Category Archives: Peru

Chepen

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Across a larger city today and then along dry desert areas.

I started 12 kilometers from center of Chiclayo, a city of half a million. An easier ride than it would be for equivalent-sized US city though it still took some care. Initially went through a zone that looked a lot like above, with a bunch of factories and industrial type places. There were small cars and taxi buses that would periodically pull to the right and let someone on or off. Also quite a few trucks.

The trucks stayed on the bypass and I continued straight through middle of the city. After the church I turned right and headed back outbound.

Here was picture of entrance sign looking back at 16km. I didn’t see the most inviting parts of town, though sure if I found place in center and wandered around it would be nicer.

There are a little over three Sol per dollar so these advertised prices are slightly less than $15,000 US. Not sure what one gets for that amount.

This area was still agricultural as can be seen by the small truck filled with sugar cane.

However, a little past 25km the irrigation ended and towns looked a lot drier.

Picture of the highway looking ahead, with of course a Pepsi sign.

A fair amount of trash along the road and then in the distance not much at all. A lot of this area had signs for a military region.

A larger trash heap with areas being burned. The flags show the wind was picking up some. Mostly a cross wind and never was bad today.

They were widening the road to four lanes. The new lanes, to the right, weren’t quite open yet but were smooth and looked nice.

Another road sign, this time with coca-cola.

As I got to edges of this dry area, there was a zone of sand dunes. Several dunes can be seen behind. A little further behind was another irrigated area again.

This farmer working part of his corn field in the irrigated area.

Came across smaller town of Ucape (or Mucape, the signs in town said “Ucape” but I my maps and what I heard people say included “Mucape”). At far edge was a reasonable restaurant. Several trucks parked in front indicated they were doing good business. I had a more standard fare: chicken, rice and some salad along with an Inca Cola. Rather than Pepsi or Coca-Cola, the Inca Cola seems to be a local brand that is more commonly found here.

In Colorado, there is an area in Summit County known as “Peru Creek”. Here in Peru, they have a “Colorado Mountain”. It was too hazy to see much of a peak and it pointed towards the ocean side, so likely not a very big hill.

The last little bits coming into town of Chepen. Chepen bills itself as the “Pearle del Norte” and otherwise was nice little town. Overall not too tough of a ride and varied scenery between busy city traffic, desolate desert and irrigated farm areas as I’m slowly going down the coast of Peru.

Lambayeque

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Today a lot of cycling on a flat but bumpy road.

Left Olmos and passed under the arch. I found it a reasonable little town with a lot of market areas. The first 8km was a steady uphill climb and after that most rest of the day was a very small downhill grade.

These folks were using the river as a car wash.

This photo of the houses shows how common these moto-taxis are. I see some cars and trucks but a lot of local traffic is a variation of the moto taxi.

At 27km was nice-looking little town of Motupe. Too early for lunch but stopped for a quick rest.

Good example of the road today. Pretty much flat without hills to climb over. As the day went on, the surface of the road started to get more bumpy.

Saw corn again. Also see these vines that look like some variation of melon or squash. I found the area surprisingly lush given that I expect the desert to be not far from here.

Jayanca got my nomination for “worst town streets” so far. The road became very rough with pot holes and broken pavement, eventually just becoming rutted dirt. Perhaps to keep the dust down, but they then poured water on this leading to occasional mud puddles. It was rough enough that I walked a short stretch in town. On the other end, found a reasonable restaurant and had lunch.

Corn was out to dry here.

Tucume had runner up for “worst town streets”. The pavement first became narrow and then again a lot of these little ridges and bumps. Unlike Jayanca, they had not poured water on top. There were two large trucks following me and they were going so slow that when I walked a section of town, they were still going at the same pace. Eventually got to other end of town with pavement again. However, by now the pavement seemed to also have a fair amount of bumps as well. I was happy to reach the Pan American at end of the day and be back on smoother riding again.

Saw signs in Tucume for “pyramids”. Apparently, still some archaeological sites that are not fully excavated but one can see the rough pyramid outlines in a few hills.

Just before the junction to Lambayeque. This is bit more touristy town with a number of hotels. Also have rejoined the Pan-American that came directly across the desert from Piura. Overall, except for some poor bumpy roads today, I would recommend taking my alternate route. Not sure on crossing the desert but accounts I’ve read make it seem like a long windy haul without services – in contrast I kept passing little towns along the way.

Olmos

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Two days cycling along the edges of the Sechura Desert. So far I like the “old Pan-American” road as not much wind and a number of settlements.
Day One

Left Piura and crossed river in city, largest water I would see for a while. My route brought me due east to start and had a cross-wind from the south. I expect if I’d gone the direct route south, that I would have started with that headwind.

Real estate developers seem to be similar around the world. Look at the smiling family next to the nice green lots and streets. Right next to the sign is the arid region that this is being developed and somehow doesn’t look as inviting.

Moderate amount of traffic as we came past some small settlements. This guy on horseback was working to guide some cattle along the way.

Road even had a bicycle sign. I also see some local cyclists in this area. Mostly riding from village to village as transportation as opposed to those riding for sport, e.g. more of those in Colombia.

At 49km was a gas station as well as this restaurant. It was early for lunch, but had it anyways here since I wasn’t 100% certain where I might see restaurants.

The road was starting to get quieter and livestock was more willing to walk along the road. For the first half hour of each hour, I tried keeping a count of how many vehicles came the other direction. These counts were as follows:

  • 7am; too many to count, I rode through Piura
  • 8am; 68
  • 9am; 44
  • 10am; 29
  • 11am; 32 after my lunch
  • Noon; 4
  • 1pm; 5

I was still on the road after 1pm, but clearly not as interesting to count anymore.

This is the road intersection I passed shortly before noon. Most traffic came from the left and I went right.

Long somewhat straight road for a while.

At 82km, I stopped to check my maps. When I went to go, the rear tire was completely flat. Sigh, the patch had failed again near the tire boot. I patched the tube and then swapped in another tube. Had it all pumped up and started putting things back on the bike when it was soft again.

Rather frustrating. Decided to completely swap in a new tube and tire. I had been hoping to keep this tire along until at least Lima since I have only one more spare tire. However, too frustrating and also was going through my spare tubes as well.

By now it was hot and spent a fair amount of time getting things fixed up. Cycled until the next town El Virrey just past the 100km mark. There was a restaurant here and I asked if it would be OK to set up my tent in next door park. This was fine.

Carlos (age 8) and Antony (age 10) showed me where to get in the gate and watched as I set up my tent. They kept company asking a bunch of questions until that got too boring. They came past with some other friends for a while as well. Later in evening, I had dinner in the restaurant.
Day Two
Shorter ride today and mostly flat as I came to larger village of Olmos. I noticed several churches and after a bit decided to take some photographs. Missed a few but…still surprising how many of these little churches in ~50km of todays route.

Here is church #1, interesting to see things growing on top of it.

At 15km was a police station in Naupe. One of the other blogs had mentioned staying in the police station here. From looks of things, I was happy I was in the park. Getting to Naupe was a 150m hill with a few steep bits to climb over. After this it was much flatter.

This past March, northwestern Peru had a lot of flooding problems. The area is normally a semi-desert but during El Nino can suddenly get a huge amount more rain. Not 100% but my guess is that dry riverbed was a wide raging river and happened to also wash out this part of the road.

Church #2, I missed taking a photo of another one before this as well.

Church #3, was back in a field.

Church #4, also back in a field.

Another section of washed out road.

Church #5

Church #6

Church #7

Church #8

Church #9

Church #10

Church #11

Church #12

Church #13

These horses weren’t in much hurry to get off the road.

A more typical house that I saw along this stretch of road.

Church #14

This guy was painting the road markers. This time counting down to Chiclayo at 100 kilometers.

Church #15, overall I missed a few but this was many small churches in just a ~50km stretch.

Main street Olmos. Interestingly, there wasn’t a church on the main square in this town.

Several market streets and more fish here as well as fruits and vegetables.

Mural warning about mosquito-borne diseases.

Otherwise a relaxing afternoon. Past mornings have been overcast and cloudy. It burns off mid-day and then becomes warmer. Also spent some time having the hotel reboot their router, still tough to explain in Spanish when I see these diagnosis.

Piura

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Easy ride today on flat roads.

Slept in for an extra hour since I knew the distance wouldn’t be long. Discovered my rear tire had gone flat overnight. There had been a second small hole around the tire boot that I had missed. So fixed that flat and also fixed the flat inner tube from yesterday morning. All in all, left about an hour and half later than normal. The wind did start to blow later in morning, but still not very much.

Once I got through town of Sullana, the major road was four lanes. These “Plaza Vea” shops seem similar to a Super Walmart in US, with both groceries as well as general department store items. Each town, I often have to look around to figure out where I might find grocery store and Plaza Vea has been a good bet.

Good example of the four lane road as well as minimal vegetation along the way. Today was also pretty flat.

Occasionally these trucks will have mural on back, often a religious version but sometimes other paintings as well.

This is the third toll booth I’ve crossed in Peru and the first one that was collecting money. Bicycles and motorcycles are free here and there was small separate lane that I could cycle through.

Kilometer post says 1005, which I believe is distance on Pan-American Highway to Lima.

There road into Piura was occasionally rough but traffic was reasonable. Here was statue in main square. I found a hotel not far from here.

Part of the church in the main square.

South of Piura there is a choice of roads. The new Pan-American Highway goes straight across the desert for ~215km. There is not much of any restaurant, store or anything in the first ~170km of this route and headwinds can pick up. The old Pan-American highway goes further inland and is ~60km longer. It is still sparse but there is an occasional village and even a town with a hostal. Still headwinds and occasionally hot temperatures on this route as well. After reading a number of the journals on these routes, expect I will try the slightly longer route as it had a bit more in terms of villages later on, though do expect to camp somewhere in the desert the first night.

Sullana

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Today was tougher than average.

I was up early and on the road before sunrise. My hope was to get some distance before the wind picked up. However, it was already blowing when I started and really didn’t let up or get stronger all morning. I slowly climbed the hill and cycled back to the junction. It was mostly cross-wind here but after the junction it looked like 50km of directly into the wind.

My front tire felt squishy. Stopped and fixed a flat. Looks like I ran over a thumb tack. Cycled down the road and front tire was squishy again. Sigh, not sure what happened, but stopped this time next to a wind farm and replaced the tube. After that, the front tire held.

Sign tells us to not leave rocks in the road. I say that goes for thumb tacks as well.

This first section looked pretty bleak, here was a typical house I saw along the way.

Here was a another house. Some of them were inhabited because I could see chickens around as well as sometimes dogs coming out to bark at me. The headwind continued here and I was riding perhaps 12km into the wind, hoping the wind didn’t strengthen and calculating that at 60km mark the road would make slight turn away from directly in the wind.

Somehow around 40km I crossed one or two little hills and surprisingly the wind also started to become less. Hooray! This next stretch started to have some irrigated fields and even saw sugar cane in one of them.

At 58km was the promised turn and just thereafter a small hamlet of San Pedro. I stopped here for lunch.

There are many of these “moto-taxis” here in Peru. Not quite like the three wheelers in India, but similar. Seem to be built around a motorcycle with back wheel replaced. This collection was picking children up from school just as it let out.

After San Pedro the road became really rough for a while. I also then noticed my rear tire going squishy. Stopped and fixed this flat as well. Not quite sure what caused it, but I had put in a boot after a flat in Ambato, Ecuador since there was a hole that went all the way through the tire. The problem here wasn’t at this hole but along edge of the boot. I patched this one as well and held for rest of the day.

More crops along the way. After this stopped to check out a hotel at the 80km mark. It had neither wifi nor hot water so decided to cycle just a bit further and into middle of Sullana. Busy town and my room faces the street. Can hear a lot of honking and other street noise, but nice to be right among stores and restaurants. Tomorrow plan is a shorter day to Piura.

Talara

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Early to bed and early to rise. In Colombia, I started with early departures as a way of beating the afternoon heat. In Ecuador, the mornings had less chance of rain. In Peru, it will be the wind that picks up in the afternoon.

It was cloudy and overcast when I left and stayed this way much of the morning. It never got much over 30C (86F) in afternoon so this was also a bonus. Fishing ships moored offshore in Macala.

Climbed over a low hill and followed the coast to next village of Los Organos. Today had fewer villages and also a lot fewer tourist type hotels along the coast. After Los Organos at 13km, the route also went more inland.

This was just before the largest hill of the day, climbing almost 300m (1000ft) in a six kilometer stretch.

Halfway up one could still see one of the smaller coastal settlements. This one was advertising whale trips between July and October.

Flatter near the top without much vegetation. The wind also slowly started to pick up here. A diagonal cross-wind that was more head wind than tail wind.

A number of these small pumper oil wells in the area.

Sign suggests they’ve been pumping oil here since 1952.

Good example of a small settlement near the top: an oil truck, a simple church and a closed restaurant.

A pipeline to right of the road and wind turbines higher up on the hill.

Another view of those wind turbines, they were definitely producing power when I cycled past.

At 72 kilometers there was a road junction and turnoff. Just over 8km away was town of Talara. Talara seems to be an air force town with the road going around a large runway and several airplane mock-ups at road intersections. I cycled down to the coast and found reasonable hotel here. Tomorrow will need to ride back up the hill and to the road junction, but still nicer to stay in a hotel than to camp at the road junction.

Early to bed again tonight.

Mancora

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A mostly flat ride along the coast. This area is fairly dry with several small resort towns. My destination of Mancora is known as a place for surfers to congregate. Signs were now already giving me distances to Lima (my assumed distance is slightly longer since I may not take the most direct route).

A new country means trying to figure out the gas prices. As best I can tell, amounts are measured in gallons and are slightly over $3 US per gallon, so higher than the subsidized prices in Ecuador.

The area had some agriculture, but was mostly dry and primary industry seemed to be tourism more than anything else.

Photo shows it is already drier here than Ecuador.

Found it interesting that the sign was in English.

Zorritos was a nice small town at about the 28km mark. Not sure what those animals are on the sign.

Also here were evacuation signs for Tsunami warnings.

Boats and a pier in one of the places we came along the water.

A mermaid monument.

The town of Acapulco was one of these small places I crossed.

Next town was advertising for a triathlon to be held in September.

Looked at stopping in Canosas for lunch but was mostly through the town before I found an inviting place.

There was an agricultural inspection station and then the road went more inland.

By mid-afternoon I was in Mancora. Found a reasonable hotel and got lunch as well as groceries for next day. Saw a number of tourists walking around that didn’t appear to be from Peru.

Tumbes, Peru

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So long Ecuador, hello Peru! An easy border crossing today as I am slowly heading for drier areas.
It was already 21C (70F) and slightly humid when I left. Just a few days ago, that could have been the high temperature for the day. Fortunately, it didn’t get extremely warm today. It was also a very flat day of cycling, less uphill than any riding day since I started in South America. Airplane above was at junction of road from Santa Rosa to the main highway heading to the border.

Santa Rosa averages 19 inches (49cm) of rain a year and Tumbes only 12 inches (31cm) a year, so I am already heading to drier regions. Photo above was on the Ecuador side not long before the border. The road crosses through an ecological preserve and photo shows vegetation.

Also some large snails on the road.

A small church on the way.

Diesel gasoline has two prices, a normal price ($1.04/gallon) and international price ($3.51/gallon), showing it is subsidized here in Ecuador. Will need to see corresponding prices in Peru.

The border itself was in middle of a no-mans land. There are signs thanking you for visiting Ecuador and welcome signs for Peru, but otherwise not much for 2km on each side of this. I actually stopped briefly on the Ecuador side immigration office on other side of the road to make sure I didn’t need to do anything special to check out. Nope, one can check out of Ecuador and into Peru at the same building.

Official border sign. I believe the EU helped in building the road and hence this is why the EU flag is there along with Ecuador and Peru.

Welcome to Peru!

Here was the sign at the customs building.

This was as smooth a crossing as any I’ve had so far. I went into one building and first went to a line that said “Salida Ecuador”. They looked at my passport and stamped it. Next, I went one line over to the “Entrada Peru”. The woman handed me an immigration form that I completed. I came back to the line and had indicated that I might want to stay up to three months in Peru (I expect to cycle across quicker than that, but better to have enough time than to get caught). She stamped my passport and gave me a 180 day visa. After that I was done.

The only downside is I didn’t see any money changers at the border to change some dollars into Peruvian sol.

Here was vegetation on the Peruvian side of the border. The shoulder wasn’t great and disappeared not long after this. However, traffic was still fine so not a big deal.

Without too much trouble, found myself in Tumbes and a reasonable hotel. They do appear to be more expensive here than Ecuador. I then walked around. First to an ATM. It unfortunately only gave larger bills. Next to a restaurant that told me they would be able to take a larger bill. I had a good plate of rice and a not so good piece of meat with it. The entrepreneur didn’t quite give me all my change back, I think he said something like, “an extra tip” in Spanish, but still didn’t quite feel right.

One side of the plaza has this bandstand.

Another side has a church.

Not far away.

Otherwise walked a little around town. Wasn’t able to find a larger supermarket type store, but was able to get things separately at a fruit stand, a bakery and a small mini-mart. I did have someone suggest I put my camera away as it might not be safe. Otherwise, a warm afternoon as I slowly get me “Peru legs” under me.