Into Peru

Into Peru

We left Loja early Saturday morning for a 9 hour bus ride to Piura. The roads through Southern Ecuador wind through the mountains with beautiful views all around. All the bus drivers seem to like to take these turns as fast as possible, leaving us to hang on to our armrests as if we were on a roller coaster. Luckily my motion sickness drugs have been working well!

It was sad to see the level of desertification in the land that we drove through. We saw all the various stages - freshly burned hillsides that had been cleared of trees ; steep slopes with grass that had cows, donkeys, horses, or goats clinging to the sides eating away the scrubby grass; hills that had been grazed away to nothing that had great patches of earth washed away; and then whole sides of mountains that had just become rock/mudslides. 

The soil here is thin and not really all that fertile, even though it seems to be, since in its natural state it is teeming with jungle life. But it depends upon the complex mixture of trees, shrubs, ferns, and all sorts of plants to combat erosion and keep the soil healthy. Once all the natural growth has been cleared, there is nothing to hold the soil in place, these mountains are so steep, and the rains are often very heavy. It's strange to think of how the ancient cultures (Inca among others) knew how to farm here with terraced hill sides, but all of that knowledge seems to be lost now. 

Because there's no good grazing anywhere, people have come up with an interesting solution. They just let their cows, horses, donkeys or goats graze on the side of the highway. We passed so many that weren't tied or fenced in in any way. Just standing in the road, grazing on crappy bits of grass on the side. Somehow they didn't seem to get hit, and I guess their owners just came and herded them back to wherever at the end of the day. Since there wasn't really much grass on the roadside either, I threw our apple cores out the window to some surprised and happy goats. 

As we got into Peru, the land became increasingly dry. There were tons of mango trees and then lime trees, and then nothing but sand and rock.  There were shacks all along the roadside where people obviously live, but I don't know how. It is so dry & very hot.

Piura is a fairly big city that suddenly appears out of this desert. It was really culture shock to get off the bus and immediately hear the deafening sound of hundreds of car horns and moto-taxis, dirt bikes with a trailer welded on back that can hold 2 people comfortably, but often have 4-6 crammed in there somehow. Jonathan said the scene reminded him so much of India, and it was definitely different than any other city we've been in so far. 

Today we're headed farther south on the coast, to a little town called Huanchaco. We finally arrived around 7 in the evening. We found a great Hostal (Naylamp) that will let us camp & has a kitchen. We found a great spot for dinner & actually stuck with our plan of ordering one dish, so that we weren't stuffed to the gills. It was great shrimp & squid with fried yucca and salad. Perfect!

Today we explored Huanchaco from one end to the other. We got to see the caballeros del tantos - the "riders" of these homemade kayak-like boats. They are made of spongy reeds that they tie together in such a way to make a sort of kayak. They paddle out with nets and catch fish, and then surf the waves back in. Pretty cool!  We got to see some older guys making the boats. They only last for about 3 months before they're water logged. The people here have fished this way for thousands of years. 

We had an amazing lunch of ceviche, where we forgot our new rule & ordered 2, when one would have been more than enough. We then found the local market & bought some corvina (sea bass), and fruits & veggies for dinner. 

Tomorrow we will go see some pre-Incan ruins during the day and then head back into the big city of Trujillo. From there we'll catch the night bus to Lima (another 9 hours.)

I don't mind taking a night bus since this area around us is serious desert. It's interesting but very monotonous.  I keep thinking that it looks like:
-The moon
-The set of Waterworld  (the awful Kevin Costner movie from a decade ago)
-A post apocalyptic world, where all the green has been taken away as replaced with sand, rock, and trash. 

So, while it's a remarkable landscape, it's one that I'm willing to sleep thorough.