After spending a week in the mountains of Ecuador, we figured it was time to make our way to Peru. In a way it is a shame to spend only a week in a country like Ecuador, but if we want to arrive in Buenos Aires in early December we need to move. The discussions in the car the last days have been about the final 6 weeks of our trip and our strategy for selling the car. We need to leave ourselves some time to sell the car in Buenos Aires – and we have already found some interested people – so we are considering to end the trip there instead of Ushuaïa. We’ll see in the next weeks what our progress is like.
When we left our hostel in Catacocha, the sun was shining over the mountains. We were stopped at a military checkpoint where they checked our car import documents – that was the first time anyone checked in Ecuador. A soldier with a big rifle asked us to come over to his desk so he could write our names in a book of people who had driven past. After filling up on cheap fuel for the last time, Rodrigo reached the ‘Puente Internacional’ between Ecuador and Peru. It was very quiet at the border – and unlike Central America nobody jumped on the car to help us. We filled out the paperwork for leaving Ecuador and about 10 minutes later we crossed the bridge to Peru. An uninterested official stamped us into Peru and, after buying insurance in someone’s kitchen and changing some money, the customs official started typing away at the import documents. It took some time to get everything in the system, but in the end Patrick signed and fingerprinted all the documents.
Safely across the border we drove into the desert landscape of northern Peru. The temperature reached 34° Celsius and Rodrigo’s air conditioning was working overtime. The pigs, goats and deer wander freely across the desert… and the highway. We’ll be following the Panamerican highway for long stretches throughout Peru.
Our rough guide to Peru directed us to a hostel in Piura. It’s Saturday night so we’re not counting an uninterrupted night of sleep. We have learned that if we stay in towns in the weekend, usually there are fireworks at random times, endless honking of taxi’s and distant pan flutes. We had a nice ice-cream (limon and sauco – still need to look up what that is) before calling it a day and finding our bed. We’ll be camping more over the next days hopefully!
Oh yes, in case we were not sure that we made it to Peru we stocked up on all things Inca. The Inka Chips are nice but the Inca Cola will not be recurring item on the menu.
I can see the sun coming up
And I need it, oooh yeah
I feel like I’ve been down for a while
Keep Calm and Drive South 