Today I cycled into the middle of a city of nine million inhabitants (7th largest in the Americas, and largest I cross on this trip). It wasn’t always pleasant riding, though as cities go, I would rate it as #5 in difficulty as compared with:

1. Tegucigalpha, steep grades and fading brakes
2. Panama City, high speed traffic when trucks block the shoulders
3. Guatemala City, general chaos and mixed shoulders
4. Guadalajara, sprawled areas, need to pay attention and keep adjusting
5. Lima, big and sprawling

It all started pretty calm. Three kilometers to reach the Panamerican Highway and then another three and a half on the Panamerican.

At this point, the road split and there was a choice. Heavy traffic, e.g. trucks and buses, were directed to the right and light traffic, e.g. automobiles and everything else was directed to the left. From other blogs I had read, more than half of the cyclists took the Serpentin option to the right. The other route climbs up over a 400-meter high hill. So, I did the same and followed the Serpentin road.

There were signs for no motorcycles as well as this one for no bicycles. Others had gotten through without issues and so I ignored the sign as well. Not much further I came past the first of two police cars parked on side of the road. I cycled past as if I knew what I was doing and nobody said anything. Sorry, no photo on that one.

Serpentin road is carved out of the side of the mountain. No shoulder, but trucks all gave me plenty of room. It was a fun ride.

There was a section of road construction where I had to wait and go in one lane as well as a section thereafter where I cycled in a closed lane for a bit. The steepest winding sections were fifteen kilometers long and overall I was back at the Pan American Highway at 29 kilometers.

The road kept getting a little busier and the shoulder was intermittent. Buses would zoom in and pull over to the shoulder. I’d wait and then follow them back out again. It kept getting a little more challenging and at 48 kilometers just after a toll booth, I decided to bail and take local roads instead.

I was still little ways from the middle of Lima. My timing wasn’t perfect as I got off just before this waterway. Hence, I had to cycle another 2.5 kilometers before reaching a bridge I could cross back over the waterway.

These roads were still quiet and had nice cycling until around the 60-kilometer mark.

The next ten kilometers to the center of Lima were a mess. Several of the intersections were completely stopped up. One hour and I cycled barely five kilometers.

The middle of this road had a high-speed bus lane. There were sometimes frontage roads. There were sections with construction. I got slightly lost a few times. There was never enough speed to be dangerous, but it also wasn’t pleasant to keep sitting in the stop-and-go-traffic.

Eventually, I got myself into the center of the city with tree-lined boulevards.

I took a slightly wrong turn and visited a plaza and saw a statue that wasn’t on my list. However, using my offline mapping application, I was able to slowly get myself past center of the city and headed to Miraflores neighborhood.

This section was nice, even had areas with bike paths in the middle of the boulevards. The still crossed all the other roads and were bumpy concrete, so not ideal but certainly better than the traffic jams from before.

Not sure where Lince was, but I crossed it.

I had randomly picked a target hostal, but couldn’t find it once I got close. Next hostal I tried was full, but not much further I found what looked like a reasonable hotel. It turns out their prices were quoted in dollars instead of sol, but still an OK place to say.

I’ve booked for two nights and expect to take either one or two rest days here. There is a reasonable bike shop here and will see if I can get my worn chain and cassette replaced. If not at this bike shop, there is a second one on my recommend list not too far away. Once I get bike taken care of and some laundry done, then also time to see if any interesting tourist attractions are nearby and otherwise start to look over journals to figure out routes from here up to Cuzco and south from there.

Right now, just nice to make it into middle of this large city.

Easy ride to a town that could have been named for a sneeze.

Today stayed mostly through agricultural areas and hence no long stretches of desert. People were busy harvesting in this field.

Most of the distance today had four lanes with only two in use. There would be these concrete barriers and sometimes the traffic would be directed on opposite side for a while. I cycled in closed areas once or twice, but mostly in the travel lanes. Even with only half the lanes, there was reasonable shoulder and traffic not too bad.

One of the slightly dry areas. I am skeptical that only 1.5 kilometers away and behind the chicken farms, the area is as green as suggested by the sign.

Passed through several towns, this was on of the shops.

There is a cart under there somewhere.

Not quite as reliable as the horse-drawn cart.

A fairly sophisticated separation scheme complete with sign.

Before noon I was in Huacho. Took a little looking but found a reasonable hotel. Walked downtown to Plaza Vea and then back along this monument.

Now getting closer to Lima and will start to read how others have navigated this large city. This is largest city will cross. Other cities in Peru have been surprisingly easy so hopefully this is more difficult but not abnormally so.

A nice mostly desert ride including finding a middle-of-nowhere restaurant stop.

The irrigated areas around Casma lasted the first five kilometers. Not quite sure what these trees are but part of an orchard in the area.

After this the road headed up the hill and into desert areas where I’m not sure I saw a blade of green grass for another 70 kilometers. There were some longer more gradual climbs. Fortunately, not much wind until the last 25 kilometers.

Even growing cactus in this desert requires extra water.

A few of these simple residences along the way.

This guy was busy painting the inside shell of a restaurant, pretty much in middle of nowhere.

Looked like a pretty bad accident not extremely long ago. The cab for the truck was a little ways ahead. Accident victims were gone, but vehicles were still in the roadway and police were in the area.

I saw this sign and wondered, “what flora?” since it was barren again.

However, I did see some areas where these brown plants below are flora, so it wasn’t completely barren.

At 30 kilometers I came on this oasis restaurant known as “La Gramita”. There was friendly woman here who perked up when she saw my bicycle.

She brought out the journal book filled with short tributes from other cyclists and long distance travelers who had stopped by. On this page was one from someone from Iran. On other pages were French and other travelers. I added my short notation as well.

Also on the table was a coke and some oreos that I ordered as a snack. It was too early for more of a meal and I also wanted not to stay too long since I expected winds later. She would not take my money, but that 10 sole note (~$3) was my payment. Eventually I did leave behind a payment.

One wall was filled with framed pictures and accounts of other travelers who had stopped in here.

I was particularly enamored by this section from Karl Bushby from his walking north up South America.

Overall it was a great little place with very friendly folks. It would have been nice to have stayed a bit longer, though I was definitely trying to keep making progress today.

After this another thirty kilometers so slowly winding my way between and then over some of the lower coastal hills. Eventually the last twenty kilometers came more along the coast.

A distance sign from nearby toll booth.

The coast was now visible on the right. Unfortunately this also coincided with more winds.

One of the last little hills and then down into Huarmey.

Town square with church and municipal building. Had a late lunch and then wandered around some looking for grocery items to prepare for tomorrow. Overall, a nice ride through dry desert areas and particularly intrigued to come across La Gramita.

One milestone is I passed just south of the 10 degree of latitude line. In southern hemisphere it is almost winter and days are now eleven and a half hours long.

Today I cycled with hitchhikers. Not intentionally of course. However, the hotel last night seemed to be infested with crickets. When I arrived at my hotel this afternoon, one hopped out of my bag when I went to fetch my passport. Another later hopped out of a different pannier. Hopefully fewer crickets here, other than the ones I might have introduced.

The first five kilometers from Chao were still agricultural fields. Not sure if this is hops or some other crop.

Occasionally I will pass what look like large institutional farms. There are signs warning of trucks, for the produce and buses for the workers.

Help eradicate fruit flies. Hopefully I didn’t bring any along today…

Soon enough I was off to the desert and a gradual 300m (1000ft) climb. These blue signs are used to mark archaeological sites. I’m always surprised when they show up in very harsh looking areas, since I assume those places wouldn’t necessarily been a lot more hospitable in the time past.

This was last part of the climb to the summit. It stayed around 18C (64F) all day with overcast skies. The Humboldt Current flows north along the coast bringing cool temperatures so this is normal for this area. I am only at 9 degrees south latitude, but surprising contrast with the much hotter temperatures along the coast at 9 degrees north latitude in Costa Rica and Panama.

Coming down the other side, completely dry region. After this point, the wind picked up some so had a headwind the last half of the ride.

Down in the flats there were these greenhouses off in the distance.

Eventually crossed and came to some small towns again. I believe “Keiko” refers to Keiko Fujimori who is daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. She ran for President herself in 2011 and 2016 and lost in close runoff both times. The Keiko signs still are there including on hillside above this town.

As I wound myself around the hill, I was trying to figure how the road got around the hill. Eventually answer appeared, it went underneath instead. This tunnel had dim lights but still not the most pleasant riding.

After this came into outskirts of Chimbote. Not sure why those dogs are up on the roof but they were there and barking up a storm.

Last few streets became crowded, but found nice hotel downtown.

Local group having marching practice.

Boats out on the harbor.

Chimbote is larger town right on the ocean. Nice spot right downtown. Hope I didn’t bring too many crickets here.

Today I cycled across Paijan, a town with particularly nasty reputation for bicycle robberies. Took some precautions, though no issues seen at all. Will continue to be cautious from here on including some upcoming hot spots, but nice to get past Paijan.

What is the problem with Paijan?

Prior to this trip, I read multiple books and blogs and kept note of potential safety areas and other danger zones. By far, Paijan bubbled to the top as a town notorious for cycle tourists getting robbed. Most of these events occurred between 2006 and 2014. There was one account that might have been 2016, though it wasn’t clear. The general pattern was that cycle tourists would come into Paijan and on their way out would be followed by a moto-taxi or two and the robbers would try knocking person off the bike, dragging them into sugar cane and then robbing their belongings. Not a pleasant prospect and something that seemed to get discussed on cycle forums as well.

So what did other cycle tourists do as word spread about Paijan?

• Some avoided the area by riding through the mountains rather than the coastal plain
• Some took a bus across the area, perhaps also skipping more of the northern desert areas
• Some rode in larger groups and didn’t seem to have a problem
• Some stopped and asked the police to escort them through town and onto the next town
• Some rode through without any special precautions and were just fine

It was a bit random and I couldn’t find much in way of accounts newer than 2014, so not sure if problem has diminished or just a lot fewer cyclists coming through.

I looked at what others had done and written and decided I would arrive in Paijan as early as I could and then when I found police, strike up conversation and ask for an escort if necessary. I also stashed away my camera until after Paijan, so photo above from my cell phone was only one I have before reaching the town (though a lot of it looked like the photo).

The first forty kilometers looked a lot like the photo above. After San Pedro, I quickly came into dry bleak desert areas. There was some head wind, though nothing too bad yet. Also some areas with drifting sand dunes across the road.

I reached edges of Paijan around 9:30am. Sun was shining and it pretty much looked like any other little town I had seen. I did pass three parked police cars but didn’t see anyone so kept going since figured there would be police station later. There wasn’t a lot of activity in the center and before I knew it I was already on my way outbound. I never quite saw the police station and quickly reached edges with sugar cane fields. There were some workers and road construction and before I knew it I had gone 60 kilometers and was in Chocope, the next town past Paijan. All nice, calm and anti-climatic from all I had read before, however I am also not complaining.

Youtube video of cycling through Paijan

Here was what road looked like leaving Chocope once I pulled my camera back out again.

This sign told us that Trujillo was capital of the “Eternal Spring”. When I entered Guatemala, it claimed to be the land of eternal spring so does this make Trujillo the capital of Guatemala?

This next stretch of road was tougher, partially because it had a gentle climb but more significantly because the head wind had picked up.

At 88 kilometers the road split into a bypass and one that led to the center. There was a small hotel here, though I figured I would ride into the center.

Coming closer, there was a nice frontage road that wasn’t being used much. I made great progress while a lot more of the traffic stayed in the center lanes.

Without too much trouble, found myself into center of town and a reasonable hotel. I could tell right away that center had a lot more tourists. Heard English being spoken more and multiple establishments for tours.

I do think these folks playing the lottery were locals.

There was a nice little shopping street off this main square.

Hotel got fancy with folding the towels to create this little piglet.

Overall Trujillo has nearly a million people, but was surprisingly easy to ride in from the north. Nice to wander around the center and now pick the next sections headed towards Lima.