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| Need to work on that flexibility!! |
Well folks, here is me sitting in my camper in front of the Pacific Ocean in Ecuador! Its hot and humid sweaty nights and sunny days...
Please feel free to leave comments on the blog, I write this blog to share with you all and to keep memories for the future, whenever we stop travelling and settle for a while I will have time to look back and read some of the things I have written and the photos I have posted.
SO the last month has been busy on the road meeting some great new people and seeing the coast of Peru. We were in the Andes for around 5 months, so became used to the altitude and cooler temperatures. Coming down to Peru's desert coastline you immediately notice the increase in temperature.
The buses take 24 hours to go between Cusco and Lima, we took two weeks! The van is sluggish going up mountains and a little barge like coming down them, so progress is so... Once we got down to Nasca, our speed picked up greatly as the road is much flatter running up the coast of Peru.
Every night we would stop in some new place, either a village or secluded spot sometimes we might spend two nights there. I remember the town after Nasca, it was getting dark, we wanted food, but not really to cook, so pulled off into a village, which had a sub heading to its name, a village with a future. Well after asking around, we found no restaurants, but did find a flat piece of ground near the church where we could stay, soon enough we hear voices approaching, singing drunk voices, this can go two ways, they can be annoying drunks or just leave us alone, well Lili gets involved, runs over, soon she is dancing and I join the group, they are very drunk, but very nice, after 15 minutes they go off to one house to continue their drinks. The next morning I am up at 6.30 and a car rolls up with a lady her son and one of the guys from last night, they say to me they are off to visit the cemetery nearby and invite me to come with them. The tomb is for the ladies parents and she brings some flowers, the tomb has patio sliding doors at the front. The guy cracks open a couple of beers that get passed around, the first drops are always spilt onto the ground as a thanks to Pacha Mama, we chat for a while then the group goes off to the fields to pick cotton, the guy from last night, invites me to park over at his house where there is shade and running water... Nice guy.. The next day we all drove out to Ica where we dropped our new friend, then we went off to a desert Oasis. The Oasis was a bit overrated but did have some cool sand dunes with buggies, so we jumped into the buggy and strapped in and had a great time, even did some surfing down one of the dunes!
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| Our drunk friend, not drunk. |
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| Strike a pose! |
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| Lili learns to drive a buggy! |
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| Monster |
Finally we reached Lima, the van had been diagnosed with a failure in the supports that were holding up the gearbox, I only had first and second gears by the time we found a garage., it seemed to be in the middle of a red light district... After speaking with some locals they told us about a hotel that had parking just across the road, the next morning we could fix the van. The hotel was the type that you can rent a room by the hour, so there were some strange noises during the night! Very inspiring! The next day the guy fixed the supports but made my gearbox harder to use!
Sandrine left Lima to go to Barcelona for 2 weeks, leaving myself and Lili to navigate our way up the coast to Ecuador before our 90 days visa ran out.The first task was to get out of Lima, a busy city full of very aggressive drivers and lots of turns. Trying to navigate with my phone in one hand and steer with the other was not fun but I managed it!! Yeah , big pat on the back Russ!
After Lima we headed for the beach, we got pulled over by the cops, he says where are you going, I say I dont know, where do you suggest, he gives me a confused look then suggests a beach not to far away.. I never found it, but instead ended up on a beach with temples and a Hari Christna community whom were very friendly.
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| Hari christna, Christna christna! |
After a couple of days there we continued, I passed one young guy hitch-hiking, I was tempted to stop but I was doing 80km and hour and so didn't, later I stopped for lunch and I see him again, well I thought seems like a big coincidence to ignore. I went to buy some phone credit and walked towards him. I saw hi and ask where he is headed, he says Ecuador and then on to Colombia... same route I am taking! I say well welcome to the family Lucas. For the next two weeks Lili, Lucas and myself checked out all the best surf beaches on the northern Peru coast, held our noses through some of the smellier cities, fish factories, smell nasty! Until we finally made it to Ecuador.
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| Nigh time parking, in boat yard |
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| Frigate bird |
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| Traditional fishing boats |
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| 3m wave on Pier |
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| Russ and Lucas |
I have been using an app on my phone which is called Ioverlander, its great, shows you parking places, tips etc from other overlanders (people who drive vans around the world) All the tips were great, until we reached Ecuador, it took a while to get through the border, and by the time we did, it was getting dark. Well the nearest suggestion is an abandoned finca next to the river, the post was from 6 months ago, so should still be good. We we start driving down this dirt track and it starts to become increasingly overgrown, ok, no good lets turn around.. ok its a single track no turning points and its dark plus a river down one or both sides. Start to reverse, I cannot see shit, vegetation is scraping down one side so I decide to straiten up, suddenly no traction, wheels are spinning!! Lucas jumps out and into water! Front tyre has slipped into the ditch, an old man appears wondering whom we are and tries to help us out, but we are stuck. He then calls a tow truck, 20 minutes later he comes back saying the truck is not coming, we are spending the night where we are, at an angle in a mosquito infested swamp! Not much sleep that night, but in the morning Lucas disappears then returns with a couple of neighbours and a pick up truck.. after a few tries, we got out of the ditch, with nothing but my driving skills in question...
Thanks for reading, that all for now folks!!
