We bid farwell to the big dirty bustling city of Lima, the second largest desert city in the world. We packed our gear and set off to the bike shop where Neto, who we found out is a professional rally car racer, had arranged for a friend to give us a lift in his *small pickup*. Indeed it was a tight squeeze with Melissa again sitting in the center of the front row but after about 2 hours we had broken free and found ourselves being dropped off at a small fruit stand alongside the Panamerican Highway.
The distant hills are massive, rising up thousands of feet and dropping into the ocean with steep cliffs. Sand and rock are all you can see in the distance and we just laughed as we took the first pedal strokes of our grand adventure. The road was surprising smooth and had a safe shoulder to travel on. We recieved many encouraging honks, and greetings from watching townspeople. Most of the time they shout *Gringo (a)* or *Hallo* in their best English voice.
We arrived in Chancay around 4:30 pm after just 3.5 0r s0 hours in the saddle. We managed to go 40 km (24 miles or so), and since it gets dark so early here 5:45 ish, we are safe staying here, since the next town is probably a half days ride from Chancay. We did have 2 fairly hefty climbs which took us to heights that gave incredible views of the coastline. The fog was still present, which did a good job in keeping us a bit cooler, but we managed to get some panoramic views as the fog isn´t too low lying. We are not working with super detailed maps right now, but we know we are staying on Panamerican for another 200km or so and have not been let down in asking a local for distances to surrounding towns.
One highlight included stopping at a fantastic fruit stand that was filled with every color fruit you could want. We began filling a bag with tangerines, some mellon flavored/ peachy sized fruits, a kiwi, some small plums, tiny bananas (super tasty) and Melissa*s favorite AVOCADOS!! We were so pleased and then even more tickled when the total came to 4.50 S, which is under $2. We handed a young boy who worked with his mother at the stand a 5 cent US coin – I wish I captured his excitement on our camera. We smiled as we enjoyed the fruit before continuing down the road and Melissa remarked that she will be eating avocados every day for the duration of the trip!
So we head back to the hostel for some R & R before our first full day of waking and riding. Hoping for the same weather tomorrow.
Smiles and fruit! *Swift
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