After we had arrived in Panama-City, we decided because of the political situation, to skip Columbia and booked us and our motorcycle on a flight to Guayaquil in Ecuador. At the customs office in Ecuador we met “George”, a french guy, who had been negotiating with the officers already for 2 days to get his motorcycle through customs.With his hints and preparatory work we managed to get our motorcycle through customs the same day. Together we drove to Quito, crossed the Equator (got a certificate, made a picture and a stamp in our passport), travelled south on the road of the vulcanos, crossed in Macara the border to Peru and followed the coastline to Trujillo. Outside of Trujillo you find excavation sites, like “Chan Chan” once the biggest city of the continent; Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna” (pyramid of the sun and of the moon) of the Moche-Culture and Huanchaco, known for his reed boats.

After that we visited the 8-million city Lima (once the queen under the cities of Southamerica) and Nasca (known because of the Nasca-Lines, which have been interpreted by Erich von Däniken as runways of the aliens). Another speciality is the cemetary of Nasca. Because of the extrem dryness in this region, the dead bodies only have been wrapt in plankets and set in the sandy ground, mummified themselves and are till today in a good condition.

To get to Cuzco ( once the capitol of the giant Inka-Empire) we had to leave the Panamericana. When back in 1533 Pizarro and his horse artillery entered Cuzco, they have been fascinated by the brilliance of the city. A 820 feet long golden chain was spanned around the market place and behind that, they found palaces with golden door frames. Today the tourists try to picture the brilliance, because everything out of gold has been melted and disappeared.

From here the road leads in the valley of the Rio Urubamba and to the mountain, on which Machu Picchu is hidden. As late as in the year 1911
the ruins had been discovered by H. Bingham and he described it as “The Lost City of the Inca”. Something mystically is laying over this place, which is inconspicuous pressed close to the mountain-top.

After all these culture highlights, it was important for us to get out into the nature again and therefore we took the road up into the tablelands of the Andes to theTiticaca-Lake at almost 13 200 feet. After a boat trip to the floating islands of the Uros, a visit in La Paz in Bolivia (the highest city on earth) and the Atacama-Desert, we reached the road along the coastline of Chile. After having a look at the cities Santiago de Chile, Puerto Mont and Rio Gallegos
we reached on December 30th, 1999 more than happy “Ushuaia”, the most southern city of the World and the end of the Panamericana.