Today was a tougher ride than yesterday. The distance was almost the same both slightly over 90km. The climbing was only double 900m vs. 400m. However, what made things particularly tough was the wind in the afternoon.

Roughly by the numbers:

• There is just over eleven hours between sunrise and sunset. I keep making the sunset a few minutes earlier as I pedal south.
• I was out on the road for nine hours of that time.
• Cycle computer gives me a very slow average speed of 12 km/h. This means about 7.5 of those nine hours were riding and another 1.5 hours were stopping along the way.
• I know for most of the windiest 15km this afternoon, I was doing well less than 12 km/h

Above was the road once I reached the turnoff point again. Some rolling hills with occasional short grades reaching 7%.

It was already windy some this morning as the flag on this shack shows, though not too bad.

A burned out car along the road.

There were three villages like this along the way, along with one town (Yauca). Otherwise it was open desert areas. Yauca was in a valley with olive trees and for the rest I didn’t see agriculture.

Just before Yauca was a toll booth. I found the sign that essentially said, “avoid capture, pay your toll”, interesting.

I reached Yauca a little past 10am. It was a nice little road junction that seemed to have everything: hotel, restaurants and some small stores. It was tempting to make it a short day, but I decided it was early enough I could ride to Chala instead.

The road started flat and along the beach. The road then climbed nearly 300m (1000ft) up along the mountain and went right along the coast. After a slow climb, the wind really picked up. It was tough and slow riding and made me think, “if this keeps up, it would have been better to have stayed in Yauca.”

It was slow for quite a while, though fortunately, the wind lessened for the last 15km of the day.

I met several sets of pilgrims walking along the coast today. They were headed north towards “puro” (not sure of the same) and had started in the south of Peru. They stopped and wanted a photo with me.

So I also got a photo of the guy carrying Jesus on the cross. I don’t have a photo, but a while later also met some pilgrims walking with a much larger cross with a small wheel on the base.

A small roadside shrine for an infant.

It was nice to finally see Chala down below in the distance. This is a larger town than Puerto Lomas and has several hotels to pick from. Otherwise, nice but long day riding. As best I can tell, tomorrow has similar distance and similar climbing. The wild-card will be the wind. No hotels in between but if wind is stronger, then might be a two-day ride rather than a single day. Will have to see…

Why were the Nazca Lines created? Were aliens involved?

I didn’t come any closer to answering these questions but did pass the Nazca lines in the desert on my way today.

Many citrus trees and stands on my way starting out.

Cool morning air as I rode past these stands.

Blue skies and rolling hills before a steeper 200m climb up to the Nazca Plain.

At the top were signs for the Nazca Lines, some 300 figures out in the desert nearby.

I could see a line or two from the highway, but not enough to make out the figure.

There was an observation tower where for 3 sols ($1), one could see more.

Apparently, either climbing a nearby hill or taking a small flight-seeing trip are ways to really see more of the figures. I saw several of these flights cruising over and circling the lines.

On the far side of the lines, I met two German cyclists coming the other direction. They had started in Santiago, Chile and were towards end of a trip headed to Lima. They guessed right away, “you must be American” and I guessed, “you must be German.” Not sure what was behind their guess, but mine was based in part that Germans might make such a guess.

I asked about their route and temperatures they encountered in Bolivia (-10C to -15C). They offered a light sleeping bag. Wow, I appreciated this and took them up on this, even though they wouldn’t accept payment for the bag. This had actually been something on my mind for a bit.

When I planned my trip, I had roughly planned clothing/gear to cover >30F (0C) during daytime cycling and >20F (-7C) and wet at night. For example, my sleeping bag is rated 17F (-8C) and did OK first night in Alaska when it snowed and was ~20F. I had seen some more recent blogs and posts that suggested it might be colder than that in Bolivia – both because I’m crossing in middle of winter and south and west of La Paz is just a bit colder than La Paz where 90th percentile dips to ~23F (-5C). So I had been thinking I might need to be ready for closer to -10C to -15C and was planning on looking for an extra sleeping bag in Arequipa. There will also be little villages with hotels, but some gaps where I will camp between villages. So appreciate the generosity of the German cyclists and came at just right time.

Not too much further and I was already in town of Arequipa before noon. Found a nice hotel and looked around.

There are flightseeing trips over the lines.

However, more expensive than my 3 soles I paid and from what I saw, those flights go over the lines pretty quickly. So I’ll settle for seeing them on youtube videos like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRNNjbBCGMI

From here, the plan is to cycle further along the coast to Arequipa and then climb up to ~4200m (13,800ft) to the Altiplano and Lake Titicaca as well as crossing over Bolivia. TDA plans a rest day in Nazca around 12 September, so I am approximately 73 days ahead of their schedule.

A day riding mixed area of desert, farms and agro-industrial areas. Surprising amounts of truck traffic, though after the first 12km, the shoulders were good.\

Enjoyed my time in the little town of Pisco. I enjoy finding these little towns with a hotel not too far from the town square.

Everyone out of the van, we need to fix the tire!

Cycled six kilometers back to rejoin the Panamerican Highway. The road was busy and the shoulder was poor, so mostly rode the white line and watched my mirror when I needed to move out of the way. Fortunately, after the 12-kilometer mark or so, a reasonable shoulder reappeared and stayed until I was close to Ica.

There were several larger industrial type plants like this fertilizer plant.

If you lived here, you’d be home now!

This little oasis of lots seems to empty out into the desert once you pass the entrance station. I notice that prices advertised for lots have gone down since the coastal gated communities nearer to Lima.

Another industrial type area as a big chicken ranch.

These small huts were on side of the road. I thought it interesting that each seemed to have a TV antenna and the last one had a satelite dish.

That little isolated hut in the desert might not have a TV antenna though.

A statue also fairly isolated along the road.

At 50 kilometers, there was a toll booth and more of these fruit stands.

In addition to toll booths, there was some type of fish-check station.

My lunch stop was at this kiosk where bought a few items and took a short break. After this point there were more large farms.

These guys were busy loading up the truck.

These vineyards with netting to keep out birds.

One of my favorite signs, “don’t leave rocks on the road” made several appearances again today.

The last 15 kilometer were through several small villages and then into larger town of Ica. The main road seemed to bypass the center of town, so ended up with hotel on far end and not too much nearby. However, otherwise nice place.

Overall, definitely an interesting mixture of areas that are more populated than before but still dry areas.

Today was a ride with several different variations of landscapes. The kilometers are now counting up from Lima. Still close enough that there is a fair amount of development instead of complete desert areas. Today I came through several fairly distinct regions.

The first thirty kilometers I would characterize as the “private beach community” section. The road had rolling terrain across the hills. Off to the ocean side, there would be these small private beach communities below. Typically there would be a fence and potentially a guard house. There wasn’t much otherwise in way of commercial establishments.

I went down the hill and came to the small town of Cerro Azul. Good place for a quick stop and break.

The next twenty-five kilometers I would characterize as the agricultural. Completely flat road and crops being grown on both sides.

Also, donkey carts that needed to cross the highway.

This section did have a few no bikes signs. By the time I saw the first one, there wasn’t much alternative route to take. In any case, the Pan American continued to have a nice shoulder, except for a bridge where the third of the signs was located. I suspect the signs came because the bridge didn’t have a shoulder. However, traffic was light so I was only on on the bridge.

After the agricultural section, I went up a hill to a section I would describe as “lost coast”. The road again bounced on top of the hills. I didn’t see much of the coast on the side at all. There were a few of these fruit stalls. Nice excused to stop and get a few mandarin oranges.

This bathroom and shower was in this section, in middle of nowhere.

This seemed to be an argument or explanation for keeping the town beach in public hands rather than letting it become private as beaches further north had become.

I also passed this large Peru Liquid Natural Gas plant, a bit more description here.

After the lost coast, I came down the hill and went along the ocean. This had more businesses.

There were chicken tents (taken in HDR to get details from the shadows).

There was a wine business.

Finally the last ten kilometers I turned inland and to the small town of Chincha Alto.

I found a nice hotel that had been recommended by my uncle Gerard.

Found the town square.

There seemed to be some type of children’s parade.

Complete with a royal princess.


Overall a slightly long day but good ride with a good variation between the sections. Also Chincha Alta is nicest little town I’ve come through since Lima.

Sunday in Lima, time to be a tourist.

I walked to the nearby square and signed up for a half-day tour of the historic center of Lima on the Mirabus pictured above. It was a nice chance to see a little bit of the city with the highlight being the Church and Monastery of San Francisco along with the catacombs found underneath.

As our tour bus went past several squares including Plaza San Martin, pictured above, I thought they sure looked familiar as I had cycled right past.

The last Sunday of each month, roads in the center of Lima are closed to automobiles to allow bikes, roller blades, pedestrians and others to use them. We also walked from here for rest of the tour.

I saw quite a few local scout groups out in uniform. They seemed to be in some sort of organized scavenger type hunt where they visited different locations, got clues and put together puzzles.

Church of La Merced was on our way, this photo in HDR.

The main plaza was packed with people.

There was music,

and dancing,

and horses,

and just hanging out with friends,

in traditional costumes or on the phone.

Church of San Francisco and associated monastery was impressive.

By the way, the black spots are pigeons.

We could take photos inside the church. However, no photos of the monastery or catacombs underneath.

What was particularly impressive was the paintings and artwork in murals, ceilings and in paintings. There was a historic library with 25,000 dusty books that might remind one of Harry Potter. Underneath, there were narrow catacombs with many bones, often neatly sorted into skulls in one bin, tibias in another, etc. Overall a rather interesting visit.

On way back, we could see streets were still closed for some cyclists.

Hopefully, tomorrow won’t get stuck into too much traffic leaving, having missed my window of light traffic. Even today this intersection was stopped up often enough that someone could come in costume and go past the cars.

A photo of bikes for rent during the traffic-free morning.

Spotted this bike oriented business as well.

Otherwise, nice relaxing day here in Lima.