Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

Riding high -
Trans America part 3

Leaving the heat and humidity of Panama behind us, Julia and I flew down to Quito, Ecuador one day earlier than the group, to start the customs clearance process for all the bikes. Arriving in the capital of Ecuador, you pause to catch your breath. At an altitude of 2850m, the advice is to take it easy for the first few days. Little chance of that! Customs clearance in Ecuador is always a tad unpredictable and enough to give us an unwelcome run around.

All our group were travelling with a carnet de passage, the official customs temporary import and export document for vehicles. Although officially not required anymore, we were not about to take any chances. The change to the customs regulations is only a recent one and when you are trying to clear 15 bikes in one day, you need all the help you can get.

The good news was that all bikes were safely at the airport warehouse and even better, the head honcho of cargo had seen our TV series, ‘The Ride’, on National Geographic and was keen to help. And yet, despite everything on course for collection that afternoon, we were foiled at the last minute by sloppy latino form filling. Huffs of frustration by the riders as most realised much of the paperwork showed wrong VIN numbers or registration plates. It sounds petty, but one digit wrong on crucial documents and getting out of a country can be impossible, without lots of luck and plenty of dollars.

For the sake of a few hours, we retreat to the hotel, drink the local alcoholic cocktail of ‘pisco sour’, and return the next morning. It’s pouring with rain. But who cares when you are sat on your bike, now outside of Customs, sitting on the right side of the exit barrier and you have 10,000 miles of riding ahead of you, starting in the Andes?

Ecuador is a small country and we would only be spending a few days before we hit the border with Peru. En route, I always like to stop and give the group a traditional lunch, ‘cuy’, known to us as guinea pig. The traditional way to cook the little beasties is on a spit, then served up whole, head and all. The two vegetarians in the group stuck to corn, broad beans and squeaky cheese, but bravely sat at the same table as the carnivores.

With each Trans-Am journey, we like to change a few sections and explore new roads. Some element of the unknown adds to the adventure factor and gives the team a real buzz as pioneers of an unridden route. This was going to be the case for our border crossing into Peru. Rather than the chaos and corruption at the main crossing at Huaquillas, we had been keeping our eye on a small mountain border crossing at Macara. Reports were that it was much more quiet and quicker, with the added thrill of some dirt road to do on the Peruvian side.

‘Restaurante 5km’

The small border town of Macara was basic, as was the hotel. We chilled in the streets, sitting on the kerbs, local style, cold beers in hand. Youngsters screamed around the plaza on cheap Chinese scooters and those a bit older had clapped out cars, trimmed with glowing blue neon undercarriages and fitted with really annoying ‘musical’ horns. And the noise continued well into the night. No different to home, eh? Our reward was a very quiet and quick border crossing, exactly as per the reports, no bribes, no hassles, and some very helpful advice from the police about the roads ahead.

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