Lima

Lima is a town of huge contrasts where great wealth and great poverty can easily share the same neighbourhood.

Modern buildings in Miraflores

Favelas in San Cristobal (picture taken safely from distance)

Surely in 1 weekend we only scratched the surface of a town that counts over 10 million people, but we really enjoyed our stay in the Peruvian capital to the point that Elena even said “I could live in Lima”

But let’s go in the right order.

We set camp at the Ibis hotel is in Miraflores: What a great choice. The hotel is brand new and comes with all the comforts. Our room was on the 11^th floor where we had a good view of the town as well.  All that for £40 a night.

Miraflores is a posh area in the south of town sitting on the cliffs in front of the ocean.

This is where you can find some of the best restaurants and modern buildings. On the adjacent Malecon we were able to admire modern apartments with ocean view. No need to say that it is safe to walk here at night.

The following day we got a cab to the Plaza the Arma in the town centre. Even though the distance from Miraflores to the town centre is huge, we were able to cover it in less than half hour, thanks to the good road system in town. The other good news is that taxis are cheap (£4 for half hr ride!)

We walked around town for a good 6 hrs checking out all the main touristic spots.

Some of the buildings in the town centre reminded us of Paris.

What we found absolutely weird was the fact that the pan-american road with its 6 lines is running just next to Plaza the Arma; this is like having the M25 running next to Trafalgar Square!

Late in the afternoon we went back to the hotel where we managed to contact our friends Luis, Charo and Jorge and agreed to meet the following day.

In the evening we picked the Costa Verde for our dinner. This is a gorgeous restaurant on a pier right on the ocean with fantastic view of Lima by night.

The following day our friends picked us up at the hotel and took us for a tour of Chorrillos,

Barranco

and San Borja, where we tried the famous chicharrones (veal's heart).

Jorge is the son of Luis and Charo and he is setting up his own business as “cake chef”.
The cherry on the cake was to be invited to taste some of his cakes freshly made for us!

The way to Lima

They say that bad things happen in 3s. Well after our bad luck in the canyon and being stuck in bed in Huaraz we also picked up a nail immediately after leaving our hotel in Huaraz!
On a positive note we were still in "civilised territory" hence we were able to find a "vulcanizadores" in a matter of seconds.

Vulcanizadores in Huaraz working on the bike

Nail extracted.

Now that we paid our price to the "veiled goddess" we are ready to tackle the road from Huaraz to Lima.
The road heads straight south from Huaraz to the Laguna Pachacoto.

It is clouded but it is not raining.

As we turn right and move away from the Laguna we begin our descent.
The road is in perfect condition and so is the bike. As the fresh air comes through our visors we really feel we are leaving our small troubles behind.

As we descend and hit the Panamerican a familiar desert welcomes us again

But then, after 50 kms or so something magical happens.

As the road gradually climbs up only few hundred meters, the mist appears. The humidity brought by this mist is clearly enough to bring life in the desert and the desert changes colour from brown to green.

Yep! same desert, different colour, and this time is just the work of mother nature.

100 kms from Lima we get stopped by the police.

This time however are not interested in just having a friendly chat; they want to fine us for speeding.

Ok, fare enough I was a bit over the speed limit, however 432 Nuevo soles (£110) seems a bit steep.

I negotiate for 10 minutes with the only result of having my driving licence taken away from me.

It is now the time to unleash our secret weapon: Elena

Blonde hair blue eyes and most importantly the lawyer's chat, help us to reduce the fine from 432 to 60 soles.

We part from our dosh and run before they might change their mind.

We enter Lima at 4pm. It's Friday afternoon and the traffic is absolutely mental.

it will take us over 2.5 hrs to cross the whole town from North to South.

Our hotel is in fact in the South district of Miraflores, a beautiful modern quarter facing the Pacific Ocean.

Huaraz and Laguna Llaganuco

We still don't know whether it was the 10 hrs on the bike, the altitude, the sudden change of temperature from 30 to 5 degrees, the dust of the desert or a mix off all the above; what we know is that we spent 4 days in bed in Huaraz trying to recover!!!
Once again things didn't go exactly as we had planned.
On day 4 we paid a visit to the local hospital to get some antibiotics and x-rays asI could not shave off a nasty cough.

Even though the building seems "work in progress" the service was actually good.
For £70 they visited me twice, got X rays and medicines, all done and dusted in less than 2 hrs.

X rays equipment at the hospital

On day 5, tired from being recluded in our room we ventured out to see the town.
Elena tried a bit of shopping therapy which I believe worked better than headache pills, since the smile came back on her face.
These colorful table clothes cost 13 nuevo soles each.
She negotiated so hard with the old lady that managed to get 3 for 40 nuevo soles.....?!

From my part I had to buy a new pair of glasses to replace the ones I had broken in the canyon.
Ok, the new pair makes me look like a caracter from "the sopranos" however they were fully approved by an expert in cool glasses.....

On day 7 we finally managed to line up the long waited trecking session.
The choice wasn't easy as there were plenty of options but in the end we opted for Laguna Llaganuco.
To get to the Laguna we drove back 40 kms towards Yungay then we turned right for another 25 kms on dirt road.
It was certainly worth it.

South view of the Laguna.

North view of the Laguna

The lake wasn't the only beatiful thing to look at in the valley.......

Another 15 kms uphill and we reach quote 4700 where things get even better.

This is a view of the laguna from "er mirador"

Elena is catching her breath

In this place it does not matter whether you look north, south, east or west; all you can see is beauty.

It is now time for us to head back to Huaraz; tomorrow is going to be another heavy day on the bike as Lima is waiting for us.
In spite of all the bad luck we had for the whole week we were really pleased we could score some points at the laguna.

When things don't go according to plan

We leave Trujillo early in the morning aiming to Caraz a small town in the Cordillera Blanca where we had planned to spend 4 days trecking and eating trout.
Accoding to the owner of the hotel it should take us around 4/5 hrs to get there which would leave us the afternoon to speak to various agencies to plan the tours for the following days.
The road on the coast is desert as usual, however, we never get bored of it as it changes constantly and amazes us with new shapes and colors, like in the section north of Santa where sand dunes meet brown rocks.

We fill up in Santa and we turn left heading towards the town of Huallanco.

I ask how is the road ahead of us and the guy at the petrol station confirms it's in perfect conditions.

According to  our schedule we should have only another 2 hrs to go.

The road is beautiful. The river Santa, on our left, has carved a beautiful valley, which thanks to a system of canals is incredibly green.

As we approach the Andes the road begins to climb, the valley narrows and the vegetation dries up again leaving only cacti among rocks.

We press on.

Strangely the road is absolutely empty, no cars in front of us nor coming towards us.

The river Santa is on our left and only now and then we spot heavy machineries used for rock extraction and mining.

Suddenly we find a fork on the road.

On the left a very dodgy looking wooden bridge, that leads to the other side of the river.

In front of us the tarmac ends and dirt road begins.

I begin to think how to cross that dodgy looking bridge when out of nowhere a jeep appears.

Is a local ranger. We ask which way to Huallanca and he points toward the dirt road.

Thinking that the road is only briefly interrupted for works we ask how long before the tarmac begins again.

The answer is not what we want to hear: This is the actual road all the way to Caraz!

Off we go.

It's now 2pm, it's hot and windy and the dust penetrates in our helmets and even in the gloves.

Our clothes are not exactly appropriate for this enviroment. We expected mountains and cold, therefore we are wearing warm fleeces below our gore-tex clothes.

What makes us mostly uncomfortable however is the sound of rocks hitting now and then the bottom of the bike.

This bike is not exactly designed for off piste road. it has a very low baricentre and, fully charged with luggage, boxes and the 2 of us, it weights 380 kg!

It is just a matter of time. Sooner or later one of these damn rocks will do the dammage.

Finally we hear it clearly. It is a metallic sound of "some part of the bike" hitting a rock very hard, detaching itself from the bike and tubling down the canyon......

We stop to assess the dammage. That is immediately done. As I look down to lower the lateral stand I can see that the foot is missing. It is the same wide foot that we bent one month ago in Cotopaxi.

This time however is completely missing, leaving us with the smaller original foot that really struggles to hold the heavy bike.

Somehow we get off, remove helmets, gloves, glasses and fleeces and look at each other to decide what to do next.

Then disaster strikes again. As I am looking at maps on my mobile to establish a potential alternative road I hear Elena shouting: "Paolo!!!!!".

I turn around and see the bike slowly sinking on the left. The lateral stand cannot hold the weight.

I launch myself below the bike to help Elena and in the process I stamp on my glasses breaking them.

We lift the bike back up. As we catch our breath we find out that the dammages are worst than we thought. There is a wet patch below the bike and it smell like petrol.....the bike is leaking petrol.....

Now, it is not nice to find yourself in a desert canyon, on a dirt road, 80 kms away from the nearest pueblo with a bike leaking petrol.

Whilst Elena holds the bike I lean down to assess where the leak might be. It's hot and the wind blows in my eyes as I am now without my glasses.

The leak seems to have stopped, then I begin to use my brain again and think. Maybe it is not a leak. Maybe when the bike leaned on the left side, petrol came up to the top and flowed out from the lateral holes that deal with overflow!!

Yes that's it. No leak and all is good.

But what if there had been one? That could have been a disaster. 

We had enough. We turn around and drive back 80 Kms towards Santa.

We stop at the same petrol station to fill up. It's 3pm and we are thirsty and hungry, consious that we wasted 3 hrs.

It is now time to review our plans. The guy at the petrol station (him again) tells us that on the main road, to get to Huaraz (the other big town in the Cordillera Blanca) it will take us around 7 hrs!

If we stay on the coast there is no civilised town until Lima and that is 6 hrs and no trecking on the Cordillera Blanca.

Either way there is no time to waste. We swallow a bit of bread and water and press on as quickly as we can on the Panamerican heading south.

I don't want to drive at night. We will make a decision once we get to the junction to Huaraz.

We wizz through Chimbote, a horrible town with a terrible smell of processed fish, then we pass Casma and soon we find an unexpected fork. There is a clear sign saying Huaraz. Could this be another dirt road? We ask a guy at a fruit stall. He assures us the road is tarmac and it is 4 hrs to get to Huaraz.

It is decision time and we decide to turn left. It's now 4.30pm.

When peruvian people talk about distances between towns they express themselves in hours, never in Kms. You never know if 4 hrs is for a donkey, a car or a rocket.

Well as the road is good and empty we press on at full speed. The sceneries are so beautiful that we even take few pictures.

We will find out later on that this road is the 14A and leads to a pass at 4600 meters.

The views are stunning. We hit quote 4600M exactly at sunset in a race between us and darkness. The more the sun comes down the more we climb up to keep light on our road.

As we climb up the temperature is obviously dropping and now we are really missing the fleeces that we removed back in the canyon.

No time to stop though, as it's getting darker we really want to get to Huaraz asap.

And yet I have to ask Elena to take few pictures on the move.

This is our shadow against the rocks as the sun waves goodbye for the day.

And this is the view of the Cordillera Blanca from the top of Cordillera Negra with purple reflections on the clouds and the white tops covered in snow at 6300M.

As darkness reaches us we have time for a last shot at the lights of Huaraz waiting below us in the valley between the Cordillera Negra and the Blanca.

Yes, it is not the best shot but Elena is doing what she can with freezing hands and me opening the throttle.

We hit town at 7pm, 1.5 hrs ahead of schedule, and maybe, we think, maybe tomorrow we can even go trecking......

Trujillo and Chan Chan

After another 3 hrs in the desert we reach the town of Trujillo.
The city centre is characterised by colourful colonial buildings.

Some of the best are found in the main square.

We elected Trujillo as point of departure to visit 2 of the most important ruins in the north of Peru’: The temple of Sun and Moon and the ruins of Chan Chan.

The temple of the sun was close as they were still carrying out major excavation, therefore we focused on the temple of the moon.

We sadly discovered that, like most of the ruins in north of Peru’, also this temple was sacked by huaqueros (tomb riders) before the authorities intervened.

(angry Ae apaec)

This temple is made of different layers. In fact the Moche used to build a new temple over an old one, probably after the death of the current ruler. It was almost a change of regime sanctioned by the construction of new temple and of course bathed in human blood with sacrificial rites.

Even though partially covered by scaffolding, we were able to admire the north wall of the 5^th temple. The wall was beautifully carved and painted with seven rows showing the different levels of importance in the Moche society, from war prisoners to the God of Gods, Ae apaec.

It is from the top of this temple that the ruler of the time used to address the crowd, performing human sacrifices in the attempt to stop the wrath of the God (likely to be the storms brought by el Nino).

Greeting us at this temple was a rare exemplar of hairless Peruvian dog.

Beside the lack of hair this dog is also known for its high body temperature (40 degrees).

This dog was thought to have therapeutic qualities to cure rheumatism by the Moche .

We then moved north of town to visit the ruins of Chan Chan.

This was the capital of the Moche’s realm.

It appears that the Moche used to rely heavily on fishing in the sea. For this reason the majority of the decorations on the walls celebrate fish and fishing.

The rhomboid carvings, for example, represent fishing nets.

These ruins spread over a huge area and yet there is only one guard to ensure security in the site.

Most importantly these walls are subject to erosion from winds and floods brought by el Nino.
We are told that the area has dramatically changed in the last 30 years. At this pace the Chan Chan ruins will probably disappear by the end of the century.

The tour ended with a visit at the town of Huanchaco.
The locals are still fishing using the same technique and the same small boats that the Moche used.
Today the fishermen are however sharing the waves with surfers coming from all around the world.

El Senor de Sipan

We leave La posada de los Tumpis heading towards Chiclayo.
After Mancora the road cuts through desertic mountains

or simply flat desert

Sometimes, after hundreds of kms of sandy desert we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of a green oasis.
The locals, thanks to the water coming from the rivers flowing from the sierras, with hard work are able to reclaim some of this ground and use it to plant sugar cane or palms.

After crossing 200kms of pure desert from Piura to Chiclayo, we decide to spend a couple of nights in this friendly town.
Chiclayo is famous for 2 things: the market and the Senor of Sipan
We really loved the market. It covers a huge area nord of town with stands selling everything you can possibly need.
Elena called it the Selfridges of Peru.

Ok, it is not as flashy as Selfridges but I bet in London they do not have a whole section dedicated to whitches and magic.

In 1987 Walter Alva and Louis Chero made a sensational discovery in the area. They uncovered the tomb of el Senor de Sipan, a ruler Mocha of the 3rd century AC.
As per today,excavation works are sill carried out on this huge site.

We were the only visitors at the site and had the priviledge to meet Louis Chero himself

During the second part of the tour we went to see the museum of the royal tombs of Sipan.
established in 2002 it contains all the findings from the tombs.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures (for security reason) but we can safely say that this was one of the best museums we ever saw.
In particular our guide (Cecilia from Sipan Tour) was absolutely brilliant and made us enjoy every second of the visit.

Resting in Punta Sal

The border between Ecuador and Peru' is supposed to be one of the most difficult to cross.
This is due to a 4Km gap of pure desert between the 2 sides and also because, apparently, you get assaulted by locals trying to sell you everything and anything.
This wasn't a problem for us.
On a bike the 4Km gap is no issue and the border was actually completely empty at the time of our arrival due to the lunch break.
The only people at the border were us and 4 brasilian bikers

It took us 3 hrs to clear the formalities, but then we also managed to squeeze our lunch in between.

At 3pm we wished good luck to our brasilian friends. According to their plan they wanted to make it to Trujillo the same day (that is 10 hrs from the border crossing in the hostile desert at night!!!!)

Luckily our destination was much closer.

We stopped at the posada de los tumpis (13 km south of Zorritos) at 5pm and spent a whole week  resting on the beach.

At the posada you really get that feeling of Robinson Crusoe.

There are kms of empty beaches

One day the peace was broken by a couple of visitors.....

But soon things went back to normal.

Watching the numerous birds fishing in the ocean we wondered why this area has never been touristically developed.

Unlike most of the pacific coast, these beaches have warm waters all year around as they are not touched by the Humboldt currents.

Our theory is that investments in infostructures is not facilitated by the lack of water (we are in the middle of a desert), the area have experienced Tsunamis before and most importantly every 5/7 years el nino tend to destroy everything it finds in the area.

We have asked the locals  how much it would cost to buy prime land close to the beach.

The answer was £25 per Sq meter to buy the land and £15,000 to build it.

Please note that the law says you have to build at least 50 meters away from the sea.