Peruvian Adventure

Day 17 (4/8)

Today started out with a flight over the Nazca Lines. It was a perfect morning for it… clear skies with a light breeze. I suspect most of you are familiar with the Nazca Lines, but if not, they are the famed ‘geoglyphs’ (a world heritage site) created by natives in the desert near the city of Nazca in the period between 500BC and 500 AD by people people making removing stones to create lines depicting everything from monkey’s, to human figures, to hummingbirds on a grand scale (thousands of feet). Most people think they were they created for the gods to see, but no one knows for sure

Day 16 (4/7)

Today turned out to be a total surprise. Recall, that at the end of the day yesterday we’d been been diverted from the final segment of our route through the city of Ica due to a road closure due to government protests. To avoid any potential conflicts today, our plan this morning was to make our way further down the coast before making our way more or less due east on a dirt road to Ica where we’d intersect the main highway south, presumably beyond any potential roadblocks.

Day 15 (April 6)

There’s not a whole lot interesting to report about today. Most significantly we made it through the gauntlet of traffic in and around Lima without incident. We hit the outskirts north of town around 9:30 and spent the next hour and a half navigating through the traffic. As the traffic thinned out south of the city, we found ourselves a Starbuck’s, grabbed ourselves a Frappuccino and Capuccino (I’ll let you guess who ordered which), a couple of breakfast sandwiches and continued on our way south along the coast.

Day 14 (4/5)

Seagulls woke us up early this morning on the beach. We had our morning coffee, packed up, and were on our way in pretty expedient fashion. Before we left we made sure to have a final conversation with our host Alex… Here’s a kid who had to flee his native country of Venezuela a few years back, has travelled through all of South America and is now living in this small beach community. He couldn’t have been more upbeat and positive despite his travails. When you encounter people with stories like his, it quickly puts one’s life in perspective.

Day 13 (4/4)

Today (i.e. yesterday) was a ‘mellow’ day. We got a relaxed start under sunny skies as we departed Huaraz…cruised up and over a 13,800 foot pass and gradually descended to the coast over the next 50 or so miles, (to the ‘desierto costero’ region) had a relaxed lunch at very nice local restaurant on the way and ended our day at around 3:30 on the beach in the small coastal village of ‘La Gramita’, sipping beers and facing a gorgeously prepared plate of Ceviche, (how’s that for a ‘run-on’ sentence 🙂 ). We ended up pitching our tents on the beach in front of the restaurant and enjoyed a good nights sleep to the sound of the surf.

Day 12 (4/2)

As I write this we are taking a rest day in the city of Huaraz in north/central Peru. Yesterday was a day of spectacular scenery as we made our up, over and through the Punta Olimpica pass and the associated tunnel.

Day 11 (4/1)

Today we saw a different side of Peru. Unbeknownst to us when we put our route together for the day, we were to pass through a massive mining operation. It is called the ‘Antimina Mine’ and it is one of the largest zinc/copper mines in the world. When I say ‘massive’ I mean on the scale of a small city…

Day 10 (3/31)

Today didn’t turn out quite like we planned… and that was a good thing. Our original expectation was that we’d have a full day on pavement. Instead we had a full day on dirt roads. The plan changed early in the day, when not 20 minutes after we got underway, we found the route we were planning to take was blocked due to road construction and wouldn’t open again for another 2-3 hours.

Day 9 (3/30)

Today was one of those days that invariably occurs during any extended motorcycle ride. It started under gray skies amidst the decaying industrial landscape of Chucchis and nearby La Oroya. From there, our plan for the day was to make it to Huachuco 277Km (172 miles) to the north on paved roads. We knew it would be a long day, but we needed to cover some ground in order to get ourselves positioned to explore the Cordillera Blanca area further to the northwest over the coming weekend, (Believe it or not, we will be halfway through our trip by this weekend and are already plotting how we position ourself for the route back south along the coast for the final 10 days of riding in Southern Peru).

Day 8 (3/29)

After the overcast skies and rain of yesterday, we awoke to bright sunshine this morning at our hospidaje in the town of Laraos (pronounced la-roust…without the ‘t’). When we arrived last night in the waning light we observed that we had arrived someplace different than the villages we’d visited thus far and we were further struck when we were guided on a walk after dinner by the daughter of the woman managing the hotel.