chasingsummerp.027

Chasing Summer p.027

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Jan 14th - Huallanca to Huanuco

Interactive map: http://www.gpsxchange.com/phpBB2/download2.php?id=1644

It rained all night and when I wake up it's still heavily raining. I ask around and it seems that here too, the rain usually stops around 10 AM. After yesterday I don't feel like starting the day soaked so I just work on my pictures, have breakfast etc. Huallanca is a strange mix of 'modern' good size village and old houses with roofs made of 'hay'.

The main street was quite animated yesterday and without the rain it would not be a bad place. Around 9:30 AM the rain calms down enough and I get ready.

Last night I had dream about the map being wrong and that the road would be paved to Huanuco too. Since I know it's paved after that I was hoping I could progress for once more than just a few 'centimeters' in the map. Sweet dreams!

Dirt road it is, with the usual potholes. It follows a river almost all the way.

Sometimes too closely!

Wow, that's a bad one!

! Seconds later the engine stalls. In a way that's better but in the same time I'm really worry about what made it stall: did water enter the engine? Will it start again?

The water is up to my crotch while I'm pushing the bike. So much for trying to stay dry this morning. It would have made a great picture but I didn't feel like parking the bike and leaving it any much longer in so much water. A quick shot though:

While I'm emptying my boots I see 2 guys on a 125cc that I'd passed earlier.

They hesitate for a few minutes. I show them how high the water is and one guy gets in to see if he can find a better (higher) way. Yes, I could have done that I suppose, but he can't find anything better so they finally go for it.

We were all laughing to see only the light of their little Honda emerging from the water.

I'm now anxious to see if my bike will start… Yes it does!!!

The 950 has the air box where most bikes have their gas tank: at the highest place on the bike. Not only it keeps the weight lower but it also allows some impressive water crossing without damages. I don't know when theirs is going to start...

It rains lightly pretty much the whole way but I try to snap a few pics during the breaks. Every inch of land (this is almost vertical) is used...

The road alternates sections with potholes, rocks or mud. Or a mix of the three! That one is definitely mud.

I have a couple of close calls where the rear wheel insists on passing in front but I manage to keep control of the bike. There were also a few trucks/buses who forced me to almost go to the ditch. It's true that it's very narrow but some drivers don't seem to make much of an effort. Most let me pass easily though. In any case it's a good thing that there is so little traffic. I see actually more of those scenes on the rad than vehicles...

Some small and poor villages are almost depressing with this weather: everything seems made of mud. The houses, the streets, even the pigs or the creeks running by. In that environment the bright colors of the Indian women clothes is a blessing for the eyes including the big (fake) flowers on their traditional hats.

I can't complain of having my hands wet and cold when I see all those Indian women washing the laundry directly in the freezing creek water.

Just a moment after taking the pic above I see a truck coming so I slow down and move to the right. I don't know if he hasn't seen my side case or what but I'm really afraid that he's going to clip it

. To avoid it I swerve swiftly to the right and not sure what happens but I fall on my right side. At this low speed it would be barely worth mentioning except that this time I feel a very sharp pain on my right leg, stuck between a rock and the bike

. I manage to extract my leg and assess the damages. The bike is fine but my ankle is extremely painful. But I guess it's a good sign that I can do a few limping steps on it, right?

No way can I put weight on it though, and I wait for a car to come and ask for help to lift the bike. By the time I realize that I might be in trouble. But my only option is to climb on the bike and continue my ride. I had estimated 2.5 hours to the next 'big' town but it takes me longer: the road remains very rough and of course I am now more cautious. The pain remains very sharp. After a while the rain stops and the elevation decreases: it's a different climate, a different vegetation.

Finally, after 3 hours of painful riding I arrive in Huanuco. I go directly to the main Plaza, get my bike in a secure parking and limp to the next door hotel. Damn! The reception is one floor above and the stairs are tough on me. I remove by boots and socks and it doesn't look to good but that doesn't mean much.

I go down and take a moto-taxi to the hospital. It's a pretty good size hospital but of course, equipment and hygiene seem like going back 50 years ago. 5 soles for admission, 3 for the drugs and 10 for the X-rays: the total is only $5 or so! And not bad either: one hour after my arrival I got an injection for the pain and my X-rays are done. I have a look before going back to the intern and even for me it's obvious that I have a fracture

. The intern confirms and tells me that I need to wait for the Doctor specialized in traumas for an hour.

It's now 5:30 PM. I have plenty of time to reflect on what happened. In my motorcycle life I got away with just a few bruises from some serious crashes but this time it's the reverse: a low speed / high injury crash. Just coming at the very wrong time. I don't care much about breaking one more bone in my body, but the end of the trip would be a disaster for me. I was so sure I would make it to Ushuaia…

Waiting in the crowded Emergencies of an Hospital helps you keep things in perspective and of course there are more dramatic situations around me. At 7 PM I ask why the Doctor is not coming and from what I understand it looks like he's not 'working' this afternoon, he's only 'on call', I just have to be more patient.

I'm wondering if a thin resin/plastic cast would fit in my boots. Maybe I could continue the trip with that. Of course climbing the Machu Picchu would not be easy but I could maybe carry crotches on my bike. I ask if they have that kind of cast at the Hospital but they don't and they doubt I could find it anywhere in town.

Finally, at 9 PM the Doctor arrives, not super nice and in a hurry. He confirms the fracture and says that my 2 choices are surgery or cast. I ask him what would be the easiest/fastest to get back on a bike quickly. His answer is that surgery is faster but in any case he would not recommend me being on a bike for 5 to 6 weeks at least

. Damn!!! I want a second opinion (an intern told me about a better Doctor in a private clinic) so I don't want a cast right now. Although he tells me that I shouldn't be walking like that, they cannot provide me with crutches

.

Trip over

Not to maintain the suspense any longer: I can't continue this trip and I have to go back home. The second Doctor was just as bad since he confirmed the prognostic

. Friends Doctors in France and in the US confirmed that there was no way I could soon be on a bike without greatly impacting my chances of recovery.

To say that I'm extremely disappointed would be a severe understatement. I was so sure I would make it to Ushuaia...

For all who enjoyed following this adventure and were dreaming about going on a similar one: don't let that turning you down! Even if it's not the ending that I was hoping for, we all now that a motorcycle trip is more about the ride than the destination, right? I could have played it safer and only (mostly?) take paved road to Ushuaia but that was not my goal. My choice of itineraries offered me the sense of adventure that only remoteness and challenges can offer

.

Overall my trip of about 25,000 miles over 11 countries has been incredibly rewarding with so many interesting encounters, sensations, emotions, and mind blowing demonstrations of beauty by Mother Nature.

Thanks for tagging along! It was a lot of work but it added a great dimension to my trip: sharing!

A huge thanks! (1/17/2008)

I'm overwhelmed by the kind and thoughtful comments. Thank you so much The AdvRider community and my friends there have been absolutely awesome in helping and supporting me since the accident:

• Jover! (Eduardo) has spend a lot of time helping me to secure a boat from Lima for the bike
• KirkMoon who wrote a detailed diagnostic on my injury and sent me information about it. That was extremely helpful since the Doctors here don't write anything and of course my medical Spanish is very limited.
• Turkish was seriously ready to fly on the spot from Mexico to help me
• cRAsH searched on ADV who could help me in Lima and found and contacted Turtleshead (from Quito) for me. Turtleshead doesn't know me or cRAsH but has offered me an apartment in Lima anyway

And ALL the ones contacted offered their support and their help in anyway they could!

I feel blessed to be part of such a great community

Change of mind (1/19/2008)

All those nice messages from friends and friends yet to be met are sincerely heartwarming. To the point that I'm re-considering my decision right now. That and the fact that I don't like to give up 'til successful

.

I arrived in Lima last night and it was awesome to read all your posts. There were also some good suggestions that added to my own thinking (not much else to do those days). I couldn't sleep until 3 AM wondering what I should do. It started by "I need to finish this trip one day!" to "... in the next 5 years" to "... now!" or almost. Of course there are obstacles! Financially it will be a burden to not have a salary for 6 more weeks + a plane ticket. Then there is the weather issue: will I make it to Ushuaia before the snow? And lastly, what about if I need a surgery, maybe more complex than anticipated?

However, and after discussing with my wife I took the decision to give it a try and continue this trip as soon as possible. I need to cancel my boat reservation, find a secured parking for a month in Lima and other logistics issues but I feel more energy to tackle those now that I've (again) a great project to look forward to.

Last days in Peru (2/2/2008)

It's been hard to switch so abruptly from my 'hyper-active' mode to the 'can't do much anymore' Here are the very few remaining pics...

First of Huanuco where I spent several days first taking care of my ankle and then trying to find transportation for the bike to Lima. Of course I couldn't do tourism around so the 2 pics I have are taken from my room!

In my errands on moto-taxis though I liked what I saw: a typical Andean city decorated by beautiful mountains laying between the sierra and the high jungle.

I liked the 'end of the road' atmosphere (there is not much going further north) and in the same time it's rich of 500 yrs of history. It's cheap too: when I thought that my trip was over I was looking for good restaurants to comfort me but it was impossible to spend more than $6-7 on food...

I was so happy when they finally loaded my bike into that truck!!! A bit scared too though

No pictures from the trip in the truck. The scenery was beautiful though, climbing to Cerro de Pasco. It was uncomfortable for my leg though and I passed several hours in the 'bed' at the back of the cabin. It was night already when I saw a sign 'Lima 174 kms'. I felt relieved, thinking that we were about 3 hours away now and supposedly in a better road. I was wrong! The pace slowed to a crawl: the road was very twisty, climbing at +4,800 m (15,800 ft), lot of fog and many slow trucks...

It was 11 pm when we finally arrived in a pretty bad neighborhood of Lima (La Victoria) at the transportation company's garage. More than 10 hours for the 410 kms separating Huanuco from Lima. It felt so good when I entered Albert's great apartment in a nice part of Lima.

It was like being in a different country, almost a different continent! View from the window...

Most of the US chain of hotels and restaurants were represented

It was a bit difficult for me to adapt to that luxury and all those tourists (I had seen none in Peru until now)...

As soon as I took the decision to continue my trip I looked for a place to store the bike. Albert was OK for me to leave it in his parking but I didn't want to abuse his hospitality. Besides, the service (valves adjustment etc...) was almost due on my bike and so I thought that best solution would be to store it at the KTM dealer that could work on it while I would be gone.

Closed during the weekend I call first thing Monday morning. Like the other KTM dealers I spoke with they are really nice and willing to help me as much as possible. That solves a big issue for me which was to transport the bike from La Victoria to a place where I could store it. They took me in their truck and trailer to pick it up there...

That gives me a good opportunity to have a look at the rear tire. There is still 30% life left in it but the whole tire is covered with 'scratches'. It's not that surprising to get that many puncture when seeing how much the tires suffer on the roads I used...

The KTM shop in Lima is actually quite small. Surprisingly the prices here are very reasonable for new bikes compared to Colombia or Ecuador. About the same as in the US and cheaper than in Austria where those bikes are built!

The workshop where I saw only one mechanic working...

I'm a bit worried about their expertise on a bike like the 950 but they had a couple of them in the workshop and I tried to make the mechanic realize how important the reliability of my machine is in such a trip. He seemed confident in his abilities so let's hope he's right.

Just a few hours after I gave the go ahead to Medjet I was on a plane, in first class to get home!

I had to use 3 different planes though but at every stop there was someone waiting for me with a wheelchair: highly recommended if you want to avoid all the lines .

In the business lounge in Atlanta I felt like a Martian in the middle of all those business people frantically working on their cell phones and computers.

After a 21 hours trip the best part was of course to see my family again

Back Home (2/2/2008)

I already had 7 surgeries (sport injuries) and so I know how important it is to have a good surgeon. I had already called from Lima to get an appointment with Dr Kevin Louie, who was recommended by KirkMoon. Unfortunately there was nothing available for the next 2 weeks. As soon as I arrived in SF I contacted Kirk and he was able to get me an appointment for the next morning

With the much better X-rays I got it was quite obvious that the surgery was the best solution. Although it would be possible to heal like that, with a cast (might create arthritis though), Dr. Louie recommendation was to put a screw on it. He said that it shouldn't delay me too much since I should be OK 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery.

Of course the problem was when to get the surgery… Luckily, Dr. Louie has a good relationship with Kirk and is ‘motorcycle friendly’. After all he is the one who took care of Mick Doohan after 2 accidents! He is super nice and understanding how important getting back on my trip is he agreed in doing the surgery the next day although it was his day off!!!

The surgery went really well and the pain was moderate after the first day. Here is my ankle the day of the surgery.

I saw the Dr. Kevin again a couple of days ago and I don't have a cast anymore, just a rigid "boot" that I can remove to sleep or take a shower so that's really cool. The next visit will be in 2 weeks and that's when we'll be able to decide for when I can take my plane ticket to continue my trip.

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