Saturday 19th I took a rest day to watch my team Leinster win the European Rubgy cup for the 3rd time..Well done lads… Also Chelsea win the European Champions League soccer Championship all against the odds..Well done to them also.. I had a terrible internet connection and wasted a lot of time on the computer last night due to this, Today Sunday I need to take another rest day at the office to catch up on my Andes mountain load of work, blog, emails, research, and route logistiics..just to name a bit.I expect to be here all day.. Thanks to everyone for your loyality and patience.. Have a nice day.. Tony

LATEST 18TH MAY:  18,288KM FOR 440 ROAD DAYS.

NOTE: MY SPOT TRACKER HAS BEEN GIVING ” PATCHY ” FIXES TO PUT IT MILDLY OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS AND WEEKS. I AM NOT IMPRESSED TO PUT IT MILDLY ABOUT THESE MISSING TRACKS, IT LOOKS LIKE I AM SKIPPING HUGE AMOUNTS, WHICH COULDNT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. I HAVE RUN, OK SOME WALKING EVERY SINGLE LAND KILOMETRE SINCE THE START IN OCTOBER 2010. I AM ALSO NOT IMPRESSED THAT IT ONLY GIVES MY FIRST  50 DAILY FIXES WHICH ARE (10 MINUTES APART) WHAT THIS MEANS IS, SHOULD I RUN A LONGER DAY THAT THE ENDING LOCATION WILL NOT BE RECORDED ON THE SHARED PAGE MAP AND THERE WILL BE ANOTHER GAP AT THE START OF THE NEXT DAY. I HAVE EMAILED SPOT AND AM NOT SATISFIED BY THEIR RESPONSE. REMEMBER LAST YEAR WE HAD A GREAT GOOGLE MAP WHICH WAS ON TOP OF THE SPOT SHARED PAGE? WELL THEY PULLED THE GREAT GOOGLE MAP  OFF MY SITE SAYING SOMETHING LIKE THEIR SOFTWARE COULD NO LONGER SUPPORT IT.  THIS JUST HAPPENED TO BE PULLED WHEN MANY PEOPLE MYSELF INCLUDED MISTAKENLY MADE COMMENTS THAT THE SPOT MAP DID NOT UPDATE, IN FACT IT WAS THE GOOGLE MAP THAT DID NOT UPDATE. NOW THEY HAVE ALL THEIR ADVERTISING IN  OUR FACES ON TOP OF MY VERY HARD WORK.

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ALWAYS PLAYING CATCH UP HERE IS THE END OF THE DESERT STAGE. I NEED TO UPLOAD PICTURES AS SOON AS I GET A CHANCE AND THEN WRITE MY AMAZING  MOUNTAIN EXPERIENCE. SORRY FOR THE DELAY, TIME IS TIGHT ON THE ROAD.

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I was really enjoying my Peru desert experience as I continued running south along the Peruvian desert coast. At times there was little shoulder but lots of gravel and of course, plenty of sand!

At km 347 I stopped for a quick ice cream at a restaurant called ” Restaurant La Balsa ” The restaurant is owned by a very kind-hearted man called Clemente who takes an interest in any traveller that stops by, mostly cyclists around the world or from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, motorcyclists, walkers and myself the very first runner!

CLEMENTE WELCOMES ME TO HIS FAMOUS RESTAURANT

Clemente fed them all and got them to sign his 3 guest books dating back to 1998.

I knew two of the travellers, both walkers –  French Canadian Jean Believue who completed an 11 year world walk last year and Karl Bushby walking in unbroken steps from Tierra del Fuego at the very tip of South America all the way to his doorstep in Hull,England all without any transport whatsoever. He has already walked the Americas, crossed the Bearing Straights between Alaska and Russia when it was frozen. Karl is now in central Russia, he has obviously gotten some kind of a special permit to walk under the English Channel and through the Chunnel from France to England… Now there is an idea… Got me thinking, I must admit

Having read his book Giant Steps and knowing the eye he has for women I laughed when I say his entry on a map he drew into the guestbook of South America with the places he had met lovely women en route! You see Karl is a Curt Cobain lookalike, the former front man of rock band Nirvana and when girls mentioned it to him, well reading between the lines I think he took full advantage of his good looks!

I was thirsty... FOR WATER ....So I stopped here.. NOT SURE IF CURT; SORRY I MEAN KARL DID!!

He also wrote in big letters NO BICYCLE, yes I can relate to that irritating question! He signed off by telling cyclists to get off their bikes and stop being girls and to walk instead!

Here in the restaurant Clemente brought me into his special room for his travellers. I signed his almost full and third guestbook called ” Amigos Adventurous. ”

THIS IS YOUR LIFE CLEMENTE!

There were also photos of a French couple who were

cycling around the world on a tandem towing their young child in a Chariot trailer behind. What a wonderful learning experience for the youngster but I cant imagine how the drivers here treated them.

I spent about two hours there and could easily have spent the whole day. Clemente fed me fish and chips. I wondered how many travellers have gone by oblivious of this great place. Just as I was wondering this an English world cyclist called Ivan who I had met that morning flashed by. I told Clemente that its a pity he doesn’t have a sign outside.

I MET IVAN THAT MORNING AND LIKE MANY OTHERS HE JUST CYCLED BY UNAWARE OF CLEMENTES TRAVELLERS HAVEN

Next day I got lashed by a sand storm, sand getting in everywhere, my face, eyes, mouth even with my bandana covering most of my face, also shoes, socks even into my pockets. It only lasted about half an hour, I guess its not a desert trip without a sand storm!

ENTER SAND MAN... AS METALLICA WOULD SAY...

The advice I had gotten from many people that had travelled this desert route is obviously now out of date. I was told it was a lonely stretch with little traffic and long distances between villages or shops. The longest I went was about 28-32 km on four occasions and as for the little traffic, well there is a major road widening project going on due to the amount of truck crashes.

And this construction supervisor stopped me to see if I was ok! Thank you señor!

¿AUGA AMIGO?

The next couple of days having shook the mountains out of my legs I ran strong to record 46 and 54km days. I don’t normally time myself but couldn’t resist it and some of my kilometres were around 5.40 which is very fast for me now, and a confidence boost for when I eventually leave the Andes behind in Argentina in about two months time.

That second day I had gotten off to a very late start and at the end of the day got a police escort to the edge of the town of Gramadal. Four cops on two motorbikes escorted me about 6 km as far as km marker 196 as it was dark. 

THE END OF A LONG DAY TODAY WILL BE THE START OF MY LAST DAY IN THE DESERT TOMORROW..A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE.

I finished my day at that marker and got a mototaxi to town for the night. I will return to the same marker in the morning as usual.

When I arrived at the plaza the mototaxi driver told me the police had paid my fare, just goes to show a few bad apples ruin it for the majority as mentioned in a previous blog.

THANKS LADS, NICE COPS!

I am now 11 degrees below the equator, I feel I am making steady progress.

The next day I finished my 43 km canter at km 153 right at junction 18. This will be the end of the desert for me. I had to make a side trip to Lima to pick up a package sent from home containing fresh supplies. It was sent to the Irish Embassy there but the post office said I had to go to their main sorting office to have it examined by customs.

First I got a taxi to the Irish embassy but unfortunately Irish ambassador Michael G Russell was at a meeting with all the other ambassadors in Lima. I was helped by his assistant a very friendly and helpful man called Kevin from Kansas.

OUTSIDE THE IRISH EMBASSY IN LIMA WITH KEVIN

Another taxi took me over to the post office depot, which took up a whole city block. I was told to expect to be there for a whole day, such was the bureaucracy. In fact I was back in my hotel within two hours eating my Irish chocolate with a lovely cup of tea!

While waiting for my number to be called I noted on the information monitor that the importation of used clothes and shoes was strictly prohibited into Peru. I thought that funny as I am sure some of the people I see wearing Chicago Bears tee-shirts and the like comes from charity drives.

I had one of  my favourite  running tops which my sisters friend Ger modified for the next stage of the run… Also two new pairs of running shoes. I had asked my folks to muddy them up and let them dry out in the box and mark them as used so as not to attract serious import tax!

Through a glass counter screen I watched the post office official in the company of a customs officer open my box. The customs officer just had a casual root around the top shoe in the box, closed it and said $5 charge! Nice one.

The most important contents in the box was some of my favourite chocolate, a crushed Easter egg and belated birthday cards. The jokers in my family boxed my package in a box which previously contained chicken fillets and knowing what I have written about the Latino chickens in the past I got a great laugh!

That night I went to dinner with Alejandro Torres, a Peruvian software designer, son of a doctor and runner who had run the Dublin marathon in 2011. I had always had visions of Lima, a city of 9 million inhabitants to be crawling with beggars at every street corner, in fact I had expected this all over Peru, which is not my experience. I have met only about a dozen in the few weeks I have been here and usually try to help.

Having said that there is a huge poverty problem here but also an elite privileged class.

Granted we were in an exclusive area of Lima and looking out the restaurant window out over at a beautiful beach. Alejandro told me he can run long distances unhindered on that beach, even a marathon.

DINNER WITH ALEJANDRO WHO WAS EDUCATED IN AN ENGLISH SCHOOL

 Before I left Lima, Alejandro a great music fan bumped my music up by a further 18 gb! In the box today was another 32gb memory card which he also promises to fill up… Timing is everything… Anyone else got a good music collection they want to share with me, I can arrange a memory stick delivery!

GASTRONOMICAL PERU

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