Northern Peru
Now, we're not going to sugar-coat it, the north of Peru is not really worth writing home about! Hence the short blog post... There's a reason the majority of tourism in Peru is concentrated in the south. We'd go as far as to say that some parts of the north were the ugliest places we've ever seen. The coastline was also peppered with warnings on our iOverlander app that made it seem like one of the most unsafe places we'd visited so far. With that in mind, we had planned to blast up the coast from Lima and enter Ecuador as quickly as possible. We did have a few nice spots, but for the most part, it was a baron, post-apocalyptic, drab wasteland COVERED in trash, and shrouded in clouds.
We had one particularly terrible drive day where we saw two fatal incidents on the road. Unlike in the UK, they don't close roads when there is a fatality, so you just have to pick your way through the wreckage and past a body in the road covered in a blanket. Not something we have ever witnessed before.
There was also one morning in Mancora when Em was rolling up her yoga mat on the beach and a boat full of what we assume were narcotics in sacks were transported onto a homemade barge, which was then towed to shore by people swimming, and then carried up the beach onto the road. Best to look the other way when face to face with these things...
Ming
Our failed attempt at reaching Huaraz...
We left Lima filled with dreams of visiting the 'Peruvian Patagonia' - Huaraz. A mountainous region with azure blue glacial lakes and epic hikes. After a recent cyclone, we knew the road would be bad but we weren't prepared for quite how bad.
Parts of the road had disappeared completely, with huge chunks lost down the mountain as if a giant had taken bites out of it. We persevered for as long as we could stomach, driving in first gear around tight bends with a sheer drop to one side of us and threateningly low cliffs towering over us on the other, with the road growing narrower and evidence of recent avalanches all around. With 1,000m of ascent ahead of us, we decided this journey wasn't for us and turned around.
By now, it was mid-afternoon and we'd already been driving for 6 hours. We had to retrace our steps back to the main road and then venture a further 3 hours up the coast to Trujillo and look for a place to camp.
With reviews of Trujillo itself not being great, we ended up on the outskirts in a "campsite" with no shower, no lights, no Wi-Fi, and a lot of barking dogs. Essentially, it was a locked field. We were grateful to have a safe place to stay so took our incredibly sweaty selves to bed and hoped for a better day tomorrow.
On the road again!
The state of the road to Huaraz
Fed up after a long day
The next day, as we were so tired from a long day of driving the day before, we only went another couple of hours further north to Jequetepeque (it's as fun to say as it looks). Here we found another very sleepy ghost town, but at the edge, a very lovely campsite. It was run by a family who were friendly and welcoming and gave us the key to an unused cabin for us to use the hot shower. They had hammocks and table football, and finally some greenery! They also had an extremely nosey child whose tiny grubby hands we had to pry off everything grabbable in the van. They had loads of horses, peacocks, geese, chickens, guinea pigs, and 3 dogs. The next day, the whole family sprung into action and started setting up for a party. It was a celebration of the local children graduating from school, complete with grass-skirt dancing and an impressive cowboy display on horseback. Bizarre.
Our camp spot at Jequetepeque
Mancora
After a day of recuperation, we got back on the road, and finally made it to a nice coastal town, Mancora. We parked up on the grounds of a hostel right on the beachfront, with an outdoor shower, a lovely hippie owner, a bald dog named Tupac, and very laid-back vibes. Having finally reached a slice of paradise, we stayed in Mancora for several days, enjoying the beach, going whale watching, and meeting up with some friends, Cally and Jack, who we'd met on the Salkantay Trek a few weeks before.
Em's homemade napkin socks to protect her feet from mosquitos
Dinner with Cally and Jack. "Panang!"
Whale-watching
The whale-watching tour was one of the highlights of our whole trip. We joined forces with our friends and booked a tour. We were extremely lucky to see an ALBINO HUMPBACK WHALE. There were previously only 4 known albinos in the world, and this was the fifth! We went with a really great company called Pacifico Adventures and we had Marine Biologists on board. They got very excited by the whale and we stayed out on the water for an hour longer than planned just watching it. Em was of course throwing up over the side of the boat the whole time, but it was worth it. We also saw loads of regular humpbacks.
In this season (June to October), they swim from Antarctica to warmer waters off the coast of Peru, where they spend months flirting (with surface activity like breaching) and mating, before swimming back to Antarctica to feed. Their pregnancy lasts 11 months, and when they're ready to give birth they swim all the way back to the warmer waters here to give birth. They then nurse the calf for several months, with the mother not feeding at all, before swimming back to Antarctica when the calf is big enough. It's insane to think these animals are swimming 10,000 miles having not eaten for months. Some of them have lost 60% of their body weight by the time they arrive back in Antarctica. We saw a mother and a calf, who choose to stay close to the shore where Orcas can't attack the baby. We also saw groups of males and a female displaying lots of surface activity, which is their courtship. The albino whale was on its own just making its way back south. At one point, it got so close to the boat, we could feel its spray on our faces! Simply amazing! *See video on homepage*
We also saw lots of dolphins, pelicans, sea lions, and once back off the boat, a lone Blue-footed Booby chilling on the beach. The tour company had a whale museum and a cute little café in the town which we visited to recover from the boat sickness. All the whale-watching tours go from the beach at the town next to Mancora, called Los Organos. The beach there was beautiful, and we spent the rest of the day chilling in hammocks and having a leisurely lunch.
While we were in Mancora, Justin was interviewing for a job for when we come back home. Bear in mind it was 30 degrees C, he had to wear a long-sleeved button shirt he found at the bottom of his bag, and sit in a closed van to avoid any noise, connected to the very spotty Wi-Fi of a beach shack in northern Peru, and he has been out of the industry for 11 months, he, of course, performed exceptionally well, and was offered the job 2 days later. Happy days!
The sunsets in Mancora were spectacular - a giant orange blob dropping like a ball into the ocean. As we're so close to the equator, the whole thing lasts about 5 minutes, so you have to run to the beach or you'll miss it!
After a few more beach days with our friends, we headed to the border and entered Ecuador...
Blue-footed Booby