I was now safely in Peru and found a place to eat. I decided to carry on down to Mancora which was a coastal town I’d heard mentioned somewhere. I also decided to pre book a room as my day hadn’t really been going to plan. The coast of Peru was nothing like what I had expected. Not that I know what I really expected. It was dry and barren and dirty. It made me think of Coober Pedy for some reason. I tried to capture it in photos but again without luck.

I poked my head in at Punta Sal which was another coastal place I’d heard about, but it didn’t do much for me. To be fair, the weather was overcast, and the wind was blowing half a gale and so it was not at its peak. I arrived at Mancora and was following maps on my phone but started to question if it was leading me astray because the roads were deteriorating and it was becoming a bit dodgy, even for me. And then I saw one new white building which stood out like a sore thumb and that was the Mecuryy Hotel with 2 Y’s. It was just like the photo on the website.

It was nice and new and I could see the parking behind the internal pool. I paid for the room which was a couple of dollars cheaper than the website price and then had to wait around for a bit before the lady said she would take me to my room. We walked out the door and she motioned me to bring my bike and instead of going to the parking door we walked two blocks away to another building where she unlocked the gate and said to put my bike in behind the fence. I said that I wanted my bike to be in the same hotel as me and she replied it was and then led me upstairs.

It was late, I’d had a big day that hadn’t gone to plan, the room was ordinary but clean and I couldn’t be bothered talking Spanish anymore, so I just smiled and she left.  Besides the fact it took me an hour to get the internet password and the gate key wouldn’t work it was okay because it had a nice roof terrace and so I bought a couple of beers and a pack of Ritz crackers for dinner and watched the sunset from my roof. You can see my rooftop above the C and from there I could see a couple of horses pass through town at night. Next morning I wandered down several blocks to the beach and then along the beach several hundred metres and came across town. The nice part of Mancora.

I was looking down a driveway of a hotel at their nice pool and the lady asked if I was interested in a room. Turns out the price was the same as I’d paid the night before but included breakfast. So I thought why not stay another night and so I went and got my stuff and moved in. It was great. Small room but nice and my bike got a nice spot as well. I ended up extending my stay another night after that because I could. I went for a long walk on the beach to another fishing village where I found a nice little isolated beach bar where I had really nice sushi. The waitress there (from Colombia) had the same standard of English as my Spanish so we had a good chat.

One night I got talking to another waitress who was from Venezuela who was also lovely and then a third waiter who was actually from Peru who invited me down to a beach party to smoke dope. I asked if it was legal and he said no but that it would be okay because we would be in the dark down on the beach. I wiggled out of that invite. I also managed to fit in a run which I hadn’t done for a while and a swim in the cold pool and found an ATM that would let me take out a whopping $270AUD in one go for the princely sum of $16. I hope I can find a better ATM in one of the bigger cities. I was glad that I’d found that part of Mancora or otherwise I would have based my visit on the place I stayed the first night. I should also point out that I am travelling down the coastline in the off season so the weather isn’t great but it means there are no tourists and all the hotels and restaurants are empty and are keen for business.

Within seconds of leaving town I was back in the barren wastelands. Actually, it would be a great setting for Mad Max. Next on my list was the most westerly point of South America. It sort of has a name on the map “La Mesa Balcones-Negritos” whatever that means but I couldn’t find out much about it. I had to go through the town of Talara to get there which is a petroleum town. I forgot to mention that there were lots of oil wells in the barren waste land and also small platforms out in the ocean. And I had to laugh when I saw some wind turbines out in the well fields and wondered if they were supplying the power for the oil wells. I’m guessing they were. Peru isn’t a huge oil nation but it’s mostly government owned which I think is good. The northwest is a smaller part of its production area with most of the oil coming from the amazon basin to the north east.  There is a big refinery being built at Talara and up on its hill there’s a big statue of Jesus the Oilman which I checked out. Another notable thing about Talara was that when I fuelled up there the young lady serving me said I had beautiful eyes and asked if they were natural or contacts. That was nice.

The road out to the Westerly point was so windy it was almost laughable. At one stage I was a bit lost and so I headed down a short road to a brick enclosure to get out of the wind to check my phone. As I neared the fence it set off this screaming alarm which scared the crap out of me. I was expecting people to come running out with guns but fortunately once I moved away the alarm stopped. I checked my phone and yes, I had missed the turn off by 16kms and had to head back out into the wind. The last few kms were gravel and wind and then soft sand but then back to potholed bitumen again. Testing all my riding skills over a short distance.

There was one car in the car park with two guys standing by it and a couple of people in white disposable suits kneeling on the beach doing an autopsy on a body. One thing I’ve learned in South America is that you don’t stare, and you just mind your own business. I found a safe place to put my bike so that it wouldn’t blow over and then walked the few hundred metres out to the point. I kept my bike gear on because it was so so so windy (except my helmet) and I also have my emergency EPIRB in my jacket pocket in case I got into trouble. It was quite nice and very isolated although a bit spoilt by the wind but I guess that’s what it’s like there this time of year. There was a decaying concrete cairn looking thing out on a rock but other than that it was just me out on a point, the most westerly person on the South American continent and as close to Australia as I could possibly get without getting wet.

On my way back I sneaked a picture of the autopsy and a sideways glance. I’m not sure if it was a body washed up on the beach or a seal. Either way I was ready to get on my bike and get out of there. The coastal wind was so bad I decided to backtrack to Talara and head south on a more inland road. I had planned to go a bit further south but, in the end, I pulled into a town called Piura because it was about 4:30pm and I always like to try and find somewhere before it gets too late. I found the Santa Maria Hotel which was cheap and offered free parking. The room was good but the parking was out the front but there was a place across the road that offered parking amongst various other services. It had a big gate and several barking dogs, so I was happy to pay the $4AUD and park my bike there for the night and I had a good view of it from my room.

Piura seemed a nice enough place. It had a weird lineal park with war mementos and a sad looking river but some beautiful old building ripe for renovation. I really enjoy just wandering the streets and looking at the architecture and just watching people doing their normal stuff.

Peru has these great 3 wheel motorbike taxis everywhere. They remind me of the old horse and cart carriages except with a few more horse power, The are everywhere and are used for almost anything. I wish I had more photos of things I have seen then doing but I did manage to catch a snap of this one. The rebar actually sticks out the front as well, so I don’t know how he steers?

From Piura I’m heading down to a beach place called Pimentel near Chiclayo which is supposed to be nice. It says 225kms and 3 hours. Let’s see how that works out.