The Mototaxi Junket: 3,000km on a sofa-bike across Peru

I completed the Mototaxi Junket!

Nearly 3,000km of puttering across Peru in a 125cc sofa bike, a lost backpack where I was left with just the clothes on my back, a dozen breakdowns and 16 different mechanic visits, two breakdowns where I was stranded alone in the middle of nowhere…but I managed to junketeer from the Pacific coast, across a desert, through the Amazon jungle, and across a half dozen 4,000 meter Andes mountain passes! All in a shoddy vehicle that is barely suited for ferrying people around town on paved roads, let alone crossing mountains.

The Mototaxi Junket was easily one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was absolutely grueling. After fourteen crazy days of adventuring, I’m exhausted and sunburned, wind burned, covered with oil and soot, have lost a bunch of weight, grown a bushy beard, and have aches and pains all over…but I made it!

And the most important thing of all: with your help, we raised over $3500 for SOS Children’s Villages and Cool Earth! That’s $500 over my original goal! And along the way, for each of the 75 donors, I gave away a rubber ducky to a Peruvian kid on your behalf.

I also have to thank the all Peruvian people who helped me along the way. So many times I was overcome by the kindness and generosity of strangers, who went out of their way to help the loko gringo on the sofa bike. The did everything from help me push my mototaxi up a hill, tow me, feed me, give me a place to stay, or help me fix my mototaxi when I was broken down on the side of the road, completely demoralized in the pouring rain. Peru is an amazing, beautiful country, filled with wonderful people.

As for my mototaxi, I’ve turned it back over to the Adventurists…right after I drove it one last time to the finish line to take some pictures. And what do you know, the damn thing won’t start again. Typical end to an adventure that was a comedy of errors the entire way. Now I’m in Cusco and tomorrow morning, I depart on a 4 day trek on the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu…the perfect end to my Peruvian adventure. Thanks again to everyone!

Check out my Mototaxi Junket Blog for all my photos and more updates!

One video check-in from the trip…

Throughout the entire junket, I would check in and post a video update almost every day. Here’s one check-in from midway through the trip. The rest of them can be found on my Mototaxi Junket Blog.

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