Travel Diary: Peru’s Northern Coastline (May 2023)

Our last travel diary ended with us spending the weekend at the surf spot, Punta Rocas, just south of Lima.  We had quite a long To-Do list for Lima which included getting Mr Jones serviced.  In Peru there are very few Land Rovers and thus very few independent Land Rover mechanics but we had found one via iOverlander in Lima, so early on the Monday morning we left Punta Rocas for the roughly one hour drive into Lima, to discover when we pulled up outside the garage that everything was shut.

The last check-in on iOverlander was a few years old and so we feared that perhaps they had not survived the pandemic.  After a bit of searching Stuart found a telephone number for the mechanic and fired off a WhatsApp message, too which he got a quick reply that they were closed for the holiday but would be happy to receive us tomorrow.   At this point the penny dropped as we realised it was May 1 and Workers Day, which also explained why there had been so many Lima surfers at Punta Rocas when we were preparing to leave and why the roads had been relatively quiet.  Being retired has many advantages but one downside is that you don’t know or generally care what day of the month or week it is.

Also, on the to-do list was sourcing a new mattress and finding replacements for our camping chairs.   On the mattress front we had the address for a foam factory, which it was now obvious would be closed, and for the chairs we had the address of an off-road equipment store and had seen online that they stocked the kind of chair we desired.   In South Africa, such stores are generally open on public holidays so we headed off across the city in the direction of Miraflores but as we quickly discovered this is not the case in Peru.  We commented in our previous blog about the generally disgusting “litter” state of Peru except for in key tourist areas, Miraflores confirmed this observation further as it was generally spotless, modern and trendy whereas the rest of Lima is not.  

Finding suitable camping in or near big cities is usually a challenge but Lima does have one option, unfortunately when we had contacted them the previous week they had told us the camping was full however they could offer a Airbnb setup instead for the first night and thereafter we could camp.  Unfortunately, though that was not going to be available until early evening so with time to kill we headed down to Lima relatively famed beachfront, thinking that perhaps Stuart could grab a surf and we could just have a relaxed afternoon.  We were clearly not the only ones with such an idea on a public holiday, although having driven up and down the stretch a few times we failed to see the attraction and instead opted to find a parking spot and just pass away the time on social media and reading.

On arrival at the Airbnb more surprises awaited us when we discovered that in fact we would be sharing the apartment with another couple and that the “well stocked” kitchen in fact only had a few plates and cups but no cooking utensils (despite having a stove), and no fridge.  John (the host) had recommended Plaza Norte for food so off we trekked in the growing darkness to find something suitable.  In any country shopping malls can get busy on holidays as families come out to idly window shop and perhaps catch a movie or a bite to eat but never have we experienced the kind of crowds that greeted us on that evening, the only way to describe it would be to imagine a South African mall on Christmas Eve with all its last minute shoppers and multiply that by a factor of 20!   It felt like the whole of Lima had descended on the mall but thankfully most of them weren’t there to eat and so we could get a table at a Chifa restaurant very easily.   John had told us that Chifa was a blend of Peruvian and Chinese food, we had two very nice dishes but would consider them to be simply Chinese with Peruvian names.

On our second day in Lima we got to discover how quiet the roads had been on the public holiday as we first visited the mechanic and then in the late afternoon drove back into Miraflores to purchase our chairs.  Stuart likened it to the madness of Lagos, Nigeria where there is just one constant traffic jam interspersed with lots of hooting and the norm is to make a 3-lane road into 5, thankfully despite no one wanting to give an inch there is no real aggression and so Mr Jones with his big bulbar and loud hooter coped really well.  A short video showing some of the traffic and filth

At the end of a long day we got back to John’s hoping to setup Mr Jones in his camping and be able to cook for ourselves and have a quite night, unfortunately his camping setup was in fact the ground floor enclosed garage which had a maximum height of 3m and when we open Mr Jones roof he extends closer to 4m.  That left us with no option but to go back into the room of the shared Airbnb complete with, as we had discovered the previous night, a bathroom door that does not close properly.  To say we weren’t happy campers would be a very big understatement but fortunately the young Bulgarian couple we were sharing with, were good company.

The foam factory where we hoped to get a new mattress for Mr Jones cut to size was on the northern side of Lima which considering the Airbnb setup suited us quite nicely as we would then be able to leave town after stopping there.  Lima though had other plans for us, as the mattress would take two days before it was ready but this did not deter us in our plans to “get out of dodge”.  We decided we would rather stay out of town and drive back in than return to the Airbnb.

A task that we had not managed to tick off while in Lima was the sourcing of a new deep cycle gel battery for our solar/fridge system as John had sent us on a bit off a wild goose chase in the downtown traffic of Lima, so the rest day at Sunset lodge in Chancay was spent trying to source a new battery, both at the shops in the little town and online.    Online come out the winner but delivery to Chancay was going to be a problem so we steeled ourselves for fighting the Lima traffic again in order to collect it when we went back to fetch the mattress.   That day we spent roughly 7 hours in Mr Jones to make a round trip of 160km, of which at least 80km was on free-flowing motorway once you had cleared Lima’s outer limits, i.e. we did a lot of crawling and fighting to keep our spot in the lane…

A rest day was called for after our exhausting Lima excursion and thankfully Sunset Lodge was exactly the right spot to do it, so after installing the new battery first thing in the morning we took the rest of the day really easy and then in the evening got to enjoy a small saxophone concert which the lodge put on for its guests given that it was a Saturday.  Chancay must be one of the few towns in South America that doesn’t have a loud discotheque into the early hours of Sunday morning, in fact they are quite the opposite and limit noise after 10pm. We had first got a feel for it when after our first night there, the owner had profusely apologised for some noise coming from a nearby party and told us she had in fact called the cops when it didn’t stop soon after 10. We of course had just spent two exhausting days in Lima traffic and so hadn’t heard a thing.  On this Saturday evening as well, the mini concert ended promptly at 10pm.

We really enjoyed the 4 nights spent in Chancay but with all jobs done and not much else to do in town we hit the road north the next morning hoping to spend a day or two at a surf point some surfers had told us about when we were camped at Punta Rocas.  Stuart had also read that it was a relatively friendly but remote left point break so we figured Bermojo would definitely be worth a stop, our only concern was that we couldn’t see any camping on our go-to app iOverlander. Stuart had however seen on google maps a spot labelled “B Garage” which clearly had campers and even surf board racks on the walls so we hoped to stay there.   At this point in Peru the coastline was still very much desert and often there are just small tracks heading off the PanAm highway down to the coast, which was the case when we drew near to Bermojo, and so we followed a series of little tracks down towards the headland that is Bermojo.  

The surf location was easy to identify as it has a large pinnacle rock just offshore of it, as when we got down to the beach there was nothing else apart from a few fisherman and the previously identified “B Garage”.   In fact, B Garage was just a 4 metre high walled yard with nothing to identify it except that it was the only structure in the area and in one corner had a water tank on a platform.  The large iron gate was padlocked and it certainly didn’t look to be in operation as a campsite (we learnt from other surfers a few days later that it belongs to a surf club that come there sometimes on weekends and use it as a secure place to camp).    In theory we could have wild camped on the beach but with old reports in iOverlander of an armed robbery in the area we decided against that and so after having some lunch we pushed on for another few hours and ended at another remote fishing cove which had an eco-lodge at the one end.  At least this area had no robbery reports but instead had check-ins of recent camping by overlanders on iOverlander, but the lodge seemed empty and it was very remote, however with no other viable options nearby we stopped and hoped for a safe night.    Just before sunset two small fishing boats arrived and proceeded to unload their cargo but it didn’t look like fish as it consisted of very large and heavy sacks which the guys struggled to carry ashore, suspecting that this may be some kind of illegal activity we did our best to not watch but it certainly didn’t help us to feel any easier about the location.

Incredibly we both fell asleep that night, quite easily and slept really deeply, that is until 3am when a car drove down the little track and parked a hundred metres from us, which had both of us acting like meerkats as we sat and peered out the tent window into the darkness trying to figure out what was going on and if we were about to be robbed.  After 30 minutes of hearing voices but not being approached, we lay down and went back to sleep only to be awoken a little later by a very loud moto-taxi with blue under glow lights which parked next to the other car.  Once again, we began our meerkat impression but this time for a slightly shorter duration before going back to sleep.  The car and moto-taxi where still there in the morning and we can only assume it was fisherman getting an early start on the day.

Over breakfast we decided that firstly this section of desert coastline was very unappealing and secondly had nowhere we would feel safe camping at, and therefore would just put our heads down until we could get somewhere nicer.  This meant another long day as we drove northwards to the little fishing & surfing town of Huanchaco where there was a tiny but very welcoming little spot to camp.   As it turned out the spot was just across the road from the ocean and had a decent surf break, which meant we ended up staying 5 days.

Only 50km north of Huanchaco is the famed surf spot called Chacama which claims to have the longest left-hand point break in the world.  If the wave is firing (which it actually rarely does) then the claims are that your ride can be as long as 4 minutes and so naturally it draws surfers from all around the world hoping for that perfect day.  The pictures on the internet certainly do look mouthwatering with lines of waves gently rolling across the large bay.   We had struggled to identify any camping opportunities in the town apart from one hostel where some people said they had been allowed to camp in the parking lot at the back and so hoping that this would be suitable for us we headed that way after Huanchaco.

It is strange how some places just don’t grab you and Puerto Malabrigo (the village in which Chicama is located) was exactly one of those, as we drove in it just felt cold and lifeless despite it being an immensely popular tourist destination.   The village has gone to great lengths to create a pedestrian malecon (boardwalk) along almost it’s entire length and on to which most establishments front but as this malecon was once a road it makes navigating to your chosen establishment quite tricky.  After driving around a bit and eventually getting to the end of the village without finding the hostel we backtracked and parked in a side street so that Stuart could go off on foot in search of the hostel we hoped to camp at. Only to report back a little later that he didn’t think we would enjoy staying there as it was quite upmarket and he felt we would feel horribly out of place camping in Mr Jones out back.  All was not lost though as while walking to the hostel he had an opportunity to check out the sea and the supposedly nirvana wave which on that day was most definitely not firing and overall the sea did not look that appealing so we decided to move on and check out the next “wave” going north which is called Pacasmayo.

Once again camping options were limited to sleeping in the parking lots of hostels and after a brief drive through town without spotting anything too appealing we decided to rather head just a little further up the road to a little farmstay, which from the pictures seemed to offer green grass to park on – something we have been missing for many thousands of kilometres through the desert. As nice as it was to have grass underfoot, there wasn’t much else to do in the area and so after only one night we once again pushed on further to the town of Puira and for the first time since coming out of the mountains, 18 days prior, we got to drive through some grasslands and savanah like scenery.  The appropriately named Ponta Verde (lush green lawn and lots of trees) allowed Stuart to get some much-needed jobs done on Mr Jones in a relaxed setting all while taking occasional dips in their pool to cool off.  Over the course of 4 days he rotated all the tyres on Mr Jones and changed all his brake pads.  In addition, a new water tank for the front bumper was built.   The one he originally built and then later rebuilt in Brazil had served us very well and become what we consider to be an essential upgrade but it had some design flaws which had caused it too leak, so with the benefit of experience, a new one was made.  We are hoping there are no more versions after number 3!

North of Puira we had been told the beaches improve and it becomes more tropical which was music to our ears as it is only 300Km from the Ecuador border and hopefully meant we could do multiple stops and really slow our journey down.   First stop was in the village of Lobitos which Stuart had read is popular as a surf destination for Brazilians.   On our first evening while still orientating ourselves we wandered down to the one point called Piscinas and got to confirm that it is in fact popular with Brazilians.  In the water and on the land was small group of them and their infectious joy and energy had us immediately missing Brazil.    

Lobitos is very much a “boom & bust” town.  In its heyday it was full of expatriate oil magnates and the local corporation was even listed on the London stock exchange, then come a military coup and subsequent “bust”. Many years later, while it still has oil extraction activities, it is trying to re-invent itself as a surf tourism destination. The surf is good, but after 3 months of no-surfing, one member of HippySquared was not able to fully appreciate it 😭

A combination of the terrible Lima traffic and the lack of a decent pillow at the Airbnb meant that Stuart had been nursing a very sore and stiff shoulder even since, something which is not conducive to paddling a surfboard in strong currents.  The wave at Piscinas is quite large and pushes very hard past the point (it was not uncommon to see a surfer swept 30m back while duck diving) and certainly not conducive to paddling out with a sore shoulder. After 4 very unsuccessful & frustrating sessions over the course of a few days we packed up and moved just a little further north to Mancora.

We had eyed out a spot in Mancora that from photos looked like our favourite campsite in Mozambique (Fatimas in Tofo) and upon arrival at Misfits we weren’t disappointed.   The place itself is a little scruffy and you camp in the sand (just like Fatimas) but the owner, Jaime, made us feel so welcome from the moment he opened the gate and as with Fatimas it had direct access onto a white sandy beach.   In addition, Mancora has a popular surf break which is way more friendly for somebody with a sore shoulder, so Stuart would often take the long walk down the beach to it both in the morning and evening.  In between we would alternate the rest of our time in the day between either lounging on the beach or in a hammock under one of the shady “carpa” areas in camp.  Life was very good and before we knew it eight days had passed.  As an added bonus the exercise ultimately freed up the stiff shoulder.

Our departure from Misfits felt a bit like a family farewell before departing on a long trip, as Jaime, his staff and the few guests all come by to say goodbye and give hugs while wishing us a good journey further.

One further stop remained for us in Peru and again it was a relatively short hop north to Zorritos and the campsite called Swiss Wazi.  On iOverlander it has rave reviews and we certainly discovered these were true and would consider it probably one of the only spots we have stayed at so far in the entire South America that is as well-equipped or run as your average South African campsite.   This however was not the reason we come to Swiss Wazi, we were there to collect a package left a month earlier by South African friends.  Long term readers will recall the many mechanical issues and even the small fire we had in Mr Jones during our last month in Brazil (Brazil Travel diary: September 2022) which amongst other things resulted in us losing the sensors for an aftermarket engine temperature monitoring system we have.  This system provides far more accurate and reliable feedback than the standard temp gauge, so when we knew that Vivian and Hanlie were coming out to rejoin their Landy in Peru,  Stuart took the opportunity to ask if they would mind bring out a replacement.  We hadn’t been able to cross paths physically as they immediately headed north to Ecuador upon arrival and so had left the sensor at Swiss Wazi where their vehicle had been stored.

And that rounds out 2 months in Peru, a month shorter than we originally thought we would spend here.  The reason is two-fold, firstly we never expected such a barren and desolate coastline as we found, with therefore not too many appealing places to stop and pause and secondly, we are keeping one month in reserve (of the 90 days you usually get granted on a tourist visa) so that we can drive back across the country in order to get into Brazil later this year.  The Amazon rain forest makes crossing from the west to the east of the continent very difficult and the only feasible point in which you can cut through it is much further South in Peru but only in the dry season – which is later in the year.

Below are links to the other pages that complement this travel diary entry: