May 2023

We arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru on May 2nd. After much online searching and with some difficulty we had managed to find an apartment with a secure parking area. We visited the old colonial town and we managed to buy new headlights in the crazy shopping district Gamarra, where the streets were so disgusting they should really call it Gomorra (I was really sorry that I was wearing sandals instead of closed shoes). We had some good food in Chinatown and absolutely loved the magic water park. We also visited the upcoming areas Miraflores and Barranco and stocked up on food for us and Binkie. We wanted to visit 2 museums. But museum de la Nacion is permanently closed and they moved the exhibit to the national museum of archaeology, anthropology and history. But that was closed because the roof had come down… And although the convent (with museum) of San Francisco was open, there was a lot of construction work going on so we skipped it anyway.

After 5 nights in the city it was time to go and explore nature again so we drove off to see 2 canyons, canyon del Ucho and canyon Canete. In order to get here we had to cross yet another mountain pass; Punta Ushuayca. This meant driving from sea level up to 4.500 masl, stopping the first day at 3.600 masl. After the flat coast the mountains simply turn steep very quickly. It took us three days to cross this mountain range. We also had a big climate change, form summer to snow. Beautiful mountains though! Travelling at high altitude has changed our perspective somewhat. We now no longer consider 3.000 masl very high any more, a bit strange for 2 people coming from a country where the maximum altitude is only 322 masl and in Europe the maximum height you can drive is 2.830 masl (Austria).

Canyon del Ucho is well known in Peru and was indeed nice. But the far lesser known canyon and Rio Canete blew our minds away with it’s incredible natural beauty! The crystal clear green/ blue river is 220 km long and flows through the valley across fields and has several waterfalls. It reminded us of the Plitvice lakes in Croatia, but much larger. We took a boat trip on lake Hualhua where we came up close to the waterfalls and took a short hike up to the lake above the waterfalls. We are now nearing the end of our stay in Peru and it looks like this was our favourite area. The Huascaran mountains though, are also incredible beautiful with its azure blue lakes and white snow capped mountains, but with a less nicer climate.

Leaving the beautiful mountains behind we drove on to laguna Moron which is situated in the desert near the coast. Here the sand is a nice yellow / orange and very soft. Because there was no real road around, no dogs and we could see for miles, we let Binkie off leash for the first time since travelling. It was a new experience and it went well, so we will be repeating it in other safe areas. We did only spend 1 night here because it was incredible windy and also very grey. The whole coastline of Peru seems to have a greyish sky a lot of the time. We think this is because the much cooler mountains are fairly close to the coast. So the humid air from the sea, possible combined with all the dust of the very dry coastal area, meets the cooler mountain air and then can’t pass over those mountains.

Since leaving Lima we had been driving daily and wanted a few days rest on a campsite with some facilities. Through i-overlander we ended up at Freddy’s in the town Chinca Alta. A very nice Peruvian man who has done some travelling himself. He therefore decided to create the a place in his own garden with good facilities where overlanders are welcome for free. A case of incredible hospitality. We spend 5 nights here where we met 2 other overlanders and Freddy’s family. They were also very nice and included us in their celebration of mother’s day and a child’s birthday. We ate delicious food including birthday cake and had nice conversations as best as we could. Freddy also provided daily lunches without wanting anything in return so we and the 2 other overlanders made and shared dinner. If only everyone was as nice as Freddy, the word would be a better place! Maybe someday if we do decide to go and live somewhere, we can repay the favour to other overlanders. Although we would have happily stayed longer, we still had more to see so we said our goodbyes.

We took a boat tour to islas Ballestas a small group of islands near the coast where you can see penguins and sea lions. It was a very quick tour where the crazy boat driver thought it was a speedboat and he was in a race… We got to see the penguins and sea lions but all in all it wasn’t nearly as great as our tour to isla de la Plata in Ecuador.

On our way to Nasca we drove past the Peruvian witches village Cachice, which became a hide out place for Peruvian “witches” during the Spanish inquisition. There is now a park dedicated to it and a 7 headed palm tree that is protected because according to a premonition if (part of) the palm tree is cut, a disaster will strike the town.

On the way to Nasca we were driving one car behind a German truck camper, Lukimog ( the truck is a Unimog) and when they pulled over we stopped behind them to meet up. Inside were Lukas and Nathalie and their children Lisanne and Avid and after a short talk we decided to go with them in search of Canyon Perdido, the lost canyon. We had originally also planned to visit this canyon but then decided not to, well I guess we just had to see it. We had a great time together. We managed to find the lost canyon and camped close by, sharing food and a nice campfire. Lukimog owns a drone so we got the first drone footage ever of our van and campsite! The next morning while having a late breakfast a few vans from tour operators stopped. They were very surprised to find tourists their who had managed to find the canyon on their own! With modern day technology things like this won’t stay lost for very long any more. They kindly told us where it would be possible to enter the canyon on foot, so after breakfast we packed up and drove a few km’s to the entrance. It was an enjoyable walk and afterwards we drove to another camp spot. Due to strong wind we didn’t have a campfire but we did share food and experiences again. The next morning Lukimog drove of to the North, but they plan to go South again so maybe we’ll see them again. We spend another day in the dessert where Binkie once again went off leash.

Eventually we did manage to find the Nasca lines 🙂 We admired a few from the several view points that are set up. If you want to see them all you have to take a plane, which is quite expensive. We also saw the the Palpa lines which are more like figures and were made by piling rocks together where the Nazca lines were dug or drawn in the earth. The Palpa lines are thought to be several centuries older than the Nasca lines.

The car was making some weird noises so we ended up at a garage where it took 2,5 days to replace the wheel bearings and a needle baring. It wasn’t exactly a great place to spend two nights but we had no choice. The mechanics didn’t speak any English and our Spanish still isn’t good enough to understand everything going on. They decided to solve the language barrier by shouting at us…. Explaining to them that we’re not deaf didn’t help. After I started shouting back in English, which strangely was not appreciated, they sort of got the message…. All in al it were a frustrating few days but eventually the job was done. Binkie couldn’t go outside all this time so he was bored and frustrated as well.

Luckily we managed to find a nice camp spot after all this so we could relax before driving of to Cusco from where we would drive further in to the mountains to visit Machu Picchu. More about this ancient Inca city in our June blog.