The Ten

The Ten

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Northern Peru.

Being a restless soul; after a couple of days at the beach in Mancora, I was itching to get back on the road. A bike trip needs momentum and stopping in one place too long leaves you adrift. It really is the journey, not the destination. I'm not really a beach person anyway. Although, weirdly, Mancora had the best Thai food outside of Thailand, I have ever had. I also got to see a few of the rugby world cup games. Where can I buy a Japanese rugby shirt?




So, ever south. The road followed the coast for a while before winding a little way inland. The oil derricks nodded at me as I passed as if to say, "keep rolling"; I nodded back and pressed on. Northern Peru, at least this coastal strip, is very arid, dry and dusty. Some irrigated rice paddies and palm trees give an almost South-East Asian look in places. But these along with the sugar cane plantations thin out to scrubby land which in turn gives way to sandy desert stretches with long, straight, featureless roads. A vicious cross wind made for a testing days ride.






My fuel consumption has been poor for the last 2 or 3 tanks; maybe its poor fuel (gasohol?), or the strong cross-wind, but the bikes fuel economy has dropped dramatically. I've adjusted the "Kev mod" fuelling thing, which was way off its usual setting. Hopefully this will cure the problem.
Stopped for the night in Chiclayo, my first proper Peruvian city. What an initiation! It really was a free for all, dog eat dog chaos. Just dive in; great fun! One night stop only, just as a convenient place to cool the wheels before continuing south to Trujillo and some culture.
On the way to Trujillo, I was stopped by the Peruvian police. I'd heard many stories about spurious "fines" being imposed for imaginary traffic violations, so I took a deep breath, thinking "here we go......" but, a quick check of my documents, a shaking of hands and off I went, with all my Peruvian Soles intact.
Once in Trujillo, it was tourist trail time: Chan Chan; the largest pre-Colombian city in the Americas, largely reclaimed by the desert now, but a large section had been partially restored/preserved to give an idea of what it was originally like. Also the spectacular Las Huacas Del Sol Y De La Luna, the remains of two mud brick pyramids from around AD500. Fascinating places to wander around to feel the history and listen to the ghosts of all the poor souls sacrificed there to placate the gods (beats sitting on a beach any day). Archaeological/historical stuff interests me. Trujillo itself is a nice place too; yet another South American city with a strong Spanish colonial past.






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