Spent last night in a sleepy little coastal village at a Sheraton, not The Sheraton, no hot water was my first clue. Why this place? Simple it is the only lodging in town. The owner was great and invited me to dine with his family - later I cruised bike into town and the taxi boys (literally, this country is full of 3-wheeled mopeds called mototaxis) had a million questions, see foto.
Cruised south today making great time. The scenery goes from tropical jungle to arid ranges in about 2 hours then becomes rocky barren desert in just a few more. Unfortunately, when they don't burn their garbage they just take it to the desert and dump it - then the strong winds blow it forever - shredded black plastic bags clinging to everything that can eek out an existence is disheartening.
Pushed to get to this place with plenty of light - found a nice pseudo-hostel; the owner, an expat brit and his Peruvian wife, give archaeological tours of 8,000 year old sites surrounding the city - that's the plan for tomorrow (and I don't have any clean cloths so a layover is necessary).
Got the fotos of volcano hike but can't open them on phone - they'll keep.
Made it through a bunch of check-points today - I have a headlight modulator that flashes the lights from 30% to100% power every second - all the cops here think I know them and am flashing to get their attention - they hesitantly wave - I wave back and they continue the process by waving me through - I keep it on all the time - I know it gets attention on the highway, the entire trip everyone strobe flashes me - they see me coming, a good thing.
Peruvian bus drivers don't like to be passed - had them try to kill me on two occasions until I figured this out - as passing they intentionally pull into the passing lane cutting off advance and try to force you off the road at speed - accelerate hard is the rule. Then they only honk and wave their hand at you to try to distract you - almost as charming as Honduras throwing glass bottles at me from the back of trucks.
Doing some homework studying southern Peru where I want to spend a few days in the mountains.
Nick
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