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We drove past Cuenca again on the bypass and headed to the border. We went along the Girón road, one of the roads out of Cuenca that was open. But we hit a traffic jam. There'd been a landslide yesterday at around the time we would've been here, had we not decided to wait to get propane! Several houses had been swept away and the road was covered in thick mud. They were busy removing it but more kept flowing over the road. In between, they were letting traffic through. It looked like it was going to be a long time before it was mud free.
Further along, there was more road damage and evidence of previous landslides. We drove all the way down to sea level and hit 30°C again! We also had to turn left onto a 6 lane highway. There were no traffic lights so we had to dodge the traffic!! But it meant we could go faster for a few kilometers until we had to turn off again onto smaller roads heading for the border. It was too late to make it that night so we turned off at a small place called Alamor and found a restaurant where we could park on the street for the night. Kirsten had a homemade burger and I had chicken with chips. Our last meal in Ecuador!
At 6-30am the next morning we watched our football team win for a change! We won 4-2 so the neighbours could probably hear us cheering after every goal!! We drove just over 2 hours to get to the border which took 1 hour 40 minutes. The Ecuador side only took 30 minutes and we only needed 20 minutes for the first part of the Peruvian side - passports and vehicle insurance. Then we had to drive 3km to the customs area where we had to wait until the lunch break was over! Kirsten got bitten by a dog. Again!! Fortunately no blood but she got a bruise. There was a family with children waiting to be get through and I had to warn them about the "border" dog. Nothing gets done about biting dogs in these countries!!
Our vehicle inspection didn't take long because I refused to let the officer in with his dirty shoes!! Yeah, well it's our home. Plus I'm an ex police officer!! We started getting out plastic bags to put on his shoes and for two other personnel who were also part of the team to check our vehicle. But the officer returned and let us through!! Welcome to Peru!
We finally got back into the searing heat, dust and roadside rubbish after almost 2.5 years. Back in November 2019 we bought vehicle insurance for 12 months thinking we'd back in the country within that time. It was cheaper than buying 3 months insurance twice. But the pandemic put paid to that plan so we had to buy insurance again at the border.
It was really hot as we headed south. We stopped at a supermarket in Sullana which was more like bulk buy supermarket, everything in huge quantities! I needed my vaccine pass plus masks to enter and I had real problems finding the fruit and veg section which was only small. I managed to get some fruit but hardly got any veg! I also had to work out the prices again because Peru has Soles and our rate was 3.70 to $1 - maths skills required!! So it took a lot longer than normal.
The road to Piura, a large city in the desert, was good but, rather than go straight through the centre to turn east, we did 10km extra on a bypass around the southern end of the city. It was quicker despite the extra distance. We were also running out of daylight but we found a petrol station in the middle of nowhere near Piura where we could park for the night. At the shop we bought some empanadas for our evening meal and, 20 minutes after we'd parked up, the loud music started!!! It was a Saturday night but we thought we were in the middle of nowhere!! Unbelievable but someone was having a birthday party at a petrol station!!! It's obviously the party place because there was a covered area with decorated tables and live music. There was no wifi and we hadn't found anywhere to get a sim card. So we got serenaded all night until 1am! At least it wasn't techno boom boom music and it wasn't too bad so maybe it was a birthday party for an older person!!
Unfortunately we got woken up by different loud music at 7am, only six hours after the last loud music had stopped. So far Peru hasn't been very welcoming. After breakfast we topped up with diesel because the prices are going to get higher as we head east, and then hit the road. We pulled into Olmos to get a Claro sim card. Not possible without a national insurance number - in other words not for foreigners! Fortunately we can get Moviestar, a rival company.
Then we drove up into the hills, up to 2,000m and hit fog! So we pulled over for coffees. There were several toll stations along the road and the first one had a large sign on the side of the road. I only got a glimpse as we got ready to pay the toll - something about road closures and times. We soon found out as we hit lots of roadworks. There had been so much rain that the river had caused a lot of damage to the road. We were lucky it was a Sunday and we managed to get through in the daylight. There were numerous stretches without tarmac, several one lane only sections and lots of Vados - where the road dips to allow water to get across. Some of them had a lot of water in them. Clearly Peru has suffered just as much as Ecuador during this rainy season.
It was a long driving day but we managed to get to a petrol station just as it was getting dark. The heat was getting to us and it was still 29° at 11pm! We weren't the only ones suffering. I had to use our extra fan to cool the engine down several times during todays drive but I noticed that sometimes it didn't come on. So the next morning we took a look under the bonnet. We have some kind of loose contact. We'd run out of electrical tape so I asked one of the truck drivers if they had some we could use.
Of course that meant we soon had lots of men coming to help the two old ladies. The two old ladies then impressed all the men because we knew what to do!!! But it also helped us because we said we were on our way to Kuelap, the Inca ruins that are older than Machu Picchu. One man said he thought they were closed and rang up a friend of his who is a tour guide. Very kind of him. Yes, the ruins are closed. There had been a massive landslide on my birthday, 10th April, only two weeks ago, that had damaged the ruins and the cable car wasn't working either!! We had planned our route specifically to visit Kuelap! But we also wanted to avoid the coast that is quite dangerous for motorhomes.
Oh well, we decided to continue into the Amazon region to the east as planned. It meant we wouldn't need to take the extra detour to the ruins which would save us around 150km and a few days but it was still disappointing. There were more roadworks to contend with including a number of dusty detours following heavy trucks. Some stretches were really steep and our motorhome had a few problems gripping the gravel, pot holed surface.
We went up to 2000m and found a restaurant at the side of the road to stay for the night. We ordered food which took almost 2 hours to arrive and wasn’t very good. Most of it ended up in a ziplock bag in the bin. We hate wasting food but we just couldn't eat it. I guess we'll put down the $6 as a camping fee.
The next days drive was a lot better. We went up to 2200m and over a plateau. We stopped at a viewpoint to see the switchbacks down the other side. Then we drove back down to 600m and went to the Santa Elena Reserve. We booked a 6 hour boat trip for the following morning at 6am and fell in love with the tiny Tamarin monkeys called Pichicos. They were really inquisitive and even jumped on us!! Unfortunately, they were so inquisitive that they followed us back to our motorhome and tried to get in. One tried jumping through our open skylight! If we didn't have mosquito netting across it, the little devil would've got inside and we'd have spent ages trying to get it out. They were all scampering over our roof and squealing!! Such a racket. We had no choice ... Kirsten got out and lead them back to the reserve area whilst I drove in the dark to the far end of an adjoining football pitch and parked up there!
Our alarm went off at 5-20am the next morning, we made drinks and packed a bag and walked over to the reserve. Our guides were José and Umar who basically paddled us down river for the first 3.5 hours. I'd grabbed two cushions to sit on in the boat - good job too because 6 hours is a long time on a wooden bench and, by the end, Kirsten wished she had two cushions too!
We thoroughly enjoyed the 3.5 hours going along the rivers Romero, Negro and Maya. We saw red howler monkeys which are a deep russet colour and the largest monkey here, black cappucin monkeys and squirrel monkeys. There were lots of kingfishers, egrets, trogons and woodpeckers. We saw a dead spider that was white, some crabs, a glimpse of an otter and 2 sloths. Umar, the female guide who sat at the front of the boat, didn't seem to be interested but she was the one who spotted the 2 sloths so she earned her money after all! One sloth was brown which she managed to spot on our way out and the second was white, that we saw on our way back.
Unfortunately they had to use the engine on our return which was extremely loud. We much preferred the peacefulness of being paddled. Of course it wasn't possible because they'd have had to battle against the flow of the river. The good thing was that we stopped to see the sloth and other animals - two owls, another crab and, right at the end, howler monkeys with babies. We got back at 11-30am so it was a 5.5 hour boat trip but we still enjoyed it despite 2 hours of noisy engine!
It was 38°C inside our motorhome when we got back so we opened everything up and had coffee and cake. We checked out two swimming pool areas on our way back to the main road but neither of them allowed overnight parking. So I suggested we backtrack 11km to checkout Villa Campestre Hospedaje Maria. It turned out to be a really good place and we stayed for 3 nights. We parked in a shady spot under a tree, managed to plug in and it only cost $3 per night (10 soles for two people). We went to the outdoor swimming pool which was a wonderful way to cool down. There were outdoor showers we could use and we ordered fish from the restaurant on the first evening so we didn't have to cook and heat up our motorhome even more!
It rained the next day so it was cooler. In the afternoon we got out our umbrellas and went for a walk around the reserve. We found an ecopark at the back. At first we didn't want to go through the gate because there was a wild boar with huge fangs on guard there!! But the manager and her daughter arrived and told us the wild boar is more like a pet!! They showed us around and we saw emus, more wild boars, two lovely colourful parrots and a paujil which is a razor billed curassow.
The woman let the emus out for their daily walk and we got to see, and hold, an emu egg. It was dark green, almost black and weighed at least 1.5kg!! The pet wild boar was still a bit of a worry though because it kept sniffing Kirsten's legs!! Those huge fangs were quite menacing!
On our last day there was a works party at the reserve. 200 people turned up from 10am with live music playing loudly. The owner had warned us but said we could stay. The music wasn't too bad and it rained on and off all day so we worked on our website and route. We also watched the other football teams in our league playing at 11-30 am. Our team were playing at 6-30am the following morning, so we got up to watch ... but no electricity!! Damn that meant no internet! So we gave up and tried to get some more sleep.
Another large group arrived and the power came back on at 10am so we watched the match highlights - we won 4-0. Wow, our hopes of getting promoted into the top league weren't dead after all!! By the time we'd done our washing up, emptied the toilet, got rid of the rubbish and had showers at the pool it was 12-30pm - so we left far later than planned! Time to head south and see how far we get!
