Pedro and Maria Motorcycle South America!: Piura to Huanchaco, Peru 292 miles

Peru, land of goats and garbage. Well, that is at least something you see often on the side of the road; literally.

Today was our first day venturing in the giant dessert of Peru. We woke up and hit the road by 9 as we knew we had a long day ahead of us; the stretch we had to make didn’t have much in between. As soon as we headed out of the city, and after taking the wrong road for a few miles, all you could see around you was piles of garbage and dessert sand. In fact, going down one road in the morning were literally piles of garbage, almost as if the walls of peoples homes. I’ve seen the worst of Mexico, but this topped that easily. On top of that, we filled up our tank and gasoline costs us $4 a gallon. These poor people, no wonder they are riding around in extremely small-engine vehicles and motorcycles.

Just outside of the city was the dessert, and the occasional ‘town’. To paint a picture of what these towns looked like, think Star Wars ‘the sand people’. Yes, picture that and you are right there with us, zooming down the well paved straight road at about 80mph. I kept praying that Yoshita would stay strong as the last thing that I wanted to happen was a breakdown. I wouldn’t want any type of encounter with people that live WAY out in the middle of NOWHERE with nothing around them but a sandstorm; they must be crazy.

The dessert just kept on going, but the further we went in, the more the wind picked up. Just before Chiclayo (a fairly big town in the middle of our dessert stretch) it was so strong I felt at any moment the bike could be swept over. The wind at least stayed fairly consistent, so I think we were just riding along at a 30 degree angle, although when we passed a truck or a slightly large sand dune, we would be whisked forcefully in one direction than another. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tense on the back of the bike…thank god for Mike’s ipod as the music helped me relax.

We only stopped in Chiclayo for another fill up on gas and a quick bite to eat. Nothing special, the usual chicken and rice, but I ate as much as I could stomach because you never know when the next time you’ll find edible food is! I thought that we were done with the worst of the dessert, but just as we pulled out of Chiclayo, the wind only seemed to get stronger. I just clenched the grips on the bike so I’d keep myself from clenching Mike too hard (don’t want to distract him from his important job; keeping us upright!) and thought about how crazy anyone would be to live out here. The terrain didn’t change much, but towards the end of the day we started seeing crops, crops of rice. Okay, call me crazy but why would anyone plant rice which requires plenty of water in the crops out in the middle of the dessert!?!?!? I know there must be a reason, most everything has a reason behind it, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out all day. That’s right, right there in the dessert were crops of rice. That followed by sugar cane.

We ended our wind-swept dessert day in a surf town called Huanchaco. I didn’t expect too much after our day’s driving through little dusty and shabby towns, but this is quite a gem. All of a sudden we turned the corner into town and there was the ocean. I didn’t realize we were riding so close to it, but I’m sure that is why we had such strong winds. This town supposedly is where they think the first surfers came from, pre-Inca era. They make these reed board/canoe type things that they take out into the surf, to fish, and ride the waves back in. They have been doing this for years, before the Incas and still are doing it today. We watched a bunch of them go out at sunset while we had dinner tonight…quite a site.

The town is full of Peruvian and an occasional tourist surfer. The waves are consistent, plentiful and big. There are plenty of restaurants, bars and hotels lining the malacon and beach. Supposedly there is one of the world longest breaks here – 2km! The ocean water here is cold, almost as cold as home…Mike and I couldn’t figure that one out either…I guess there are a lot of mysteries around these parts. If you gaze down the beach and along the shore, yet again you feel like you’re in the set of the ‘sand people’ in Star Wars. The buildings are that mud brick type and all surrounding them is dessert.

We found a nice little hotel, and it must be off season because we talked the guy down and had him include breakfast for just under $20 bucks a night. A room with a view of the ocean. Adam also stayed here with us for $10/night. We had a little rest of the beach, then found a nice little restaurant which served some very delicious fish.

We are staying here another night as tomorrow we want to take an excursion to some ruins in Chan Chan (1,500 year old mud-brick city). Mike’s hoping to rent a board tomorrow too, but it looks a little too big for me!

Hmmm... its getting dry, fast