No sign for a hostal, inquire at the gas station.

We are taking bad roads into the mountains instead of sticking to the coast, after hearing about marvelous scenery from other cyclists: but we wondered why Lucho recommended this detour on a terrible unpaved road for 50 km when we could see a nice paved road just across the river. It would have been 50 km further, but that pavement looked so inviting as we meandered from one side of the road to the other searching for the best way through large stones. We found a spartan room at a gas station here for $2.50 at 4:30 pm; and might not have made it by dark on the longer paved route.

An Inca breed of hairless dog.

We could afford a late start and had a two hour breakfast at the Casa de Ciclistas with Heinz and Jaime, a Basque cyclist, then visited the Moche pyramids before continuing our journey. It was a tough afternoon against strong headwinds, but we arrived at dusk.

140 million mud bricks once made the crumbling Temple of the Sun magnificent.

Workers renovating the Pre-Inca temple of the Moon (600 AD).

1500 year-old painted friezes were discovered here in 1990.

Lucho improving my Cruzbike

Arecelly & Heinz dancing.

Moche ceramics

Merinera dancers in Trujillo's Plaza de Armas

Lucho, dressed in a grease adorned apron, welcomed us with open arms at the door of La Casa de Ciclistas. He beckoned us inside into a large space where two bicycles lay on the floor and two local ciclistas stood awaiting his attention. As we shared a quick synopsis of our trip, an older man entered who Lucho introduced as Heinz Stücke, the famous world cyclist. Then he went back to fixing the bikes. Heinz engaged us in conversation about his and our cycling adventures and he informed us that Lucho was the famous cyclist. What I learned about both men after 4 days in our stay in Trujillo was that neither could do more for us. First it was Lucho inviting us to the birthday party for his wife Aracelly, fixing David’s bike, ensuring our every comfort in Trujillo; then it was Heinz feeding us breakfast, sharing stories over beer, giving us advice on cleaning water bottles, directing the cobbler to sew leather on David’s bag.   Both, in their humble and generous manner, awakened an understanding in me that I am a part of something a little larger than just a bicycle tour. Trujillo does not have the classical beauty of a Cuenca with its grand Colonial architecture, but its beauty, for me, lies in the warmth of people like Lucho, his family and friends and Heinz.

Trujillo held other surprises for us. We knew about the grand Inca culture and Peru’s treasure of Machu Pichu, but here we learned about other amazing cultures that pre-dated the Incas. On the northeastern outskirts of Trujillo we visited the remains of Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the world, built in about 1300 AD by the Chimú, a culture that existed from about 850 AD to 1470 AD when it was conquered by the Incas. Sixty thousand people once lived in this huge area, stretching towards the coast. The rains and winds have left mostly foundations and parts of walls, and sand buries most of the site. As money becomes available archaeologists painstakingly reveal more of the city and reconstruct portions. Interestingly enough the reconstructed walls built with today’s technology (or rather the technology of the 60′s) did not withstand the tremors of the 1970 earthquake, while the ancient walls remained. Even more impressive to me, on the southwestern outskirts of Trujillo was the site of the Moche, an older culture existing from 200 BC to 850 AD. Here are found the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca de la Sol (the temple of the moon and the temple of the sun). Only the Huaca de la Luna has financing to be excavated and where the sands are being uncovered, are wonderful multicolored walls with patterns and pictures engraved and painted. In Trujillo, we also visited a private museum, the Museo Cassinelli, where hundreds of ancient pots from the various Peruvian cultures, including the Inca, Chimú, and Moche were displayed. These pots were interesting to me because each culture formed them distinct to their culture with different animals, scenes of life, and faces painted and shaped on them. The Moche were particularly fun because the faces on their pots were very realistic. They also depicted sex scenes on their pots kept behind doors in the museum, opened for us to see by the curator.

Our stay in Trujillo rejuvenated and strengthened my spirit, my knees, and my knowledge of ancient cultures. As we left the city via the Plaza de Armas, the main square, we were treated to a brass band and marinera dancers displaying the area’s traditional dance. The headwinds that accompanied our 66k ride to the next town, Chao, held no power over me.

Cobbler Francisco adds leather to my shoulder bag.

Ruined 10m high walls of the world's largest adobe city.

Benches to seat thousands in the main square

We arrived at the original Casa de Ciclistas in time for Aracelly’s birthday party.  Lucho has been hosting touring cyclists since 1985 and Julie & I signed in to his register as cyclists number 1183 & 1184.  Click on casa de ciclistas for a list of who’s been through here.  Heinz Stücke is here now.  He left Germany on a bike in 1962 and has cycled over half a million kilometers; visited all 194 countries, and is now adding territories.  He was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1995-1999 as the world’s most-traveled man.   Scott Napier, (from Scotland), stopped by, but did not have time to stay.  He needs to get to Ushuaia, Argentina by 08/Nov/2009 to set a new world record.  Lucho had a spare tire for him and adjusted his spokes.  Lucho  noticed that I needed a new bolt for my front sprocket and installed a replacement.  He also found and installed a front sprocket chain protector that’s been lacking; to protect the sprocket teeth and my clothes. I now have maps of Perú, after cycling blind for a week.

Sand dunes encroaching on the highway.

We failed to start early and strong headwinds slowed us across a treeless desert.  Winds subsided as we entered a large irrigated valley of sugar cane, then increased as we climbed out of the valley at 5 pm.  After climbing at only 7 & 11 kph we turned around and flew back to a hostal, so as not to enter Trujillo in the dark.  We wondered “why  had a police car had been tailing us through the valley near Paijan?” Lucho, at the Casa de Ciclistas in Trujillo, later told us that cyclists had been knocked down and dragged into the sugar cane fields there.  He was happy to hear that the police had escorted us through that dangerous area.

The pier at Pimentel is similar to the one at Pacasmayo.

We missed taking a scenic route through dunes back to the Panamericana Hwy.  We still have no map of Perú, and I failed to correctly memorize the Google map viewed last night.  We did pass through a zona dunas on the Panamericana, though, and one came in handy to relieve a brief bout of “the runs”.  With today’s headwinds I realized the advantage my low-profile recumbent bike has over Julie’s “normal” bike; unlike climbing mountains where mine has no advantage.  We saw our first Gringos in Peru here, a popular surf beach, and balked at paying 80 or 100 Soles for a room, ($28 or $34), even though we paid more in Ecuador.  Having recently passed a hotel advertising 10 Soles ($3.50), we tried a third hotel and bargained from 60 to 50 ($17).

After days of difficult cycling which included our highest total climb, 2600m,  headwinds and long days cycling after sunset, (in the tropics the sun sets about 6:00) we decided to take a rest on the seashore. Because of the southwest winds the temperatures were cool. Cold winds come from the Humbolt current that begins in the ocean off of Chile, now in its winter. Few tourists visit in this season. We watched some young surfers in wet suits catching the waves near shore, and we saw the boats of the fishermen taking advantage in the uplift the current causes to catch the fish who feed on the currents’ bounty. We relaxed in our hotel catching an American movie “The Breakup” with Spanish subtitles. My body had a needed rest, but I could still feel soreness in my knees going up and down the stairs to our room. I knew we had a few more days of cycling before us in the strong headwinds and then we would take another days’ rest in Trujillo.

Sunset over the Pacific at Pimentel, Peru

We continued along foothills on the edge of the desert, with towns closer together as we approached the regional capital, Chiclayo. The headwinds increased even more this afternoon. It’s like going uphill, with no top in sight. Our destination is the seashore, and our first view of the Pacific in South America. I hoped to avoid the city center, but with no map had to ask directions. Several people directed us to the center of Chiclayo, until someone told us to turn around. Since no one here has a road map, no one really knows the way. We could easily have skirted the city to the north. We headed into the sunset on the way to the shore, and Julie loved the bike path along the road when it got dark.  The cold Humboldt Current, and cold winds, make this the off-season for tourism here.

Boat and reed floats for nets in Pimentel, Peru

We took the old Panamericana Hwy. across the edge of a desert today and saw a coyote,  lizards,  parakeets,  red birds with blue-black wings and the striking Crested Caracara, Mexico’s national bird. The highway had been washed out in several spots by El Niňo rains in the 90s. It is now repaired with smooth pavement and most traffic goes on the new Panamericana  across the middle of the desert. Strong headwinds increased late in the day and it was dark by the time we got to town.

We had to pinch our Soles this morning until we could change more money in the bigger town of Tambogrande.  But we could not find a map; no one here seems to use road maps.  So we took a short cut on an unpaved road, knowingly.  We need to cross a desert tomorrow and would not have made it to the edge here otherwise.