It was a windy ride down to Pimentel. I learned a very valuable lesson. Two in fact. The first one was that the bike uses a lot more fuel when I’m riding into a strong head wind. The second being that since I have modern technology then I should use it and see if there are petrol stations on my proposed route. Before I leave. After Colombia and Ecuador, where there were petrol stations everywhere I found in Peru, the only stretch of my trip so far with none. Almost 200kms. I was getting low and so then I decided to check petrol stations on google maps. Nope. It was pretty barren riding for the next 120kms and so I slowed right down to conserve fuel and eventually came across a deserted looking restaurant.

Fortunately, I found someone out the back and sure they had fuel. I was able to buy 2 gallons in a plastic bucket and put it in with a big pink funnel. Sadly, no photo. It was pretty funny. Having found myself in this situation a couple of times now (slow learner) I think it’s lovely how they only charge you slightly more than the going rate. They could easily charge more.  Fuelled up and back into the wind and endless barren landscape. I passed 5 young guys walking along the road in the middle of nowhere. A bit further along was another restaurant with a semi parked outside so I thought it would be a good place to eat. I ordered the plate of the day which usually comes with a couple of options, but she was a bit confused about what meat I wanted. I said I didn’t care and that I’d eat anything. I was wrong.

The whole meal was a bit dodgy but I hadn’t been to the toilet for a few days so I ate it anyway. The meat was some sort of bone with skin and gristle on it and I was trying to cut into it when the 5 guys I’d passed earlier swarmed into the restaurant. They went straight to the truck driver and asked for a lift. He got up to pay and they then ate every scape that was left on his plate. Then one of the guys came over to me with his arm outstretched. And thankfully for both of us he was happy to take the bone thing. Then the truck driver brought them a couple of bags of homemade chip things, and the lady from the restaurant gave them some bananas and they all jumped on the back of the semi and off they went. It was all really quick and very bizarre.

On the roads in Peru so far, I’ve never see any type of wildlife or any farm animals. It’s not like outback Australia, it’s more disappointing and sad sort of. Hard to explain. But. There’s always rubbish. I’d heard about the rubbish along the highways in Peru and I wasn’t disappointed. It was pretty terrible, especially just outside of towns. And with the wind it gets spread everywhere. There were some random dwelling things along the highway. I couldn’t tell if people lived in them or not. They had big barricades on either side and across the front or back. I’m struggling to find anything nice to say about the coastline so far. No, there is one thing. Plenty of fresh air, coming off the Atlantic. But then that’s generally delivered at 100kph. If I need a pee I had to find somewhere to get off the bike so it wouldn’t blow over while I was peeing. The spots were few and far between but the one below was great. I also saw a cane truck driving past in town that was on fire.

I made it into Pimentel which was coastal and seemed nice enough. I did a couple of laps of the main street which ran parallel to the beach but had no beach views and scant accommodation. I saw an interesting looking place called the Garuda Hostal. It didn’t look like it had parking but was next to a parqadero so I went in. Turned out nice and so I stayed for a couple of days. I was able to park my bike next door and it had a connecting door into the hotel which was great.

One of the best finds in town was an ATM called Red which not only gave a good exchange rate but it also didn’t charge commissions. Sadly, you can only get out 400 soles a day which is $160AUD but that’s a two-day budget for me so whenever I see one, I’ll grab my maximum allowance.  I went everyday just because I could. To put my excitement into perspective, to get 400 soles out of the other banks was costing me over $190AUD. High commission and poor exchange rate. $30AUD in fees every second day. Ridiculous. I can use my cards over here to pay for things, particularly in the bigger places and larger amounts but I still like to use cash while I still can. Keeps my mind active.

The town had a couple of cool things. It was one of the rare towns that didn’t exist when the Spanish were here. It was built afterwards as port for the new town of Chiclayo which was inland about 12kms. A rail line was built to the port and then eventually a 750 metre long jetty was added and the town became quite rich and popular. There were some nice old buildings dotted around the place. The jetty is a nice walk with a bit of a museum out the end with old photographs and where you can shelter from the wind for a bit.

Along the beach are lots of normal wooden fishing boats and these lovely little reed fishing boats called Caballitos de totora or little reed horses which have been ridden on by fishermen for over 3000 years. The seas were so rough and so I didn’t get to see one in action but from the photos I could see that they sit on them and have a little cavity at the back for their nets and their catch. I know I have been banging on about the wind but I think it’s just because of the time of year that I am here. I’m sure it’s lovely at other times of the year.

I probably had my best fish meal so far while I was in Pimentel. It was called Chicharron de Pescado. Basically, little pieces of fresh fish in batter with yuka chips. It was huge and about fifteen bucks with a beer and filled me up for 24 hours.

It was back on the road again and down to Trujillo. A nice four hour day and a couple of hundred kilometres. There was the usual rubbish on the roads but this time I stopped and took a couple of photos. One of the reasons I like to write the blog is that it means I have to fact check a few things and I found that it rarely rains on the coast. It’s because of the Humboldt ocean current that brings cold water up along the coast from Antarctica, and the high mountains inland from the coast means that the lower atmosphere is cooler and prevents precipitation. Or something like that.

There wasn’t a lot in my price bracket with parking in Trujillo so I booked the only one I saw and it was nice. I was a bit worried about the parking when I arrived but they were happy for me to park inside their garage and in front of their doorway. It had a nice little restaurant that was in the lower part of the building and it was in a quiet neighbourhood. One bad thing about Trujillo was that they seemed to be replacing the cities water mains and the roads were all dug up all over the place and horrible to drive on. Fine for me though on an adventure bike.

They had a real flash city square which was very popular. I found some sort of heath food restaurant and had a nice healthy meal and then I followed it up the next night with a cool street stall and these deep fried mashed potato balls with meat in them. And these other deep fried things with honey on them. Very filling and only $3AUD for the lot. As I was in town on a Monday most of the museums and archaeological sites were shut. There’s some interesting ruins around Trujillo that I wanted to check out so I was up early the next morning with my bags packed and rode out of town to check out what was happening a few centuries ago.