We leave Lima heading north, on the Panamericana highway which follows the coast for some hundred kilometers.

panam

The perivian coastline is not attractive, with its greyish overcrowded beaches, and the eternal fog, we only pass by.

plage

A quick stop in Trujillo, an old colonial city, before we visit the UNESCO pre-incan city of Chan chan. It’s the biggest archaeological site from its time (1300 AD) in south america. More than 6000 people lived here during its apogee. Only a small part is restored and opened to visitors, all the rest, which you can see from the road, is still awaiting more archaeologists to come and dig.

chan chan 1 chan chan 2

chan chan 3

A little more north, is Huaca Brujo, a settlement inhabited by different civilizations for 5000 years until the spanish conquest. It’s a little more impressive, there are still originals painted low reliefs, and the overall architecture is more visible. A mummy, dated from 500AD has been found there, in an excellent condition (it still has its skin with visible tatoos) : Lady Cao.

Huaca Brujo 1 Huaca Brujo 2

We then leave the coast, heading to the mountains, and even if the landscape are beautiful, it soon gets harder. Roads are pretty rough, with a lot of differences in level and in temperature. There are a lot of road works too, cutting the roads for some minutes or days, forcing us to long detours. Also the rain meets us here in the mountains. On top of that, we almost loose a shock absorber on the road, maybe some bolts were not tightened enough by our mechanic in Lima.

road to chiclayo 1 road to chiclayo 2

road to chiclayo 3

Despite all this, we take the time to visit the ruins of Kuelap, a sacred fortress city built high on a rocky escarpment at 3000m high in 500AD and inhabited until the incan times. The ruins doesn’t look so much restored but they are still impressive and there are some lamas around which make Sophie very happy.

kuelap 1 kuelap 2

kuelap 3 kuelap 4

After that, we go for some exercise : 4 hours walk in the jungle to see Gogta waterfall, supposed to be the 3rd biggest of the world.

gocta 1 gocta 2

gocta 3

We still have 200 kilometers of variable road to cover until the ecuadorian border, between jungle and mountains. We enjoy our last moments in Peru eating potato chips : one of the best local specialty.

road to ecuador 1 road to ecuador 3

road to ecuador 2