Chan Chan
Just a bit a food for thought:
If we have travelled over 20,000 km at an average speed of 20km/hr, how many hours/days have our bums been glued to our bike seats?
a) 1000 hrs
b) about 40 days
c) far to long
d) all of the above
How many different Salvation Army sites have we volunteered at?
a) 29 b) 3 c) 18 d) 63
Buen Provecho! We eat about 250g of porridgel for breakfast almost every day. How many kilograms of porridge have we consumed during the course of our trip so far?
a) no idea, i don't have a calculator
b) oh gees, maths is not my strong subject
c) about the weight of a photocopier
d) about 100kgs
Cycling to Pacasmayo was bleak and barren and ordinarily we would have used our rocket boosters and flown through, but the afternoon head winds thwarted our plans. It did make us appreciate the mountain scenery that much more though. This was also our first real introduction to the fast and aggressive drivers in Peru. They don't want to stop for nothing and drive you to near insanity with their incessant beeping. Beeping for Peruvians has a smorgasboard of functions; to indicate that they are a bus/taxi and want to pick up customers, to say hi, to be used instead of braking and signalling, for going around corners and through tunnels, overtaking, get out of my way, to scare the crap out of cyclists and just because they can.
Our night in Pacasmayo couldn't have been more relaxing as we were in the company of Warmshower host, Jose Luis and his family. We weren't allowed to help with any of the fun stuff like doing dishes and setting the table. We also didn't go hungry and ate like a King and Queen thanks to Brenda's (Jose Luis's wife) hearty meals she skillfully prepared. This town also has a great surf beach and was our first time seeing the ocean in South America.
The stretch of highway between Pacasmayo and Trujillo had been on our minds for many weeks. We have been told numerous times by locals and cyclists that the area around Paijan is extremely dangerous. There is a group that seem to target touring cyclists and we have heard of at least seven accounts of theft at knife and gun point this year alone. We made the decision to bus it to Trujillo which was 100kms away and Jose Luis helped with the arrangements. This decision was bang on as two days later we met two brothers (also cycling from Alaska) that passed through Paijan and almost got robbed. If it wasn't for their quick thinking and skillful maneuvering they could have lost everything. You can read their accounts on their website at:
http://pebblepedalers.com/pedalers
This brings us to Trujillo and the world famous (in the cycle touring world) Casa de Ciclistas del Peru. This free hostel for cycle tourists has been open to all since 1985 and is managed by Lucho, who has bikes coming out of his pores. We got sucked into the vortex and stayed a total of five days after planning to be there for three. Reading the guestbooks from the other 1360 cyclists that had passed through there was fascinating, as many of their thoughts, insights and experiences are similar to ours. We were number 1361 and 1362. Lucho was always on the go and often you could hear him tinkering around in his workshop at all hours of the night. He is a wanted man so this was the best time for him to work solidly. We really appreciated him working on Big Bird but couldn't believe his discovery of both front and rear rims being cracked. Number four and five! Once again we have bought a second hand wheel for the front while we wait for two new rims to arrive in Cusco, a city further down the line. Another aspect that makes this place so special is the opportunity to meet other cyclists. We bumped into Byron again (see last blog); two Colombians, two Argentinians and one Spaniard (all going North); and Seth and Parker (the fishing brothers who in the next blog you will learn much more about as we are currently cycling together...yay!). Lucho's place is like "Marching of the Penguins" as many cyclists accumulate and wait for one cyclist to initiate a leaving date and then the rest seem to follow suit. Lucho's wife, Aracelly is also famous in her own right as an accomplished baker. We got to taste some of her renowned chocolate cake and "three milk" cake.... oh so good!
While on the topic of food, the area around Casa del Cyclistas was a cyclists heaven with street food vendors and a fresh food market half a stones throw away. You could literally eat yourself down the street with hamburgers, plantain chips, all sorts of fried sweet pasry goodness, tamales, fresh juices and not to forget SUBLIMES! In between sampling Trujillo's vast menu we in fact found time to volunteer! You can click here to see what we got up to.
Through The Salvation Army we met David Navarro (no, not the singer) who is originally from Peru but also has Canadian citizenship. We are glad to have made a new friend and are incredibly grateful for his time and computer knowledge to help rid our many USB bugs. Resolving this was a huge weight off our mind as our photos are very precious to us. But it's not all about chores! We also enjoyed an afternoon with David visiting the "largest mud city in the world"! Chan Chan is a archaeological site that is still being uncovered and restored to this day. It was built by the Chimu people that were eventually conquered by the Incas. It was literally a maze of mud walls with some neat carvings that supposedly were once painted. At one of the sites they even had some ancient hairless Inca dogs that have a skin temperature of 40 degrees. No offense, but they were pretty darn ugly! Thank you to David for our unexpected time together.
Everything always seems to work out in the wash as if we had left when originally planned we wouldn't have fixed our gadgets, seen the ruins, made a new friend, tasted delicious cake, fix our tent zipper and meet other cyclists to cycle to Huaraz with.
Interesting point:
The photo you see of the dessert with shacks and a mountain backdrop illustrates a new community on the outskirts of Trujillo. Apparently, the land is free and you can move out there and as long as you can prove you live there. Then you can get the deed to the land; any takers?