Ok, so this is well out of date as we left Peru, moving into Ecuador, on the 22nd of May - but at least we've gotten around to it eventually. I'm going to cover the entire trip through Peru in this one post in order to get it done. That means it covers 32 days and a lot of kms, and as a result I can't bare to face writing about every day individually, just like I'm sure you couldn't bare to read it... I'll include distances and place names at the bottom of each section. I'm sure you'll thank me for my attempt at brevity as it's long enough as it is.
I'm writing this while hanging in a hammock on the deck of a slow boat down the Amazon to Manaus in Brazil, and it couldn't be more different than the month of tough cycling alluded to below! I've got a bit of a hangover from polishing off two bottles of Colombian rum last night (not alone, obviously...) while enduring a huge rainstorm on the boat. Still, mustn't grumble.
Anyway, on with the show. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Peru...
Isla del Sol/Copacabana, Bolivia, to Cuzco, Peru
Days 135 to 139, April 20th to 24th
Once back on dry land we were quickly over the border, doing the necessary documents etc, and into Peru without incident. Amazingly, things instantly became flat as a pancake - an incredible contrast to the previous month in Bolivia. This was expected, however, as we were on the banks of Lago Titicaca for the first couple of days and most lakes are flat, I'm told.
On our first morning in Peru we were delighted to have sheep's head soup for brekkie, down at the market. As Dave's and mine were served up it was amusing to hear Al beg Dave to ask the lady for no sheep's head in his! In a new take on playing with one's food, I was able to play a tune on it's teeth with my spoon. This day was full of bad drivers. One bus actually pulled in closer to Al and I as it roared past inches away, and the teenage hoon acting as a conductor actually opened the door, leant out and shouted some abuse at us! A short distance ahead, Dave was no better off, as a passenger in a lorry threw a load of water over him on it's way past. Welcome to Peru, fellas!
The next day in Juliata was only noted for a cheap chicken restaurant serving up such a mammoth plate that neither Dave nor I could finish it (following the amateur error of having 5 plates of salad from the free salad bar while waiting...). Beating the Middlemiss-Montgomery eating machine is not an easy task, and we both feel somewhat shameful of the incident.
Riding into Cuzco was another interesting experience as we exchanged abuse with the drivers of the multitude of 'colectivo' mini-buses who liked nothing better than cutting us up. It's become our MO for riding into larger towns and cities: ride together, ride fast, stop for nothing and give as much shit as possible! So far the beating sticks haven't had to be used, but they're always to hand if needed...
Day 135, Isla Del Sol to Juli (65km)
Day 136, Juli to Juliata (132km)
Day 137, Juliata to Ayavirà (102km)
Day 138, Ayavirà to Tinta (142km)
Day 139, Tinta to Cuzco (121km)
Cuzco
Days 140 to 143, April 28th
Cuzco's a nice, pretty city, it has to be said. But it's just so touristy and expensive it makes you sick. Everybody and everything in the entire city centre seem to be there purely for the purpose of grinding money out of the masses of gringos who constantly pour through. It's the base for trips to Machu Picchu and some other Inca sites and as a result it's just jammed full of tourists of all ages and budgets. Virtually everyone is trying to figure out how they can get to Machu Picchu without paying the exorbitant prices for buses, trains, organised tours, entry fees etc. We, having bikes, had it in our heads that we might cycle up there within a few hundred metres or so and walk the rest. In reality we just gave in, paid our money and joined the masses trying to be among the first people of the day to get there so the photos didn't include hundreds of Sepos* wearing raincoats and huge SLR cameras. Hold on, that was us, never mind the Sepos!
We visited some museums, seen some cool Incan stuff, and I finally took Dr Spark's advice and went to the pharmacist to sort my guts out after 5 weeks solid of, well, no solids... We found what could be the best restaurant in South America - Cicciolina's Bread and Breakfast. It was even more expensive than the rest of the muck we seen in town, but it really was worth it. If you're heading there, take note - just spend the extra money and don't bother with any of the other crap and you'll be constantly impressed.
There was an amusing incident involving me being fingerprinted while on a 'on a visit' to the police station, but it's probably best I don't reveal the details here... We managed to contact Delta Airlines and get our return flights changed back to their original date without charge, which was a huge relief. However, Delta are still proving a huge problem for us as we attempt to get a refund for their forcing us to move our return flights when we flew from Gatwick all those months ago. In short: DON'T FLY WITH DELTA AIRLINES and DON'T FLY VIA THE USA.
Actually getting to Machu Picchu is somewhat complicated as there are a few options, and a few factors which make it difficult. We decided to take a load of non-tourist buses to Pisaq, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo as it gave us the option of checking each place out, including he Inca ruins at the latter, and it was dirt cheap. Unfortunately once we were bored of the ruins we had to sit outside a cafe on the main square and be subjected to live local music for 3 and a half hours.
That may not sound so bad to you guys, but if you imagine listening to the same bouncy synthesised tune, with vocals switching between a young girl screeching in a high, monotone, out-of-tune voice and some twat talking or shouting about God-knows-what, you'll start to get the picture. Honestly, we know we should take in the wonderful diversity of culture we're experiencing on our trip, but this style of music, popular in Bolivia, Peru and to a lesser extent, Ecuador, is utter crap. It's been driving us mad and we simply can't understand how anyone can possibly like it. There is a name for the genre, but I don't dare remember it in case it triggers memories of the actual music in my dreams...
We caught the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes and stayed the night in a cheap hostal - not much point in paying a lot when you've got to be up at 4am to catch the bus. This place is "Machu Picchu village" and it can supposedly only be reached by train. We reckon the train company are making sure the authorities never finish off the road so they can continue to monopolise and charge ridiculous prices. The whole Machu Picchu experience is amazing, but you do leave it wondering if all the cash you've just spent is worth it for walking around a load of stone walls etc that could easily be many parts of Britain! That's just the stonework though - the location is absolutely stunning. We left mid-afternoon, with hundreds of photos, got the bus down to Aguas Calientes and jumped on the train all the way back to Cuzco. Virtually everyone gets off at the stop before and gets taxis to Cuzco as the train takes an age to make it's way up and over the mountain. It actually changes direction (i.e. forwards to backwards) many times as it zig zags it's way up and down the steep slopes, switching the tracks at each change in direction.
* Sepo - comical, uncomplimentary, rhyming slang for an American. American > Yank > Septic Tank > Sepo.
Cuzco to Nazca
Days 144 to 149, April 29th to May 4th
This section was to be our last in the Andes proper for some time, as we traversed them at their widest point and headed West towards the Pacific coast. There were numerous passes over 4000m in altitude and unfortunately there tended be be huge valleys in between to make the climbs much longer.
On the climb out of Cuzco we seen a postman being attacked by 3 huge dogs. He then picked up a huge rock, ran after them and hurled it at them, resulting in loud yelping. Postie fights back. A touch further on we came across a man having a shit by the side of the road, which was a nice touch. The day finished with a 25km downhill, which continued the next morning taking us down to about 1900m, leaving the small matter of a 2100m climb. As you can imagine, that size of climb takes virtually all day but it was rewarded with another huge downhill (30km, 2000m this time) into Abancay.
While looking for some early morning breakfast in Puquio, we were privileged to witness two men having a fight. The previous day was the town festival, so they were obviously just finishing their celebrations in style. It appears that the local way of fighting is to take one's belt off and whip your opponent and this was made all the more amusing when the young lad discovered why he wore a belt in the first place and his trousers fell down. The older guy took advantage by whipping him violently until a copper arrived to drag the young guy off to the cop shop with his trousers still around his ankles and a significant crowd watching. We doubt we'll see that again soon.
Our good friends Del and Susannah were getting married on this day in her native Slovakia, so Dave and I were frantically trying to find a phone to speak to Banty, the Best Man. We got our message across but all sounded very somber and we were left wondering what was going on. We later found out it was a very 'interesting' wedding, which is probably all I should say... Oh, and congratulations once again guys!
We climbed to the top of the last pass, at 4390m, did a good few kms of flat and started the 100km downhill all the way to Nazca (590m). At the top it was freezing but things soon warmed up as we descended. We were really struggling to get to Nazca before dark, and there was nothing in between, so we were going as fast as we could on the most potholed road in the world, carving up the sharp turns on this amazing downhill. We later found Al's front brake pads had fused to the cylinder with the heat! The scenery on the downhill was amazing - you could see for miles and miles, across the tops of several ranges of mountains and huge sand dunes, as the sun was setting in the distance. Oh, and we were given the thumbs up and a big smile by a guy shitting right on the verge of the road. They love a bit of shitting beside the road, around here...
Day 144, Cuzco to Limatambo (83km)
Day 145, Limatambo to Abancay (120km)
Day 146, Abancay to Chalhuanca (127km)
Day 147, Chalhuanca to unknown village... (58km)
Day 148, Unknown village to Puquio (137km)
Day 149, Puquio to Nazca (166km)
Nazca to Lima
Days 150 to 154, May 5th to May 9th
You may not have heard of the Nazca Lines, but they're well worth a look. They're huge (football pitch and bigger) figures drawn in the desert hundreds of years ago by the indigenous Nazca people. Many theories exist as to why, but most are ridiculous. The most believable, in our minds, is that they are depictions of the gods they worshipped and marked sites for ceremonies etc. You can't really see them from the ground, so we took a flight in a light aircraft over them, where our pilot, Jorge, pointed out each figure and did some minor acrobatics in an effort to make us sick. A touch expensive, but well worth it, we reckoned.
Ica had a bad rep: everyone told us not to go there or to be very careful if we did. We stormed into town and found that the hostal recommended in the Lonely Planet guidebook had been flattened. We decided to check into the flashiest hotel in town, mainly because they claimed an inclusive, all-you-can-eat breakfast. We also found a nice restaurant and had some decent wine, so our experience of the famed Ica was a somewhat middle class one! Still, a copper did recommend we move back to the main plaza in case we got mugged when we were trying to get out of town...
On the way to Cerro Azul we came across the ocean - which we hadn't seen in months. This whole section of the coast is all desert - the beach just continues on into the distance. Strangely it was very humid and misty, reducing vision and meaning we didn't see much of anything for days. San Bartolo is like a British seaside town and provided our last stop before heading into Lima, the biggest city on our trip.
Day 150, Nazca
Day 151, Nazca to Ica (156km)
Day 152, Ica to Cerro Azul (182km)
Day 153, Cerro Azul to San Bartolo (91km)
Day 154, San Bartolo to Lima (54km)
Lima
Days 155 to 157, May 10th to May 12th
We stayed in the uber-flash district of Miraflores, so didn't see much of the dangers that we'd heard about. We didn't do much sightseeing in Lima, mainly because everything we tried to go to see was shut for some reason.
We found Delta Airlines' office, which is the first one on our entire route so we were well prepared to read them the riot act about their treatment of us. Unfortunately the only person we could see was the receptionist so we made do with writing out a sharp letter, and had her type it up as we waited and fax it to their customer care departments in both London and Santiago.
We went to the central post office to pick up a parcel which had already been from Bristol to Mendoza, Argentina, back to Bristol, and hopefully to Lima. They're as hopeless as Royal Mail though so they were of no help and we accepted that we're not going to get these spare parts for our panniers until they are returned to Bristol once more and we pick them up in person! Thanks for all the effort though, Scowtie - we owe you big time.
Unfortunately my guts took another turn for the worse and I was feeling really bad. This was to prove very bad news for me as we cycled on through the desert...
Lima to Macara, Ecuador
Days 158 to 167, May 13th to May 22nd
Getting out of Lima was looking difficult - we basically had to go through the city centre which we'd been warned was very dangerous. The first spoke-breakage of the trip means we had to call into a bike shop to get it replaced on the way out of town, and the owner turned out to have just recently won the South American Mountain Biking event and been given the shop to run by Trek. He was a nice guy, didn't charge us anything for the work and advised us of a safer route out of town. His advice, or route, turned out to be a bit ropey, but we made it out safely thanks to an impromptu police motorcycle escort. Somehow I missed the spectacle of a naked madman running down the fast lane of a 4-lane motorway the wrong way...
We broke our daily distance record into Trujillo, hitting 196km. The next day we declared a rest day and while in a juice bar, a friendly old woman asked if I was Al's dad. I told her no, I was his brother and have just had a tough life.
On the way to Pacasmayo we were stopped by a couple of cops who told us the next 10km is known bandit country so we'd better ride fast! They radioed ahead to their colleagues on the far side and told them to look out for us. As predicted, we didn't even see anyone.
In Chiclayo I was feeling really bad and the shits had become a real issue. Leaving the hotel in search of a restaurant for dinner I fell down a manhole, which amused even me. By this stage I wasn't eating anything in an effort to sort my guts out, but with such long cycling days and no fat to burn I was really struggling for energy. Unfortunately the next day was a huge one across the desert to Piura, with nowhere to stop in between. Despite frequent shit stops for me, including one at a roadside cafe which had an outdoor toilet with a vulture sitting on the top of it, we made it to Piura as it was getting dark and we'd done a whopping 223km.
The next day entailed a trip to Clinica San Miguel for me, where the doc put me on a diet of soda crackers, rice and chicken for a week, along with some severe looking tablets. We'd only got about 40km to do this day to Sullana, so decided to watch the Champions League Final in a bar before leaving. Extra time and then penalties made us panic as it left us with less than two hours before dark, but it all proved worthwhile when the imminently likeable John Terry, of Chelsea, slipped and fell when taking his penalty which would have won the game for them. They went on to lose. Ha ha.
The next day seen a huge change in scenery as we were into the jungle and heading towards Macara on the Ecuadorian border. We crossed the border not only with no Ecuadorian currency, but with no idea what the actual currency was...
Day 158, Lima to Chancay (102km)
Day 159, Chancay to Barranca (121km)
Day 160, Barranca to Casma (187km)
Day 161, Casma to Trujillo (196km)
Day 162, a well earned rest day in Trujillo
Day 163, Trujillo to Pacasmayo (113km)
Day 164, Pacasmayo to Chiclayo (113km)
Day 165, Chiclayo to Piura (223km - yup, you read that correctly...)
Day 166, Piura to Sullana (42km)
Day 167, Sullana to Macara, Ecuador (137km)
Our thoughts on Peru
If we heard one more shout of "Gringo!" we may well have battered a Peruvian! They're very "in your face" compared to the much more polite, friendly and reserved Bolivians, Argentineans and Chileans we've met. That's a huge generalisation, of course, and we met many very friendly people who were very helpful. Ok, they don't have a clue what a kilometre is, much like the Bolivians, but once you know not to bother asking how far somewhere is, this becomes less of an annoyance!
Another annoyance is that the vast majority of Peruvians seem to be out to try to eke money from you. Everything costs money, and frequently we were asked to pay much more than the normal price just because we were tourists. A Dutch cycling couple, whom we met on a few occasions, even told us that once, when taking a picture of 2 flamingoes on the beach, some dude rocked up and asked them to pay him as the flamingoes were his! On the face of it, Peru seems to be quite cheap, but we found our money didn't go that far in reality.
We also felt much more "on edge" than we had done, and there seems to be some sort of macho pride in existence where everyone beams when they tell you that their town is the most dangerous in all of Peru!
Having said all that, we loved Peru. There's so much to see, the scenery is magnificent, and cycling through it was incredibly interesting. Would I go back? Yes, but it's not at the top of my list. There are a few things in Peru that you simply should not miss, such as Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, and there's enough to keep you busy for months of travelling around.
Col
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