Piura
Loja - Piura : 225 miles
Just when Loja was starting to grow on me, I was free to leave with a brand spanking new Peruvian visa. I rode back to Makara remembering to stop for a premature fill up on the way, talked myself out of the childish urge to show a prick a finger, then crossed the border within an hour. I was finally in Peru!
The border region is full of rice fields
This photo could have been taken anywhere on the trip really
Self service car wash
Welcome to Peru. Meet the "Peruvian Hairless". (This is a breed and I'm not kidding!)
On entering Ecuador, I had said "poor in finances, aesthetics, and cleanliness". Those were clearly the words of a fool who had never seen Peru. Had I entered Ecuador from this side instead of Colombia, it might have shined. Yet, to have access to this astonishing poverty, I had to present bank statements and agent contracts to establish that my intention was not to immigrate. Man, does my passport dazzle!
Everyone who's crossed Peru along the coast before talks in length about how dirty, ugly, windy, and boring that route is. Sigrid and Andi had done it before as well, and they had no intention to do it again. That's why they crossed into Peru over the treacherous La Balsa border and continued south over the mountains where things surely are more beautiful.
Which would you do? Ride beautiful mountain roads or head on to find out how bad a coastal route can be? If it is as extraordinarily ugly as everyone says, could you bring yourself to skip it? I did consider choosing beauty over ugliness and filth, and it was a strangely hard decision. I'd have many gorgeous mountain roads to roam on, but this I had to see.
As I kept approaching Piura, Peru was doing all it could to make me turn around and go away. Never in my life had I been anywhere this filthy. Mountains of garbage were everywhere, accompanied by an incredibly strong stench of sewage and rotten algae. People lived here. In fact they too were everywhere. This place defied description. Would have taken some photos, but that would require stopping.
Thankfully Piura does a good job of camouflaging what's right outside of it. I checked in to a $15 hotel and called it a day. Finding cold beer would not be easy.
A new community of villas right outside of Piura
This may be the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
Next : Huanchaco
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