle Outreach to assist with introduction of a maintenance system for their fleet of 100 existing motorcycles. There are used to reach out to rural communities with basic health services for children and mothers. The health chief also underlines the importance of the system for a brand new fleet financed by the World Bank, starting with five motorcycles next week with more to come at regular intervals.

“We catch the World Bank red handed! Acting as though vehicles run themselves with no provision for maintenance nor training undermines sustainability in a big way. Through vehicle management techniques develped in Africa we can supply 400% increased cost effectiveness,” declared Milward. Yesterday’s letter from Dr Holgado will be on this web site soon.

In this update Milward updates sponsors on his trip through Peru, the 40th country on his world tour by handmade motorcycle. He has now been on the road three and a half years.

Evening All

You’ll have to excuse the delay since the last update, it seems like an age ago, but it was only northern Peru. I leisurely rode down the Pacific coast, stopping at a few beaches here and there making most of the warm sea before it turns cold due to the current coming up from the south. I saw the world’s biggest mud ruins at Chan Chan on the coast and met Michal from Poland going round the world on his Yamaha cruiser with trailer.

A nice diversion was an off road track up to the Andean mountain town of Huaraz, looping back to pick up the Pan Americana again a few hundred km north of Lima. That’s when I picked up two speeding tickets within 10 minutes, ridiculous, the police on this stretch are notorious. The last speeding ticket was Costa Rica, and before that was way back in Turkey over three years ago! Thanks to all the police in between!

Right now I’m in Cusco, the impressive Inca capitol, about 3500m up in the Andes. These people are lovely, they have a special look in their eye, when you meet them out in the country, with their llamas and cheeks so rosy they look blotched. The clothing of their women is brightly coloured and their artesian products have the most intricate detail I’ve seen. Of course here in Cusco, with its proximity to Macchu Picchu (where I’m off to later today) there are hundreds of thousands of tourists annually with wads of cash to spend. But you can still eat well in a basic restaurant for a dollar. I found the first bikers bar since I can remember, Norton Rats Tavern, run by Jeff, right on the main plaza.

Yet again spending even a small amount of time with these Latin American Indians I am left thinking about the corruption in these countries. I have real love for these people because they talk plainly and simply. They are fed up with being ripped off, it has been the same story for nearly 500 years.

I met the secretary of the association of vicuña wool producers. The fur is next to silk in price and total production in Peru is sold to Italy for luxury suits. Vicuñas are in the camel family like llamas. It was thanks to the international community that they were saved from extinction. The association is fighting in the courts against privatisation so that the indigenous communities can use the profits to improve their lives.

There was a demo here in the Plaza de Armas the oither day by army reservists, complaining like heck about rampant corruption and government policy to destroy by chemical the coca crops. Coca is a part of the religion, it is a medicin, keeps out the cold, gives endurance and is a part of the culture in many other ways. They chew it and make nice tea with it, which numbs the mouth a little. They say that if the West buys the refined product it is their problem. It made me think of the motor car, essentially an import to the Inca culture, which itself does enough to wreck society, bringing pollution and making the famous earthquake-proof Inca building foundations crack open. The Incas don’t even get a choice about stuffing the pollution up their noses.

I am enjoying Peru anyway. I saw the famous Nasca Lines, up to 1500 years old parallel and geometrical lines carved into the rocky desert. There are figures such as a dog and a bird with a 100m wingspan. The lines were perhaps for calendar use, or running competitions, and the pictures were simply art. Ancient local Indian paintings show that they were air balloonists: the lines and figures are best seen from the air.

I spent a lovely few days at the desert oasis of Huacachina. Towering sand dunes surround a fresh water (though slightly sulphuratic) lake protected by palm trees. Sand surfboarding was great fun, you strap your feet to a 75cm long board and hurtle down enormous dunes in a few seconds, which took you half an hour to climb! At least I can now surf. Sand came out of varous bodily orifices for several days! Yvette, a cute Peruana from Lima, was lovely company for a few days.

A week I spent in majestic Lima, the Spanish colonial capitol of all of South America, waiting on the Health Ministry. Thanks to Hotel Espana for their support.

I have been unable to engage the bikers in any meaningful discussion. Bikes are banned from the Via Expressa in Lima, the only safe way to cross the city. This is straight discrimination, just like the Philippines. Only there the bikers were prepared to move their arses and demand fairness.

It has been nice to ride up and down the Andes. I saw the world’s highest sand dune at about 2000m. I also had another incident with a two foot deep concrete drainage ditch, this time riding right into it on the exit of a curve, I could hardly believe it, spectacularly sliding my spine along the concrete edge. The bike was hardly scratched, a crack in the front fender basically, after coming to rest upside down in the ditch on top of me. It has been a painful week and the bruises are only now starting to come out. I didn’t like the look of those ditches the first time I saw them in Ecuador.

Half an hour later down the road I came across a religious procession of Incas, the whole village of Vado was out giving thanks to the god of water, and they danced around my motorcycle. It was a happy occasion.

Yesterday I fitted a a knobbly tyre, a gift from Ray back in Ecuador, my favorite one, the Metzeler MCE Karoo, half worn though. Just for the record I have been very pleased with the Ecuadorean Maxxis knobbly rear tyre.

I am seriously considering riding into Bolivia via the jungle back door. You see I haven’t yet ridden into the Amazon jungle, and if I don’t do it now I’ll miss it, and it is dry season. It seems that there are sufficient tracks north from Puerto Maldonado in the SE Peruvian Region of Madre de Dios, clipping the SW of Brazil to the East, to then go south to Bolivia. I’m looking forward to it. As long as the coca growers don’t think I’m from the US Drug Enforcement Agency I should be OK.

Ricardo Rocco (www.andesmoto-tours.com) has cancelled his Alaska trip to forward the aims of Motorcycle Outreach whilst he is in the US for a few months. Ricardo is an important and special member of our global team.

What with Wili in Asia and Ricardo in Latin America, and you who are helping in many ways, we are doing something very special. We are looking for some motivated, capable and responsible individuals in the USA to join our team on a voluntary basis. If you think you can help, or could host Ricardo’s presentation (similar to mine but a different part of the world), please get in touch with him at aroundforpeace@yahoo.com. He will be in the US until the Autumn.

So, that is all for now.

Simon

A solo fundraising round the world ride on a handmade motorcycle.
Supporting Doctors Without Borders and Health For All.

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