0146 Chimbote to Lomas de Lachay

13^th Nov

Got up, had our breakfast, got the (almost dry) laundry off the line, and set off south. Had a humorous thing happen while packing up – The workmen doing repairs around the resort used a wheel barrow to try and collect some large sheets of steel reinforcing mesh.  After that method didn’t work too well, they came over with their donkey and cart that they had brought in last night loaded with old maize plants, and loaded the mesh onto the cart.  I watched them move off, and the immediately took a corner too sharply and the mesh sticking out on one side caught a pole – The donkey stopped quickly, but donkeys don’t back up so they had to shuffle the mesh around to get past the pole.  Then, as they disappeared behind  ramp I heard a crash and suddenly the donkey appeared in the air on the other side of the ramp – The mesh was sliding backwards and had tilted the donkey up in the air !!  But this tilted the cart more, so all the mesh fell off, and with no weight on the cart the donkey returned to earth and disappeared from my view again.  It all happened in a split second, and while I am sure the poor donkey didn’t enjoy it much, it really was quite hilarious to see, and evidently had happened before because neither the donkey or the men seemed particularly fazed by it.

Off down the road, lots of rice, sugar cane, artichokes (I think) and other crops being grown along the way.  Fairly built up with small towns to start with, and eventually we reached Chimbote at about lunch time.  As we drove through, we found a big shopping centre and dove off the roundabout into the car park – We had a number of things we needed.  Great shopping centre, and not a lot of people there – And one of the things I needed was hearing aid batteries – I am sure I packed enough for the trip, but I can’t find them right now, and within the next week or so will go deaf when they run out – Doesn’t worry me but might get Janet upset !! Never ever thought I would find them over here as they are quite specialised, but we found a Radio Shack shop in the mall and hey had them – Cheaper than in Aus too !!  Then we headed into the supermarket – We normally carry enough food for 3 – 4 days – That is about the max we can carry due to the size of our fridge.  Turned out to be a really well stocked supermarket, and found everything we needed, including a 6 pack of beer for about  $4 !!  After we had put everything in the car, we found a good sup of coffee to take with us, and also some empanadas and churros, so we called that lunch and then headed on our way.

As we headed south down the coast, we soon got back into the desert scenery, and I am afraid that was all we had for the rest of the day, so if you think there are rather a lot of sand dune photos today, you are correct – That’s what we had all day too !!  But when you see some of the photos, I think you will agree they are rather stunning – It was like driving across the moon.  Great road (although still under construction in some places, causing delays), and just incredible sights all the way. Not far south of Chimbote we saw a sign to Tortuga ((Turtle), a little village down on the water, so we went down the dirt road to check it out.  Turned out to be a delightful little fishing village with lots of restaurants and bars along the front, all very friendly and waving to us as we passed (probably wanted us to come and eat their sea food !!).  If we had been there in the evening it would have been a great place to stop, eat, and camp on the beach.  But we had to keep moving south, so after a quick look, headed back to the main road.

Here is someone in politics round here called Waldo, and his name, or the letter W, has been painted everywhere.  We have christened him Wally, and everywhere we look we see the letter W and ask “Where’s Wally?”.  (Hey, it gets a bit boring in the car sometimes !!)

On across this incredible moon scape.  Yesterday my comments about northern Peru may have been a little harsh, but we have realised (and also read in guide books etc) that northern Peru really is somewhere that is almost forgotten, little is known about, and not many tourists come here.  Most tourist fly in to see Machu Picchu and Cuzco, and that is all they see.  This northern part is very different, very poor, but has this amazing desert scenery for mile after mile – Neither of us realised that most of NE Peru was one enormous desert !  But we are slowly getting used to it – It is just SO different from everywhere else we have been – All the other countries are not really that dissimilar, but Peru really is very different in so many ways, and that took us by surprise.  The driving is still atrocious, and the rubbish issue really is a major problem, but many of the other issues we are slowly getting used to. 

The poverty is pretty extreme, and out in the desert we frequently see whole area covered in houses made from a kind of reed matting.  The wind here is constant in the desert, and we can’t believe the matting would provide much protection, but that is what they often use.  Then there are some areas where they have what look like plywood houses – Just single room square boxes spread out over the desert.  Most odd.  There are also hundreds of long low sheds, with some accommodation around them, and we think these are chicken farms.  We will find out tomorrow.

Additionally there are a lot of reed matting houses / structures beside the road that seem to be tyre repair places and supply fuel. We even drove right around one when we needed to make a U turn at one stage, and even then we still were not absolutely certain what they did.  Just odd that there are so many, and all laid out the same.

At about 4 pm we came to Paramongo, where there are some old ruins beside the road dating back to pre Inca times.  There are a LOT of old ruins and historical sights on this road, but not many are easily found or accessed.  Paramonga is right beside the road, so even we couldn’t miss it !!  We paid a few Soles to the man on the gate, Carlos, and headed into the impressive castle like ruins.  The complex was built by the local Chimu people before Inca times, so this could have been built in about 1200 or earlier.  Constructed entirely from adobe, from the top there are commanding views over the desert coast in either direction – Today one over looks vast sugar cane fields, formerly belonging to eh American Grace Corporation.  IN contrast to the verdant green of these fields, irrigated by the Rio Fortaleza, the fortress stands out in the landscape like a huge, dusty yellow pyramid.  In the late 1400’s it was conquered by the Incas, and in 1533, Pizarro, the first Spanish conquistador in the area, described it as “a strong fort with 7 encircling walls painted with many forms both inside and outside, with portals well built like those of Spain, and two tigers painted at the principal doorways”.  It is indeed an amazing structure, and other walls can clearly be seen on surrounding hills – It was evidently once an enormous structure.

We were chatting to Carlos when we came down, and he explained that originally, from the air, it was built in the shape of a llama, and outside of the llama shape it was encircled again by buildings in the shape of a puma.   Interesting – Similar to the ruins we saw at Ingapirca in Ecuador that were also in the shape of a puma. It turned out Carlos was also a tuk tuk driver, and we had a bit of fun in his tuk tuk with him !

After leaving Paramongo, we had to get going if we were to reach our camp site at the Lomas de Lachay Nat Park some 100 kms further south before night fall.  Luckily the road was pretty straight and road-works free, and we just made it to the park as darkness fell.  We are in thick mist here tonight, and can see nothing, so will have to describe where we are tomorrow morning !!  Suffice it to say that it certainly seems like yet another wild and interesting camp site, in keeping with our recent run of amazing ones !

Photos are here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0140ChimboteToLomasDeLachay?authkey=Gv1sRgCNTB46m74ZieIw#