The northern Peru desert, the longest surfable waves & ruins

The drive from Ecuador to our first destination in Peru was 15 hours from cloud forest to sand dunes. Upon reaching Peru, we had arrived in the desert. Nothing. But. Desert. We were totally surprised after the lush tropics which we just came from in Ecuador.

The sand dunes and desolate desert of northern Peru - a very untouristed area of this country.

Once you turn off of the PanAmerican highway onto the side streets, the roads are unpaved. The towns are dusty and unattractive. At some point, even the PanAmerican Highway was so dusty that they send water tanks to sprinkle the road during sunset - otherwise it is impossible to see.

Here are some of our first impressions of Peru:

1. Peru has LTE - 4th generation, instead of only 3G in Ecuador. Indeed, cellular coverage in Peru is much better than Ecuador.

2. Gas is more than 2.5x the price from Ecuador - $1.75 / gallon in Ecuador (government subsidized) and $5 / gallon in Peru. Suddenly, driving became much more expensive and we no longer had the luxury of just pulling into any gas station instead of looking for the best price. When we pull up and ask for a full tank of gas - they are surprised. Locals buy only what they actually need that day. Then we get inappropriate questions like, "how much do you earn" and "how much did you pay for the car."

3. There are more tuktuks than cars. Given the price of gas, it made sense that one would travel by tuktuk rather than a car - but the sheer number of tuktuks was surprising. They dramatically outnumbered cars in all of the northern Peruvian towns. The locals travel by tuktuk, collectivo, or bus - we hardly saw any cars.

4. Ecuador had a noticeable amount of nice cars on the street. Especially for a country which has a pretty low gdp. Ecuador has a 17% higher cost of living than Peru. In Peru, the cars are much older.

5. Sadly, there is a lot of trash on the side of the road. I mean, it is everywhere! Ecuador barely had any trash. I didn’t notice that it was so clean until it contrasted Peru. There is trash everywhere.

6. Little access to money - the ATM lines are crazy long. Especially in the small, northern towns. The limit is low and the cost to withdraw is high (5%). Why are the ATM lines so long? This has been hard to understand - we get lots of differing opinions. Inflation. Cash-economy instead of credit cards. But it doesn’t add up.

7. Aside from Cusco and the Sacred Valley (touristy areas), the buildings everywhere are mostly unfinished. They all have re-bar sticking out at the top as if another level will be added. Why? Seems that there is a tax loophole where you don't need to pay taxes on unfinished buildings. Most buildings, therefore, remain unfinished country-wide. It is pretty surprising to see. Apartment complexes will have some unfinished apartments with people living in the finished ones.

8. Election signs are everywhere. Everywhere! Regional. Country-wide. Billboards, painted on the side of houses, on the walls lining the streets. Everywhere.

Dashiell’s first impression of Peru: No more serpent drives! For now, we are out of the Andes and headed to the coast. (The prior two days were zig-zagging our way up and down the mountains and we are now in flat, desert terrain.)

Imogen's commentary: big farts don’t hurt. (Imogen always has funny, totally irrelevant things to say - 2-year-olds! She also spent the hour at immigration rolling around in the dirt. The locals were appalled. I was feeding Zander and don’t care about Imogen getting dirty at this point. She has always been “the mess-maker.” Somehow, the moment you look away and look back, her face is covered in dirt.

The longest surfable wave in the world

Honestly, we were anxious to see anything at this point along the drive. Our first stop was to see the long waves in Chicama. Surfers globally come here to catch world's first legally protected wave. We were off-season and mid-day, but from the cliffs above the wave you can see the long consistent waves.

The longest wave in the world - you can surf for minutes down this wave and then be shuttled back to the beginning.

While this was not exactly surf time for us, the beach was nice, the food was good, and we continued our world tour of playgrounds on the beach.

That night we found a sweet little fishing town totally off the beaten track to camp. It was a beautiful place to fall asleep and wake up to, although getting there was through bushes with the most threatening thorns I have ever seen.

Our first "real" stop in Peru was a tiny beach town called Huanchaco, near a larger city called Trujillo. We were totally unimpressed with this town, but we found a lovely spot across the street from the beach with an outside kitchen and the sound of the waves. They also claim to have the first surfboards with strange boards made out of reeds.

Plus some time for some cuteness with The Littles.

Chan Chan

About 600 years ago, Chan Chan was the largest city in all of the Americas. It was also the largest adobe city in the world. There were once over 10,000 structures of palaces, temples, storage facilities, and marketplaces, all protected with 30-foot walls for its 60,000 inhabitants. Once the capital of the Chimú civilization, an empire which stretched from Ecuador to central Peru from 850 A.D. to 1470 A.D., the Chimú fell from power and abandoned the city when the Inkas conquered the city.

Today, Chan Chan is an impressive site to see, however its vast size makes it impossible to protect from the elements and proximity to the sea is destroying the site.

Cañón del Pato

Cañón del Pato is one of the most impressive canyons which I have ever seen, let alone drive through. Every turn was a mixture of awe and panic. The 2-way road winds through the canyon but barely fits one car. The turns are blind. Signs are posted throughout the entire drive to honk at each curve. Carved through the rock are tiny tunnels woven throughout the canyon.

We had just driven through nothing but desert, now we had nothing but rock walls. The canyon's walls are too steep, dry, and arid for cultivation. Animals can't even graze on the steep cliffs. This was the road we took from the coast through the Cordillera Negra to the Cordillera Blanca's snowcapped mountains near Caraz and Huaraz. The rock formations were impressive - you could see millions of years imposed into the structures and envision the tectonic plates crashing into each other and a river running through the canyon to form the mountain range. It was a gorgeous drive. I wouldn't turn back and do it again, but it was really beautiful. Pictures just cannot capture how high these mountains shoot straight into the air, the riverbed below, and the rock formations. I don't know how that tuktuk made it through this crazy drive!

Sex Sells in Northern Peru!

We saw signs for sexy everything. Sexy cement. Sexy handyman. Sexy tires. Every car wash has a hot girl on the sign. If you want business, you gotta have a sexy woman with an almost-there bikini on your sign. Here are two of our favorites!

Next up ... the gorgeous mountains of the Cordillera Blanca near Caraz and Huaraz, Peru's epicenter for trekking.