Day 8: a little oasis
After our night at the dodgy truck stop we had a long slog knowing there would not be a town for us to spend the night as Piura was over 100km away which meant we had to find a spot to refuel and rest for the night.
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| From World Travels - Peru |
Fortunately, as we were growing weary we came across what looked like a sugar cane region. There seemed to be plenty of little canals running between the fields feeding what looked like rather oddly place fields of green reeds contrasting beautifully against the backdrop of the brown sandy hills.
As we were in some kind of farming region we stumbled upon a little farming village where the local Jehovah's Witnesses kindly took us in (and yes we did get a booklet to read but if only they new how much of it we could understand). They provided us with what looked like a secure concrete and bamboo storehouse with a dusty sand floor, tin roof and no furniture besides a dusty old wonky bench. After entertaining the local kids with our game of Yatzy the locals started to role back into town which is when we soon became the local spectacle. Soon we had to retire to the privacy of the wonky bench to make and eat dinner so as not to feel like we were the main feature in a zoo!
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| From World Travels - Peru |
Day 9: Piura and the search for the camping stove
Piura was only 30 odd km from our sleep spot so we arrived there early giving us plenty of time to haggle the local hostels for their best price and to go on a hunt for a camping stove.
After being sent from shop to shop we landed up at the local market which was about 4 blocks wide and deep, a pick pockets dream come true! We managed to find everything thing in there except a camping stove however we did manage to leave with our wallets in tacked - I guess when most of the locals can barely afford a standard gas plate going camping with a fancy lightweight camping stove is at the bottom of their list of things to do. So the hunt for the camping stove will probably continue until we get to Lima.
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| From World Travels - Peru |
Day 10: the Sechura Desert
For 2 days we pushed on through the desert with very little to distract us except for sand dunes and a few thorn bushes dotted here and there, otherwise it was pretty flat with an unforgiving head wind sweeping across the planes.
Besides the unforgiving head wind the weather was very kind to us providing a thick cloud cover with even a light drizzle at one stage!
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| From World Travels - Peru |
We spent one very pleasant night in the desert. Dashing across the soft desert sand dragging our 50kg while discreetly trying to find a thorn bush big enough and thick enough to hide us for the night was a bit of a mission. However, once our tents had had been setup and the sun had begun to set we sat and enjoyed our tuna, avo and mayo sandwiches then headed to bed early as the evening quickly began to grow cold.
Day 11: Morrópe and a night at the dentist
We had a good and long nights sleep on the soft desert sand but we knew we were going to be pushing it to make it to the 1st town just under 90km away with a steady head wind.
It was a very long and arduous day and all we had to look forward to was more tuna sandwiches on the side of a dusty windy road. We had not taken very long breaks so by the time it got to early afternoon, after having got up at 6am, we had enough of looking for the next thing on the horizon - just another telecoms repeater tower which seemed to take forever to get any closer.
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| From World Travels - Peru |
Eventually we saw what looked like it could be a toll gate - yes had we finally made it to Morrópe?! Yes we had and right next to the toll gate was a little local restaurant. Boy did we have a good afternoon feast there!
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| From World Travels - Peru |
Morrópe the town was actually a little further on and smaller than expected. I don't think they often had visitors and definitely didn't often have gringos come into town as we were definitely the talk of the town. Some children even screamed 'gringos' to each other then stared at us.
We found a room to stay at the local dentist but before bed we went for a stroll and a drink at a local. By then the news had spread and the sniggers had changed to ones of disbelief - 'Africanos'?
Day 12: Chiclayo, Cesar and Yuliana
We got to Chiclayo by 9am, found a nice place to stay and headed straight for the highly recommended Romanas Restaurant. Cesar, a local businessman who has been living in New Jersey for 40years and too loves Romanas, befriended us and kindly helped us pick out the best dish.
After brunch he showed us around town and took us to his sister´s place where he fed us a local drink, Pisco, given to him by a local high court judge so it was good stuff. I kind of enjoyed my midday shooter but you can imagine how chuffed Mark was when he looked up to see a shot of the best being handed to him!
Later that eve we met up with one of Jim's (the Chicagoan guy from the Montañita Spanish School) local friends Yuliana. We had some good cheap local Chinese then did as all locals do on a Sunday even and headed for the up market mall where we finally found a road map of Peru! And, of course had a couple of local cocktails involving Pisco..
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