Where's Punky & Lew now?
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Date: Sat Oct. 19, 2002
Subject: Punky, Lew & Achi 2 trip report Lima, Peru - Iquique, Chile
Hi everyone: We finally made it out of Lima one day late. Our friend, Chris Friedman, a DR650 rider from New Mexico, left Lima, heading south, one day ahead of us. We caught him in Nasca, Peru, our first night's stop. We all are riding with colds. Chris joined us riding from Nasca to Camana, Peru, our next stop, and then to Tacna, Peru, near the Chilean border. Chris showed us the place, where he took a spill in curve. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt bad. Only scraped a bit. The bike and his clothing were damaged worse. He flew back to Lima last week and brought down new handlebars, shock and few other things, as well as Achi's new riding suit. Chris is handy with a wrench and does most of his own work on the bike. He is 23 years old and has 4 continents and 50,000 miles to his credit, so far. It was fun riding the twisties with Chris, although, a little faster than I should have with Achi on board. We hope to encounter Chris again, futher south in Chile or Argentina. We are riding about 300 miles/day as planned. I can describe much of the terrain we viewed as a lunar moonscape, except the Pacific ocean was sometimes on our right. Achi is handling the ride as well as anybody and a real pleasure to have with me. She has taken on the responsibility of communicating in Spanish whenever necessary. It does help. We didn't have the hot water shower promised at a hostal in Tacna. She told the receptionist, "We won't pay full price" and paid less. We also had to put up with the noise of whores doing their thing. When we exited Peru, the agriculture officials wouldn't give me the required document to use for Punky on the Chilean side. They said we would have to go back to Tacna to get a health certificate and wouldn't be able to enter Chile with their document. I said, "Bullshit, I'm not going back to Tacna, I'll take my chances with the Chilean officials." They turned out to be friendly and helpful, wrote an official letter for Punky and all is well. Achi manages to sleep, while riding as passenger behind me. Between Camana and Tacna, in high winds, Punky got blown off the tankbag and was dangling from his leash wrapped around my neck. I did as I had many times before and lifted him back up to his perch. Tacna was nice and so is Iquique. Don't hear any more blaring horns, like in Lima. Critter, my KLR650, is now using oil at the rate of about a quart/750 miles. Don't know where it is going. Not leaking, not smoking and running great. The piston and rings have about 5,000 miles since installed in lima. The problem showed up right after the repair. I'm puzzled. Tomorrow, we ride to Antofogasta. More Atacama desert. At least it's not summer hot. Actually, sometimes a little cool. We all, including Punky, got our hot showers tonight. Took a stroll to the Plaza de Armas town center and got something to eat and used the Internet. In Tacna, I refused to pay for using the Internet. Their service was so slow and blew me off so many times, I lost it. Punky, sparkling clean, wowed the locals and continues to be the center of attention. Damn, I'm a lucky guy -- albeit with a sore ass. Best regards to all our friends. Where are Australian Harley riders, Peter and Kay Forwood? We hope to encounter them as well. With luck, we'll see Ricardo Rocco too.
Later, amigos.
Punky, Lew & Achi 2
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