Huancayo
We´re currently in Huancayo, the start point for the race. Honda have pulled out, apparently they feel they have too much to loose if things don´t go to plan. The upshot of this is that the organisers have had to find 63 moto taxis in the last week from a different manufactorer, and so we´re starting next wednesday, 3 days late. The new bikes are Llifan, Trooper 2. We´ve had a few practice sessions, which have been an education. The bikes themselves, while somewhat flimsy, have a suprising amount of ooomff, although it doesn´t come out consistently. Cornering, as suspected, is tricky, the bikes like either to go straight, or full turn, which at speed results in going onto 2 wheels, and as one team found out, falling onto their side.  Despite this with a bit of practice it is possible to gain a reasonable amount of control, and all in all they seem ok.
Otherwise we´ve been fairly chilled, doing a few walks to get acustomed to the altitude, eating lots, puking a bit, shitting a lot. One local speciality we tried (with varying ethusiasm) is frog smoothy. Basically take a live frog, rip it apart and skin it alive, boil it in milk (not really boil, more heat), put it in a blender with the milk, some honey, maize, whole raw egg (including shell), plus other unidentifiable powders and a viscous brown liquid, then drink.Â
Tonight we´ve got a night out with the other teams, and tomorrow to the market to get various bits and bobs. The next update will hopefully be from the road ahead...
