425Kgs of Honda goes flying and another punture

29th Feb
I leave te hostal by 0715 hrs and the roads in town are a mess, with huge ruts where the road has just been washed away. I get up to the main road and tarmac and all well except for a few pot holes. It´s 57 kms to the border where I arrive by 0815hrs. One office is still closed so I have to wait 15 mins. The river under the bridge to extremely full and fast flowing. I get my passport and bike documets stamped and approved in the three offices and have no hassle leaving. I had been told to expect some hassle for not having Peru bike insurance. I am the only one at the border who seems to require documents every one else is moving livestock back and forth across the border. Pigs are being hurded across and chickens also carried across. There are lots of pigs on the Peru side of the road with their 4 legs tied together and awaiting export!
It takes about 45mins to clear Peru customs and then I move across the bridge to Ecuador. The officer at the Ecuador border photocopies my passport, V5 and driving licence and then fills in a temporory import paper for the motorbike. No mention is made of bike insurance and after about another 45 mins I leave and head north for Loja. Its a wet ride as raining now but once there I don´t stop and carry on to Cuenca. The roads are tarmac but again full of deep pot holes so going is slow. I then see in front of me a fast spotted cat which crosses the road, it was the size of a medium dog. It is a nice drive but very up and down mountains so very slow going due to the pot holes. My speedo is still not working as I have been unable to buy alan keys. On the way into Cuenca the main road is detoured and we all drive though a huge muddy mess for miles as the new road is unfinished. I arrive in town and try not to go down into the centre as want to get going again tommorow early. I drive around and can´t find a hotel and in the end a huge American Ford pickup truck stops and offeres me help. I follow him back to his house and he rings his mate who has a hotel around the corner. He turns out to also have a new BMW R1200 GS. He gets his new bike out and shows me the way to the hotel. Ibook in and have ashow and then my phone rings, I think it mus tbe on the TV but no it´s my phone- who knows me here! I answer and there´s an english voice. Do I need any assistance or have any questions as the hotel owner is in reception , speaks english and drives a KTM 640. I go out to reception and we chat for about an hour. He gives ame advise on routes north to avoid the floods etc and also a route out of town for tommorrow. It thinks it will only take me 5 hours to get to Quito tommorrow ( it in fact takes me 10 hrs) The following morning I leave and pay US$ 25.62 for beb, breakfast, 3 course evening meal and mini bar.

1st March
I am allowed to use the hotel receptions computer to check my e-mails and send a few quick replies. I go to ATM as currency here US$ and draw US$200 for emergencies. The roads are tarmac but again full of pot holes and huge lumps where the land has moved or slipped due to the rain. I am driving too fast ( 80kph) and hit a huge lump in the road. The bike and me start to fly and I think I have not had bike flying lessons! As I land the suspension bottoms out and the bash plate hits the road. I think that was lucky I didn´t come off when you consider the bike, me, the full panniers, ruck sack and fuel weight 425kgs. About 10 miles further on I have a punture, but not before a white car decides to change direction when I am doing 80kph and he comes right across to my side of the road to avoid his sides pot holes. I manage to slow on the wet roads and miss him by a few millimetres. He looks at me as if he was doing nothing wrong- maybe there is some local culture that says this is normal and expected! I of course shout some abuse at him! As I arrive in the town of Zhud I stop right outside the tyre repair shop and get a young lad to help me hold the bike as I can not get it onto the side or centre stand due to the rear flat tyre. I unload the bike of all luggage and he helps me get it onto the centre stand. I remove the rear wheel and the tyre is very hot and then give it to the other young lad there running the shop. He has a pneumatic press to get break the tyre bead. I pay him US$5 to repair the inner tube and replace the tyre. I have about 6 young helpers all looking and asking questions and all below 18 years old. The inner tube has one split but is light weight and I have no spare. I leave and hope that is my last punture (fat chance) and know I need to buy a spare inner tube ( Dave has one).

The road for the next 20 kms is just terrible, no tarmac lots of holes and huge machinery digging at the hill side. It is also cloudy so viz again is down. It has been raining on and off again and is not very warm. The volcancos are hidden by the clouds.