The Long Road North

Well, we made it. After a whirlwind week in Lima--which I thought had left us plenty of time to see sights, visit a beach or two, tour the city, and visit with everyone we wanted to connect with, but which ended up being barely enough time to conduct the essentials necessary for the next part of our journey--we woke up before dawn on Saturday--for the second Saturday in a row--packed up the car, and set off across the country, heading due north along the coastline.

The drive was long and colorful. It took us over an hour just to get outside of Lima, with only a wrong turn or two to set us back. We had our first adventure on the outskirts of Lima, when we were pulled over by la policia, who informed us--as we eventually figured out--that we had committed an infraction by not having our headlights on, and that they were going to give us a ticket, unless we gave them 300 soles. At first I thought they were telling us the ticket--"Boleta"--was 300 soles, and after trying to explain in rudimentary Spanish that I didn't have that money on me, but that if they gave me the ticket, I would visit the bank in Chiclayo and pay the ticket then, we realized that they wanted the money now. At that point Michael realized it was probably a corruption racket, and encouraged me to talk our way out of it. So I pointed to the children crammed into the car and said, "No tengo 300 soles. Mis soles son para almuerza para mis ninos." Eventually they must have decided we weren't worth the trouble, and they waved us on, with another warning about las luces.

The road we took was the main road up the coast--something Pan America--and yet it had the occasional speed bump in cities. We'd approach a city and see a sign stating "Fin de Autopista," and them boom, there'd be a city with speed bumps, traffic, and rubble-filled streets. Eventually there'd be another sign saying "Inicio Autopista," and we were off to the races.

Much of the countryside was desolate desert, with sand and rocks the primary scenery. But as we headed north we saw more cultivated regions.

We had a luggage rack for our car, and crammed as much as we could into that. But we were still tightly squeezed into the body of the car, with two seats out of eight folded up. Two girls shared a seat in the back row and I held Becca, who was getting over a few days' of fever and stomach trouble, on my lap.

To cut a long story in about fifths, we made it to Chiclayo after about 14 hours on the road, to a very warm welcome. More about our friends in Chiclayo in a future post. For now, some pictures of our journey:

Shanty town on the hills outside Lima. No wonder there are so many fatalities every time there's an earthquake or mudslide.

These bathrooms are hygienic AND free!

Desolate desert

Mototaxi and fruit vendor in one city we passed through

And just like that, the highway can end

Nobody in here but us sardines

On the road to Chiclayo

Cultivated regions

Still on the right track

The cities and streets have such interesting names