30th november-we had a tour around the Huaca Del Sol y De La Luna today. The guide spoke english which was great as we learnt all the history, well worth a visit, the symbols and paintings they have already uncovered in all the temples are fantastic. there s also a museum with all the artefacts they have found in the burial chambers. Camp that evening in a very nice ladys garden by a beach near Chimbote.
We bump into the couple on the KLR650 that we met at the Ecuador border (apparently that same day we crossed the border the police shot some fark members at the border crossing!) Daniel ad marian were heading for Lima, which we were thinking of avoiding but they insisted we have to visit so we meet up with them there and camped in the garden of a hostal (cheaper!) We got to see some sights including some fantastic fountains with coloured lights with images projected through to music, so affective. Eat some good food and have a really nice couple of days there, thanks to Daniel and Marian (sorry if this is spelt wrong!)
Get very lost leaving Lima, all one way streets and we re blaming the hangover!
Continue through more desert landscape on the really windy road, I m looking forward to the mountain views again. Stop at a small town at the San Martin reserve. Its a tourist spot for boat tours to see ruins, sea birds and sea lions plus water sports and sand surfing. We take a ride to see the pink flamingos, lots of them quite close, a fantastic sight with lots of other sea birds.
4th December- Leave the coast and ride towards Ayacucho. The scenery is so dramatic, the mountains have fantastic colours and as we drop down more forest appears, reach 4400 mtrs, cold and misty! Then a really strange thing happens, usually everyone is so friendly but as we ride through the Casacancha area I see a woman looking after her animals and a lot of children all running towards the road. She is swinging something heavy on some rope above her head and shouting, then she throws it at me! it missed, but shook me up a bit. Further down the road a chap pretends to throw a big rock at us and a couple of children throw stones at the bike, very weird! We ask in Ayacucho if they normally have any issues with `gringos` and he says definatly not and he will inform the police.
5th December- Very early start as a lot of dirt road miles and we want to reach the next big town as I dont fancy camping in case of any more rock throwing! The views make up for it, stunning and really twisty dirt roads, as usual though quite a lot of road works. As we pass through the villages most of the women and girls all wear traditional clothes, everyone is friendly, waving as we pass and chatting if we stop. Theres a lot of agriculture, farming on impossible angles and tending animals, including alpacas and llamhas. 7th December, back on the tarmac will make Cusco today.