La Libertad, Cajamarca, Amazonas: 27.10. – 02.11.2010

With full steam we ‘raced‘along the coast to Huanchaco.  What got us to rush was not the famous Caballitos de Totora, reed horses, but a pork roast.

Already in North America we could enjoy the famous roast of Ruth and Walter. Now, after more than a year and thousands of kilometers further, it should come to a reunion. The delight was high and the nights long.

Next to the exchange of travel stories we visited the ruins of the Chimu and the Moche together with the two of them. Chan Chan (Sun sun) was once the largest clay prick town in the world with its 20 square kilometers. It had its peak time between 1200 and 1400AD and hosted about 50’000 to 80’000 inhabitants. Today most of it looks like a molten wax pile with only the ground plan visible. Heavy rain in the last decades, which is very unusual for the region, caused the erosion of the adobe town. Now the complex reliefs are being reconstructed in difficult work.

In contrast to this the colorful and intact wall paintings of the Huaca de la Luna (Moon Pyramid), which is just next to the Huaca del sol (Sun Pyramid). At the moment for the much larger sun pyramid unfortunately money is missing for excavations. However it is thanks to the Moche who while extending their sacrificial buildings, just covered and filled up earlier stages with their artwork to build on top of it. Archeologists today ‘just’ have to remove the filling material to uncover remarkably colorful reliefs that remained in amazing condition.

After three funny and interesting days together with Ruth and Walter our path separated once more, them traveling southwards and for us the doors of Ecuador are waiting. Because the still grey coastal road was not tempting and would have been paved, (bah, pfui, who wants something like that) we headed for one last time for the Peruvian mountains. Therefore we bumped along uncountable rice fields thru some of the most amazing canyons with many switch backs (It must be true, Peruvian road workers get paid by the curves they build and not by time they work) until we reached or last destination in Peru, Kualep.

The Chachapoyas built this forte that is still in great condition in the 12th century on a mountain top about 1’2000 meters above the valley. They were the ones who resisted the most against the Inka invasion, until they were defeated in 1470 AD, if you look at the 20 meter high wall, on the mountain top with only three entrances where only one person at the time fits thru, this is not really surprising.

After almost two month we turned away from Peru. We look back at an adventurous time with many great encounters. But not only is this what we remember. A very distinct sound has crept into our minds, that we won’t forget that easily: the horn, in no other country so far have we used ours that much. We had to realize that it is the only way to convince others of our existence on the road.

Here only two anecdotes: We drove thru a tunnel (pitch dark and only one car fits in at the time) and almost made it all the way thru as a car entered what of course caused a full stop. Instead of reversing he turned off the light (That he had it on was a surprise after all, in Peru it seems batteries get damaged if you drive with lights on.) and just stud there. After seconds of nothing Sonja used Nistos horn and all of a sudden he slowly reversed. Without honking, we most likely would still sit in that tunnel today.

Another time, at one of the many impossible passing maneuvers one car tried until the last moment to get past a truck and instead of backing up he just pulled out to the left onto the dirt to avoid worse. That was not enough; of course he wanted to get onto the right lane again and did so with just pulling over again. Nistos presence did not seem to bother him at all and only a combination of horn and brakes prevented worse.

How we managed to survive on the Ecuadorian Roads, you can read in the next report.

Till soon.

Sonja and Markus

Here it goes to the pictures...