1 May: Got up early to get a jumpstart on jobs/errands in Lima, only to discover it is “Workers Day”, so most stuff was closed and ended up killing time next to road and ocean as we waited for the “campsite”/Airbnb to be available. Lima is a really dirty city and we not liking it plus the camping spot/Airbnb turned out to be rather disappointing.
2 May: Crazy traffic this morning to get across town to a landy mechanic. Intended to only have oil change and one wheel’s oil seal fixed but they found some issues with suspension bushes so had that fixed too which was a good thing as some of the bolts had major wear. After the service we then battled more traffic to get into the fancy area of Miraflores in order to buy some replacement chairs and then more traffic as we headed back out again. All in all an exhausting day.
3 May: Super frustrating morning, John (the overly enthusiastic owner of the “campground”) recommended a solar shop in downtown which in fairness we may have headed to anyway as iOverrlander had one marked nearby too. Getting to downtown was another crazy traffic battle and then only to discover the area was like one big “china mall” with zero parking, loads of pedestrian and surprise surprise – TRAFFIC!!. From there we battled our way back out of town to a mattress shop in order to order a new foam one for Mr J before battling more traffic to finally flee Lima. Ended at a lovely spot called Sunset beach in Chancay.
4 May: A day spent largely resting while trying to find an alternative way to purchase a solar battery. We did look in this little town but they only really sell automotive batteries. On the plus side we visited a lovely public Mercado, which is walking distance from campsite/hostel and has loads of cheap fruit and veg. Late in the afternoon, may have found an online store for the batteries.
5 May: 7 hours in crazy Lima traffic today – absolutely shattered! First we collected the mattress and then drove right across town to the “online’ store as it didn’t seem like they would deliver to the campsite 60km out of Lima. In the end, got the right battery and after an afternoon of more traffic finally got back to the campsite around 4pm. Overall thoughts on Lima – it is an ugly, dirty and scruffy city with ridiculous traffic and zero road planning – a 3 lane highway grinds to a halt every kilometre because the slow lane often acts as bus stop and to make matters worse the buses generally double park!!
6 May: A semi chilled day, first off to local public fresh veg market and then installed new solar battery. Based on battery performance over the course of the day, the old one was very, very tired and we did well to get it to last as long as it did.
7 May: Heading north today, drive was relatively easy but scenery is boring, just a combination of desert and litter. We are absolutely horrified how even far from towns the road and quite far into the desert is just covered in litter – Peruvians seem to just treat the entire country as their own personal rubbish dump. On reflection though we hardly ever see a public rubbish dump, they must exist but who knows.
8 May: last night was a very disturbed sleep, we were woken at 3am with the arrival of a car and again at 5am. In both cases we did not know if they were “friendlies” but when we were left alone, come to the conclusion that they were just fisherman. The drive today was a long one of 5 hours, broken with a shopping excursion which is not exactly a relaxing break so both feeling shattered tonight. At least we are camped in a nice little spot which is directly opposite a beach which had many surfers out in the afternoon. Hopefully we can park off here for a good rest and finally slow things down..
12 May: It’s been a good few days, got in a few surfs and generally have been able to relax nicely but perhaps we stayed one day too long, especially for Tania as there wasn’t much to do other than surf. There is no beach, the waves break right up against the promenade.
13 May: A long day, as we went shopping (great little famers market in Trujillo and a 2nd stop at a big mall) and then drove north out of Huanchaco to Puerto Malabriga where supposedly the world’s longest left wave (Chicama) is located. The little village did not give off a good vibe and had zero decent camping options plus the waves were very average so we had lunch and bounced to Pacasmayo. The town had a much better feel but the only camping option looked like it might be another crowded hostel parking so we bounced a little further north and end on a little farm stay spot. It’s nice to have open land around and some grass underfoot.
17 May: It’s been a really relaxed but at the sometime productive 4 days at Ponta Verde, just outside Puira. The campsite has green grass and trees plus loads of bird life and a swimming pool. Only downside has been, they are busy enlarging a dam and the backactor is back and forth constantly churning up dust. Used the time to rotate wheels, change all the brake pads and build a new bumper water tank which will hopefully be the 3rd and last one with no leaks. In camp are a 30year old English couple who talk big of plans but have taken procrastination to a new level, plead poverty but have a starlink (expensive internet satellite connection). Check out @kombichronicles
20 May: It’s good to be back on the coast although the wind is a bit of a pain from 11:00 each day. Lobito has a very good point break called Piscina and today Stuart managed to get in the water but not really catch anything. The last few days the swell has been very strong and it pushes hard past the point which is not conducive to surfing if you have a sore shoulder and are lacking confidence.
21 May: Extremely frustrated at not being able to surf, due to a combination of a lack of fitness and just being scared of committing to take-offs close to the rocky point on large waves. For sure 3 months of no-surfing is part of the issue but need to balls up with regards taking off even if I wipeout. So decided to move on, the first stop at Organos beach didn’t appeal so we carried on to Mancora and have found a great little campsite called Misfits. Even got in a small surf session late evening and had some success so feeling better.
22 May: Stuart had a great surf session and Tania some good beach time so both feeling much better today.
24 May: Lazy days of morning beach and afternoon hammock time, it doesn’t get much better than this. As a bonus Stuart has surfed most mornings and afternoons with some good waves caught as well, despite the takeoff and most of the surf zone being above a fairly shallow rocky reef – it helps that the wave is not super powerful at Mancora. Even the sore shoulder is starting to feel better.
26 May: one of lately many really chilled days, Stuart went surfing both in the morning and the evening and I got to just chill around camp, take a walk to the bakery up the road and take care of chores. We do really well together but sometimes it’s nice to just have me time for both of us. This stop in Mancora has been great for that, hard to believe we have been here nearly a week already. Getting itchy feet to move but also looking to a few more days here still.
27 May: It’s been nearly 20 days since we first hit surfing territory after our time in Lima and throughout those days I have suffered with some fairly serious pain (and weakness) in my left shoulder/trapezius muscle. It’s been so bad that some nights it woke me up. Today is the first day I have been almost pain free and wow what a great feeling it is – a real reminder of how grateful we should be everyday if you are simply healthy! And to top it off, had some great waves this morning. On the negative side, we got news that Dad’s Alzheimers is definitely getting worse which leave us feeling quite helpless being on the other side of the world.
29 May: Leaving Misfits in Mancora today was a bit like departing from family, the entire staff and guests come around for a photo, hugs and to say goodbye before we could pull away. It has truly been a great stay and just one of those places were you feel at home. Before leaving town we stopped at the local water purifier shop to fill up Mr Jones water tank and then at a car wash to rinse off a good few weeks of grime and salty air, this afternoon we even gave him a quick polish! Now staying at a spot called Swiss Wazi, which in terms of amenities and setup is at the other end of the spectrum and quite possibly the most well-equipped campsite we have stayed at in all of South America – basically on a par with your normal SA campsite.
31 May: New country and it feels like a different world even though we are only 60km from the border we are camped in a lush tropical forest reserve with loads of sounds of life. Only when we sat and heard all the birds calling did we realise how little natural life was around along Peru coastline. Border crossing was quite straight forward if a little slow as we had to join the commercial truckers que to cancel our Peru TIP and the Ecuador TIP process was just slow. Weirdly we lost all GPS maps even though we have Garmin South America and are still in South America, can only assume Garmin considers Ecuador part of North America and includes the maps in that subset, by pure fluke last night we downloaded google offline maps for the region which saved our bacon (this is the first time we have done that). And we got lucky with procuring a SIM card, a 2017 iOverlander check-in was still valid for a cell shop.