03 December 2010

I used the ATM this morning to withdraw 500 solas and the machine wouldn’t complete the transaction so I withdrew 200 and then 300. For a while the landscape was all shanties and dunes and scraggly vegetation. This suddenly gave way to a flat expansive sandy nothingness. In all directions just sand and a watery mirage on the horizon. I was able to go 70 mph. What an exciting change of pace from the slow going mountains of Ecuador. Today I drove almost 500 miles which is double what I had been doing in the Andes.

The desert of Peru is very reminiscent of the Death Valley area in California. Pure desolation. Absolute nothingness. Except for the Pacific lapping away at the edge of this immense desert and the large piles of trash on the sides of the road it’s not that different. Large mountains, sand dunes, high winds forming drifts all along the highway. But the trash makes the air stink. It seems as if garbage trucks collect the trash and dump it along the highway outside of town. Then they burn it.

Peruvian houses constructed from refuse

I gave rides to two men today. They wanted to pay but I refused and told them it was free. The second man was with a group of six others but I only took him. I think I should rearrange my things in case I need to fit someone in the back.

Just sand

The desert had turned to sea

Sunset in the Peruvian desert

I was stopped outside of Chiclayo and the cop asked if I had any soda. I did not. I also got stopped outside of Paramonga and was asked for my insurance. I do not have Peruvian insurance so I showed them my New York insurance and they let me go. I thought I was going to make it to Lima but night fell and I stopped two hours away in Barranca. The restaurant inside the hotel has very rich chicken. The meat simply falls off the bone it is so moist. The hotel is very cheap. Only seven dollars. Gas however is expensive. Four dollars a gallon. Forty-six to fill up the tank. The cook here said he has a brother who lives in New York City.