“
What was to be an adven-
ture became a challenge,”
the very words Gilles Rob-
ert used to describe his ride
through the Amazonian jun-
gles of South America.
Sand, mud, rivers and mosquitoes
were just the start of the adventure,
drug traffickers soon became the
challenge turning a 4,000-kilometre
ride into one of almost 10,000.
A resident of Quebec, Canada,
Gilles and his BMW R1200GS started
their adventure from Lima, Peru in
August 2018, immediately becoming
immersed in the culture of the coun-
try by witnessing the Sunday Flag
ceremony in Ica. It set the tone as
Gilles left for Cusco the following day.
An indirect easterly route via Nazca
took two days, almost 800 kilometres,
Cusco the staging point for a visit to
the famous 15th century Inca citadel
of Macchu Picchu.
TRAVERSE 71
A 15-hour round trip by train and
foot, Macchu Picchu is a must. Ar-
chaeologists still only surmise why
the settlements was built in the loca-
tion it is, almost 2,500 metres above
sea-level, higher than the highest
peak on the Australian continent.
Constructed in the traditional Incan
dry-stone wall style, the city in the
sky, was only discovered by the west-
ern-world in the early 1900’s. Amaz-
ingly it was only used by the Inca for
around 100 years. The early 1980’s
saw the site listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Riding via the Carretera
Interoceanica Gilles came
to Puerto Maldonado, just
55km from the Bolivi-
an border and within
the greater Amazon
rainforest.
This
region was one
of the last to be