Perú - driving south

Entering Peru from Ecuador at Alamor was an easy experience except the buying of the mandatory insurance policy we needed for the car. There is always something that holds up the process!

The very first part of the drive looked very similar to the last part in Ecuador, but then everything changed. Instead of the dramatic scenery with all the colours, we now had a desert looking landscape.

We had decided before we entered Peru that we would go north towards Máncora, to find a beach resort or hotel where we could stop for a few nights. This turned out to be an experience in sand and dust. After looking around and almost giving up, we found a place to stay. The hotel was acceptable and it offered the private parking (indoors even) that we always look for. It was nice to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing, and we were meters away from the shore. We thought it was going to be busy but it was quiet.

After four nights we decided it was time to get going towards Lima, which from Máncora is a 18-20 hours drive. The first leg was to Piura, and the second to Chiclayo. For those who follow any affairs with the Vatican, Chiclayo is indeed the city where Pope León XIV was active for many years. It is funny to see that they have a cut-out of him standing on a balcony.

What we didn't know was just how far the desert goes. The Pan-American Highway goes right through it, and it is sand and dust as far as you can see. There is also a fair amount of rubbish strewn everywhere, and we will try to find out why Peruvians feel they need to simply drop it wherever they are. The locals at the hotel in Chiclayo say that they don't consider they are in the desert, they are in Costa Del Sol.

When leaving Chiclayo, we drove to Cajamarca, the place in Peru where the Spaniards met the Incas. Along the road, everything changed. We have put some photos below, in order of how we saw things shifting before our very eyes. The first one is the colour-coordinated breakfast seating at the hotel. Then comes a photo of nature along the Pan-American leaving Chiclayo. Next is what you end up driving on when Google maps give you directions! That stretch of road would definitely have been better if we had never seen. As you can see nature changed as we moved along, and last is a photo from the place where we stayed in Cajamarca.