On the beach, off the beach

In Lima we had been thinking about going to Huaraz, since there were some recommendations both from the internet and from people. But after some research we found out that the only activity around there were long hikes to see the mountains and snow. But since we had experienced our share of hight (Huaraz was on 4000m again) and were not very keen to hike such long distances to see mountains and snow (too many close encounters with them while crossing the mountains anyway) then we decided to skip it after all.

Packing up camp after our private-beach camping

Our first stop was an amazing beach that had no roads going towards it, but luckily the sand dunes were solid enough to ride on them. Have to stay that nestles between the cliffs, with young eagles practicing flying and only a couple of people the whole day, this was the best beach of this trip so far. The only downside was the wind that made it very difficult to make a bonfire (but we managed). 

The roads on the coast

We headed up the coast still to reach Trujillo (actually the neighbouring smaller Huanchaco). The last few hundred kilometers or so we had noticed that there must be a hole in one of the seals of our engine (losing oil and a new sound) but we decided to ignore that until Huanchaco, as there really were no decent-sized towns on the way. Plus there were many warnings about armed robberies in the area between Lima and Trujillo in iOverlander (which caused one very paranoid camping between sugarcane fields to keep away from beach, where tourists would be expected to camp) so we held our breaths to make it without completely breaking down before the town we wanted to reach.

The moment of complete breakdown came exactly the moment when we reached the center of Huanchaco. There we discovered again our bad timing of arriving in this town because the pope was coming for a visit in a week. In Peru, it is a huge deal: there are posters and paintings everywhere welcoming the pope, there are special TV programs on constantly - all about the preparations and expectations etc; since the day he arrived there seems to be an almost round-the-clock special program on the Tv about it and people are traveling from all ends if the country to see him. So since this little town expected three million people (population of the town 40,000) to visit, the hotel prices were through the ceiling.

We managed to negotiate a slightly better price for two nights saying that we won't stay for the pope anyway and we just need to fix our bike. Finding a mechanic, on the other hand, was much more challenging - after asking around from many people (you really can't take directions from only one person around here as they are rarely accurate or even correct) we finally found a... place.

A guy, who was supposedly a mechanic was building a restaurant for himself but promised to help us. There were no signs up about the place being a mechanics shop (because it wasn't) but since the bike had passed the point of starting, we had no other option but to leave Starcraft there to return at 4pm to pick it up. Of course when we got there at 4, the bike was missing the engine, petrol tank, seat and many things more. So we ended up staying there and helping the guy finish the work before dark.

 The guy did seem to know what he was doing, although we had to go to another mechanic in Trujillo the next day to change another leaking seal... Huancho didn't really have many options for motorbike parts so it just broke, but luckily it was a more easily-reachable seal than the big one from the previous day.

After Huanchaco we decided that the desert road didn't have that much to offer us, so we decided to make a small d-tour in the mountains (about a 1000km detour) so we headed towards Cajamarca. The road started out following a river towards the hills, with big patches of the road washed away, patches consisting of only gravel and occasionally the road being directly on(in?) the riverbed. Despite our expectations for the road to get better once we start climbing up, it soon became clear that the last patch of gravel was not planning to turn back into a paved road any time soon. The road was climbing up-up-up, the night was coming and there were absolutely no places off the road with a level place to pitch our tent and to top it all off, it started raining. Hadn't seen rain since leaving mountains the last time as it only rains around 4mm each year along most of the coast of Peru.

Luckily we found an abandoned house to hide us and our bike. We even met the neighbour - a very old grandpa was climbing up the muddy slopes beside the house and invited us over. We politely declined as there was no way of getting the bike up the hill, plus we were not up for the whole evening of deciphering an old version of Spanish mixed with Quechua to keep up the conversation.

The next day we continued the climb through the mountains and clouds and fog, and got some amazing views to make up for the the cold and occasional rains. And to our very pleasant surprise the road also became asphalt again. The villages on the way really didn't see "gringos" very often as was proven by the fact that when I walked into a store to buy bread, the lady could barely speak at first from the big surprise. The people in the small towns away from the gringo trail have rarely seen white people and are quite cheerful (a bit apprehensive at first but then they melt) . The more random the place we stop, the happier they are (Look, gringos sitting on a pile of dirt!) but oh, so sincere. Sometimes, when a cyclist (or motorcyclist) is almost twisting his head off to see us a bit longer, I wave to them so that they could turn their head back and wouldn't crash (but there have been many near-misses).

These are some nice clouds, not the horrible fog that we encountered later

Cajamarca has some cool archeological sites around it. We visited Cumbe Mayo, which is a very complex system of aqueducts (in perfect harmony with the nature) , built more than 3000 years ago by the Incas, making it the oldest one in the word. Plus they are still using it! Of course Incas always found the most amazing places for everything so the site was between some amazing hills and rock-formations and many rocks covered with old symbols and messages (undeciphered, slowly being washed away by the rain and time). We also visited a complex of 'windows' carved in rocks, also almost 3000 years old, which are believed to have been used for burial purposes. Both sights were certainly worth a visit and even despite the cold and rainy weather (it rains every day here because of the season) welcoming us in Cajamarca.

Incan aqueducts - over 3000 years old and still work

Whete the dead were buried

We escaped the rain and cold once more to head to the coast. This time we encountered the worst road-conditions so far as we were crossing a double-hill, both peaks about 3000 metres high. There were evidence that until recently it had still been a tarmac road, but the floods and landslides had done their job, so what was left was a 1-2lane track on muddy gravel. And just as we were climbing the second peak, we encountered fog like I have never before seen in my life. It was so thick that visibility was about 7m. My glasses were so foggy on both sides that I didn't see anything at all, no matter if I was wearing them or not. It was not exactly raining, but because the air was so wet, everything was still dripping with water. And at the worst moments, the road was covered also in a 10cm totally saturated layer of thick, semi-liquid mud (because of course noone will build any drainage on a temporary road. Why would you think ahead... a few rains and they will be lucky if they have half a lane of road left).

We still reached the coast alive and stopped for the first night in Lobitos  - a town popular with surfers, as I had heard, so we went to check it out, hoping it may be the place for a little longer beach-side rest-stop.

What we found was a tiny little town, with half of the houses abandoned, so half of it was a ghost-town. There were tens of oil pumps on the road to the town already, we found a few more right inside the town and when you looked out in the sea, there were oil platforms in any direction you looked. We actually found a nice place in one of the surf-camps but decided not to stay in this town any longer than one night, the reason mainly being, as always, food.

Nope. No food here

Of course there were only two small kiosks (in place of a shop) in town to buy rice and oil but for any other groceries you needed to go to the next town. So we decided to explore the three 'restaurants' on our side of town.

We walked into the first one (the menu outside had about eight different meals on it, all basically still being chicken or fish with rice, cooked a bit differently, some with the addition of potatoes), started discussing that it would be nice to find something more interesting (without rice) and started leaving.

Man (restaurant owner) : What do you wish do have?
Us: what else do you have, besides rice, chicken and fish?
Man: We have anything you want, just tell us and we will make it.
Us: and anything that isn't chicken or fish will cost more money?
Man: yes, of course. what do you want? we can make anything.

It all ended with us going to the next place (looked like an abandoned boat shed with a few plastic chairs and tables), that turned out not having any food, when we asked what they could offer us(why are you open then? ).

The next place also looked like an abandoned surf-shed, but had a menu on the wall promising burgers and pastas and all kinds of good stuff. The few stranded surfers that we finally found in the huge shed said that they have no food.

So we arrived back in the first place, greeted by the wife this time.

Us:What do you have with any vegetables in them?
Woman: Nothing - we have eggs, rice, potato, chicken and fish.
Us: Ok, we will have potatoes with chicken/fish and... you really don't have any vegetables?
Her: no
Us: onion, tomato... anything
Her: no. we don't eat these kind of things around here
us. Ok. we'll just have the potatoes and chicken and fish them
her: no rice?
us: no rice. (they never eat anything without rice around here. we have tried ordering pasta, but then you get 1/3 plate pasta and the rest is still rice)

In the end we did get our food and from somewhere they had also managed to find two slices of tomato for us. But of course we had to pay extra... didn't even ask if it was for the tomato or the lack of rice. Should be called whining-about-South-American-food-blog already. So I shall first let you know that not all is bad:

The more north we go, the more common and cheaper are fruits and fruit juices.
Chile had the best empanadas so far (Guanaceros with freshly baked seafood or mushroom-ham with cheese) and they often have on a table a kind of mixture of finely chopped onion, chili, tomato and something more. 

In Argentina was the best barbecue (Asado), chorizo and a sausage that was a mix of black pudding and Estonian blood sausage (they had that in Paraguay and somewhere else as well). Actually I can't really comment on the food of Chile and Argentina - eating out was so expensive that we always cooked for ourselves. 

Paraguay had also good barbecue and a kind of pay-by-weight eateries, where they had a wide choice of different options with plenty of different vegetables as well. And Erik is still dreaming about Lomito Arabica (the most tender meat in a wrap with nice creamy garlic sauce and salad)
Brazil had mouth-watering pao de queso (cheese buns), ácai (a sorbet of a kind of local fruit) and maracuya juice. We also encountered some all-you-cat eat buffets, that had some choice of veggies as well but not often enough. 

Bolivia - they say that Cocachamba has some good food. Don't know, didn't go. But sorry Bolivia... there really isn't anything good in the food (in the areas we traveled)
Peru - cheviche (raw fish with lime juice, chile, cilantro and onion), fish stew, lomo saltado (a stir-fry of beef pieces and onion, paprika), stuffed paprika etc.

Anyway, in search for a town with a bit more to offer, we got to Máncora - a beach town where you go to party. We stayed two nights in a camping with at least 60 other hippies (mostly south-american travelers), found our first eastern european (a Polish guy hitchhiking south all the way from Mexico) in the whole South-American trip (such a shame he left the next day. there was finally someone who was in the same situation like us - white skinned, but not as rich or western as all locals expect us to be) and pretty fast discovered that the beachfront filled with nightclubs, each one trying to blast a reggaeton song a bit louder than the next one (it was horrible and deafening just walking past in a distance ) , really isn't exactly what we had been looking for. Plus we like less crowded beaches with less trash.

Mancora camping life

We tried the next recommended town (by the internet), found nothing there and kept driving until the evening was close and we just had to stay somewhere. So now we have been resting for a couple of days at a little hospedaje, that didn't seem to be what we were looking for in the first place (not near any areas with any shops or restaurants or other tourists and located right next to the highway) but actually... we pay the same as for our room in Cusco but for that we get a private bathroom with toilet paper (that's a thing here, that's usually not included in the price), almost private balcony with a view of the sea, soap :D, internet, a fan and even one towel. And we can use their kitchen (the town is about 3km for groceries), they insist on washing our dishes and feed us with mangoes and coconuts for free. So we are having a hard time leaving.

Drinking Terere and getting ready to cross the border

There is one other thing that I have wanted to write about. Maybe it has come out in my previous writing as well, but what I find very strange is that everyone copies each other and nothing can ever be different than the neighbor . For example, we were driving in an area, where one person had at one point figured out that a lot of trucks pass the house and he has water so why not make money from it. The result was that on a 10km stretch of road there were 20 places that offered truck-washing service. At that point we were really hungry and would have appreciated a place to eat but unfortunately all the restaurants had been 20km ago where they had 15 of them right next to each other, offering exactly the same food. We have driven past whole towns where nobody sells anything else but lubricants (we were also looking for food) or anything else but baskets or anything else but watermelons or tin pots and pans (they don't even make them there... they just all copy each other). It is all very convenient as a buyer at a market (fifty shops selling tools next to each other) but it can't be good for a business. Who buys all the lubricants in your little town? Do you buy them from each other?

We now have two months to go (will probably reach Estonia at the beginning of April) and are thinking and talkung about it several times a day already.

 Things that I miss the most:

*Having a conversation with someone without these questions: Where are you from? (that is so far! yes. I had to walk five days more than the germans to get here) How long have you been traveling? Where are you going next? So Estonian is like Russian, right? etc. There have been too many of them already

*Going to an atm, pushing the right buttons and as a result, getting money out

*Being able to just walk into a grocery store to buy whatever food you want (it took us about 8 shops today to kind of get what we wanted... not everything.)

*Black bread, sour cream, kefir, kohuke, curry paste, coconut milk, rice noidles, tortilla wraps, different kinds of rice (basmati!!), rice noodles, good cheese, good coffee (and I don't even drink coffee), good chocolate, sült, good cheese, pastries with vegetables

*Not packing and unpacking all the time

*People that keep their promises

*Traffic that is not constantly trying to kill you (using blinkers, respecting other people enough not to stop suddenly in the middle of the street)

*No piles of garbage everywhere

*Not being considered a gringo

*Not hearing reggaeton and cumbia all the time (hearing free different songs right now from the surrounding houses)
*going somewhere with my life... maybe have an actual home and a career?
*not being asked a higher price because of my skin/hair
*Getting change back in stores faster than 2min (doesn't matter how big or small the bill, they never have change)
*people thinking ahead. Ok. You are still waiting to get the bread (you just opened your restaurant. you were just sitting there and doing nothing, why didn't you get the bread then?) but that doesn't mean that you couldn't bring us the drinks or prepare other parts of the meal
*people with a wish do be better. you see people doing things, that you know they have done a thousand times before but every time they are still eventing the wheel and have no memory whatsoever from the last time they dud it. no notes to themselves about what could be done better next time. no will to improve.
*a respect for the nature. If a child is going around the park and beating all the bushes and flowers to shreds with a stick and noone in the whole family even blinks then I think there is a problem in the society (so random example but I get these examples every day)

#peru #travel #travelperu #perutravel #bolivia #paraguay #brazil #chile #argentina #motorbiketrip #motorbikesouthamerica #southamerica #motorbiketravel #outdoors #dravelgram #food #sourhamericafood #panamericana #panam #travelling #travelphotography #dotheyevenhasdagblogger

In the land of Incas

After successfully entering Peru on the 20th of December, and having been suggested by the border guard to fake ourselves a document that we have actually bought our bike (as we do not have any actual proof that we did, as we never even saw the "owner") because we will not be able to leave the country without that document, we headed towards Cuzco. I was a bit afraid to get there right before Christmas because it is not just another town on the road.

There are many ruins also in Cuzco and right around it. One of the ways of reaching them is on a horse. 

Cuzco is the biggest city (400,000 people, elevation 3,400m) close to the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. And Machu Picchu, of course is probably the most famous sight that almost everyone who visits the continent feels like they can't do without. Because of that, Cuzco is literally the most touristic place you can go,  so especially around Christmas and New Year many people want to be right in that city. So the first idea was to drive through Cusco before Christmas, visit MP and be close to the coast by New Years.

But when we got there, then we actually found such a lovely hostel (nice owners, wifi, kitchen, space for motorbike, private room, good price. the only downside being that the water was always kind of lukewarm, which is not ideal in the crisp climate of the mountains) and we also made friends with some people we liked,  who were staying in the hostel for Christmas. So before we knew it, we were organising an Estonian-style Christmas dinner for most of the people in the hostel (there were only eleven in the whole hostel at that point).

Our Christmas dinner

Although there were some bumps on the way of making it - there was no oven for the pork roast, we accidentally bought sweet potato instead of the normal one for the mashed potatoes and I put the sauerkraut to marinate way too late,  the end-product was pretty good and our international crew of judges,  consisting of a British/Irish, an American, a Colombian, a Bolivian and an Ethiopian approved. The celebrations were quite long, especially because on the 24th they also have some fireworks at midnight and celebrations go on for a while.

An example of Incan stonework.

The next morning (after four hours of sleep) we headed towards Aguas Calientes, which is the small town that is directly besides the mountain on top of which lies Machu Picchu. Now, the tricky part is that there are no public roads going to Aguas Calientes. They like to make you believe that the only way is to no go by a (very scenic) train from Cuzco. That means 60 US dollars each way (on top of Machu Picchu itself also costing at least 50 dollars) which will add up to being quite a lot. And if you can not climb the 1,5km of stairs that take you 500m higher from the base of the mountain to the gates of Machu Picchu, you will pay an additional 12 dollars each way to go there from Aguas C. With these buses going up practically every 5 minutes... I really hope that all the money at least goes into making something better in Peru, not into some private hands. That is a lot. At high season there is a chance that you can't get into MP because they have already filled their daily limit, which is 2500 people a day (most of them using the 120 dollar train and the 24dollar bus)

There actually are other ways to go to Aguas C. as well. You can take one of the multi-day treks that takes you over mountains and through valleys,  but we didn't feel so sporty, so we took a 6-hour bus ride, that goes around all the mountains of MP (amazing views in the high mountains) to 'Hidroelectrica' , which is basically the closest spot that the public roads reach to Aguas Calientes (and Machu Picchu). From there you can follow the train tracks for 11km (walking) and voila... you have saved a lot of money (the bus to Hidroelectrica is 17 dollars for the return ticket).We could have gone to Hidroelectrica by motorbike as well but that would have meant leaving it in a quite random place for two days plus that would have been all days drive each way.

The walk on rails between Hidroelectrica and Aguas Calientes

Now, as we were climbing the stairs up, to finally see the world wonder, I was preparing myself for a disappointment. I had read many articles about it being kind of disappointing and people expected more and also people talking about it being unimpressive and whatnot. At what point in their lives did these people fall from a very high place directly on their head? What does it take to impress them?

First of all, the location - on three sides it has 500m of natural straight cliffs going down,  creating a natural fortress. On the fourth side it is a bit more easily reachable, but when it was built, probably still nearly impossible, as the current road for the buses is not something the Incas had. There are also two "inca trails" going up to the fortress  (built as a place for the Inka elite to escape when things got bad) - on one side, the 'trail' runs along the side of the same 400m drop cliff and has a 'bridge', consisting of hole in the path that can only be crossed using the two planks going over it,  that they could easily move if needed (making it impossible for anyone to enter their mountain fortress). The other path(s) leading in were also narrow and easily defendable. And of course the cliff-looking mountain that MP is on, is also surrounded by similar looking ones on the other side of Urubamba river which runs around the hill, which create amazing views. 

Secondly, thete is the city itself - you can see a lot of the famously good Incan stonemasonry, when huge chunks of rock have been cut to exactly sit on top of each other, so that there is virtually no gap (corners cut into stones etc). And they had built steps out of stone for the fields and systems to direct the rainwater exactly where they needed it. So everything was very well planned and thought through. You could look out of the windows of the Incans and see the same view that they did. Plus it offered scenic views being on hundreds of different levels with stairs connecting them.

One of the trails into Machu Picchu

And what is more amazing is that the Spanish colonisers never discovered the ruins while they were exploring the country and therefore didn't destroy them. Of course they were not in a perfect shape when the first whites "discovered it" (the locals of the area knew of its existence all the time), it was all abandoned and overgrown with the lush nature of the area (it rains a lot so the nature is very green), noone was living there except for one family (who had come quite recently) who were using some of the fields and buildings. It had almost become one with the nature before they restored it partly.

You can't see it ion the picture but there is actually a trail that goes along that cliff - one of the entrance roads to Machu Picchu

But I have to say that what is amazing,  is not only Machu Picchu by itself, but it is also what surrounds it. It is in an amazing place, between green and lush mountains and valleys which contain ruins (Incan and even pre-Incan) everywhere you look. Such rich ancient culture behind every corner.  Most of the other ruins are not very well-known unfortunately but there are said to be ruins just as impressive as Machu Picchu. The whole Incan kingdom area (stretching further than Peru's borders even) is a treasure chest of history, living in harmony with the nature, being build to blend in with the nature,  and unique craftmanship with places with such a strong energy that I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

When we visited MP, we did miss a bit on the views, as it was the rainy season and there were almost constant clouds and fog between and on  and around the mountains so we never saw the full 'postcard view' that you see when you see any picture of MP. And most of the time we didn't see the surrounding mountains or the ground. But it was still very much worth it. We went in and around twice, as there are some stupid systems, where they don't allow you to go back from some places - they have 'circuits' that you can take, but noone actually knows about them so you can easily discover that you have missed half of the whole thing (of course it happened to us as well) so we went in for the second time to see some more. On the second go, there were almost no people compared to the first time, so it was much more peaceful and magical plus there were chinchilla-like animals all over the ruins jumping around, who came out after most of the people had left. When you started looking around you could see tens of them in each direction minding their own business, in addition to the llamas and alpacas roaming around because lawnmowers would be quite inappropriate up there. 

After the excessive walking of MP for several days and a day of rest in Cuzco, we discovered that New Year's Eve was too close for leaving anyways. So we decided to stay in Cuzco, since we also had some old and new friends staying in the hostel for the celebrations.

Exploring the colorful hills around Cuzco with some new friends

On the 30th of December, our life took a sudden change and instead of living in a quiet and cozy hostel with just a few beds filled, it was suddenly full if people. Even our tv room had its floor covered in people on mattresses  by the actual 31st. The party was big in Cuzco, with streets full of people with yellow accessories (it is believed that wearing yellow underwear on the change of year brings you luck. but everything yellow goes nowadays) and loads of fireworks.

When the New Year's fireworks had faded (they actually never did completely) , we decided to head straight across the country towards the sea for a change of scenery. By that point we had been up in the mountains for almost two months and the last time that we saw sea had been in the middle of July (I think it must have been the longest time in my life without seeing sea) so we were eager to get some warm weather and fresh seafood. The seafood thing goes mostly about me. Erik,  being a former seafood hater, has had to suffer my seafood craziness going on since Copacabana, Bolivia. 

Of course we had to climb up to more than 4000m three times more (each time dropping down to 2000 in between) before we could get down from the hills. It was not just around the corner. At one point we had been driving at the hight of 4600m for almost an hour already, because we were on a sort of a plateau and getting occasional rain and hail; plus the wind is unstoppable on these high plateaus as well, so we were freezing, despite all the clothes we were wearing (snow on surrounding mountains). So we stopped the bike, climbed into a ditch by the road and pressed ourselves against the slightly warm concrete walls of the ditch just to warm up a little bit.

Trying to defreeze

But when we suddenly started going down from the ladt mountain,  the weather started going warmer with every kilometre and the air thicker, so it was actually a bit strange to breathe a first - there was just too much oxygen in the air . The nature also changed, as now we were surrounded by rocks and sand everywhere you looked. All the way since leaving the mountains, the only green sections have been around rivers (every inch used for fields) , as it almost never rains in this area because of the same current that brings the dry winds to Atacama desert. We never would have believed it but Starcraft actually took us all the way over the Andes. We had almost no hope in him when we first bought him (and everyone were telling us that it is impossible to cross the mountains with anything that small) but he is tougher than he looks and he did do it.

4600m meters from sea level - never thought that Starcraft would take us this high

Nazca was the first stop back in warmer climate. The place is known for shapes in the desert made by moving stones from one place to another just after year 0. The shapes are generally animals and insects and have lasted in the area for all this time thanks to not really having rain to shift the ground around. They tell you that you simply must take a plane ride to even grasp them and anything else is pointless. The truth is that the watchtower built between three of the pictures gives you a pretty good idea of what the other ones would as well (in other words, we were too cheap to do the plane thing) . But they are very difficult to notice from the ground level, which is also proven by the fact that they managed to build a road through one of the pictures before their existence was even discovered. They just didn't notice a huge shape of a lizard drawn on the ground.

One of Nazca lines

We also visited Paracas, which is a little town on the beach, with prices quite high and the whole town living on tourism. It was nice to chill over there for a couple of days but since I get tired of going to beach quite fast and Erik doesn't care for it at all, we continued up the coast towards Lima.

Paracas beach

The whole way up towards Lima was quite surreal. Everything was sand and dunes and small hills (virtually no trees or plants, except around the few rivers) . In some places there were villages in the middle of all this, made up from little huts that actually had people living in them, in some places, the fields were covered in small huts made of stone - maybe a maximum of two-three meters wide both ways. And the houses were empty of people with no facilities or anything. Don't get me wrong, we have seen similar failed attempts to re-locate in many more places and the failed ones are always at a ridiculous distance from any city or place of population (why even build these pointless houses there? ) . But these ones looked plain idiotic. Who would want to live on a field of sand, surrounded by only mountains of sand, far from anything? We also saw some areas of villas, that looked like white tumours on the side of the rock walls above the sea but the weirdest place we saw was where we spent the night.

Palpa lines - even older than Nazca lines (before Christ)

We had found a place on iOverlander (irreplaceable app when traveling by moto/car) that claimed there to be a safe and free place to camp on a beach in a town. When we turned off the highway some time before our camping beach, we were first greeted by hundreds of white houses in rows that all looked exactly the same. There were playgrounds and roads, all very nice and clearly made for richer kind of people, with guards on gates and flowers between houses. But I repeat again - all the houses looked like exact copies of each other and a small handful of people lived in the whole complex/town.  So it was basically an empty rich ghost town. 

Close by, there was another town that we stayed in. This town looked more like a real tourist town - white sanded beach and the streets made up of only hotels and restaurants. Rows and rows of restaurants and rows and rows of hotels but... there were no tourists. None. Noone to buy their overpriced foods,  noone to explore their streets especially built for tourists.

Lima

Now we have made it to Lima where we stayed for a couple of nights to make some big fixes for the bike. We even visited the beach but didn't go into the water because it was dark red/brown with orange/yellow foam. Can't see it on the picture because the blue sky reflecting on it makes it look blue. But tomorrow we will continue up north, away from Lima. The problem is that everything interesting is back up high in the mountains... I am trying to speak Erik out of going at the moment because I have missed warm weather so much. 

And we are still feeling tired all the time because of recieving so much new information every day and right now we are thinking more about resting than exploring. We'll try to find a balance

Lima beach. Can't really tell the color of the sea from this distance 

Compared to Bolivia, the life is a bit easier - we can buy fuel anywhere we want to, the food is a bit more varied (although they still eat everything with rice) and the people a bit more polite.

#travel #lima #peru #latinamerica #southamerica #travelsouthamerica #travelperu #perutravel #motorbiketravel #motorbiketrip #motorbikesouthamerica #cajamarca #cumbemayo #cumbemayocajamarca #travelblog #highaltitude #perumountains #huanchaco