Shortly after we set off again following our lunch break in Tumbes, the landscape changed dramatically. Within just a few kilometers, the lush tropical lowlands gave way to a barren desert. At first, we were glad about this, because we are much more comfortable in dry heat than in a tropical, humid climate. Have we mentioned this before😉? Soon, however, a headwind picked up, giving us more time to gaze out at the desert landscape than we would have liked.

We’d actually planned to cover more ground on the first day, but as the day wore on, we were forced to start looking for a campsite. Just then, a man on a ATV passed us and asked if we were looking for a place to stay for the night. He said his beach house was only 500 meters away and that we could camp there undisturbed. We hesitated briefly, as we’d been warned about thefts and robberies along the coast. But our gut feeling told us (rightly so) that Andrés wasn’t up to anything bad. So we followed him, waved friendly greetings to his security guard, and were enthusiastically welcomed by the four dogs. Our host had previously lived in Lima and had a luxurious beach villa built here. He only used it during the day, though, because it’s too big for him to live in. So we had his veranda with a pool and a great view of the ocean all to ourselves. Wow, what a stroke of luck!

Well-rested, we rode along the coast the next morning through small, lively fishing villages. In the afternoon, the headwind picked up again, requiring some real perseverance on the last few kilometers of gravel road. The breeze, however, went quite well with the beautiful evening atmosphere on the coast near Cabo Blanco. While camping, it blew sand all over our faces and into our cooking pot. It crunched really nicely between our teeth… so much for romantic beach camping😉.

From Cabo Blanco, we were able to follow the track closest to the coast, even though it ran through an oil-producing area. As we saw more and more dead birds lying among the oil pipelines, our mood began to darken and we grew pensive… The town of Talara was our first low point. By the sea, fishing boats were rotting amid piles of plastic trash, while on the other side of the harbor, flames blazed from the refinery. Heat, dust, dirt, stench, and misery wherever we looked. After a lunch break in a rather pleasant park, which was being spruced up by out-of-town workers, we continued on toward Sullana. Thanks to the coastal mountains, which glowed warmly in the evening light, we were reconciled to the area and found a great campsite in the desert.

Just a few kilometers further on, the landscape turned green again. The rivers flowing from the mountains have always been used for irrigation and today enable very intensive cultivation of limes, mangoes, and sugarcane. Our eyes feasted on the fresh greenery, but between the fenced-off fields and residential areas, we saw piles of trash and construction debris heaping up along the roadside. At times, we felt like we were cycling right through a garbage dump, yet it was just the normal landscape. In the evening, the parking lot of a church was the only clean, undeveloped area for miles around. Since a church service was in progress, we sat outside and waited until we could ask the pastor for permission to camp. Of course, as foreigners, we stood out and were immediately invited to attend the service. Out of politeness, we accepted the offer and joined the ten guests. At the end of the service, we were personally greeted and asked to come to the front to introduce ourselves to the congregation, which David handled with confidence. Camping in the parking lot was no problem after that😊.

For three days, we rode mostly on flat, quiet paved roads through barren scrubland toward the city of Chiclayo. Near Túcume, we visited the pyramids of the same name, an archaeological site featuring pyramids made of unfired mud bricks that are over 1’000 years old. Archaeologists assume that they were built around 700 AD by the Lambayeque people and were used by subsequent cultures for religious rituals, among other purposes. German engineer Hans Heinrich Brüning stumbled upon the 26 pyramids by chance 120 years ago; they have only been studied in depth since the 1990s. The next morning, in the city of Lambayeque, we visited the Brüning Museum, which displays impressive artifacts from the region, including, in particular, pottery and jewelry. Another museum worth visiting in Lambayeque is dedicated to the royal tombs of the Lord of Sipán, who must have been an important ruler some 1’700 years ago. The burial artifacts on display are certainly very impressive! It is particularly astonishing that the tomb was not discovered until 1987.

These sights were a very welcome change from the bleak surroundings. It was bone-dry again, much too hot for the time of year, and the denser population meant both more trash and more aggressive traffic. Minibuses and motorcycle taxis felt the need to overtake us at all costs, only to come to an abrupt stop ten metres later right in front of us, or they’d drive toward us at full speed, honking furiously, apparently convinced we were going to slam on the brakes right in the middle of the intersection! But other drivers, too, felt it necessary to honk for no reason every few seconds. Boy, was that incredibly annoying! The ride into Chiclayo was more unpleasant than any city entrance we’d experienced in a long time, simply because no one thinks past their own front wheel – the bumper would be too far away.

Our AirBnb in Chiclayo, on the other hand, was quite nice, and we stayed for three nights to recover from the route, which had been particularly taxing on our minds. The last few days had felt like a ride through the apocalypse and had given us plenty to think about. Is this what our future looks like if we humans continue to successfully destroy our habitat for future generations? Don’t this scientific article or this Interview (in German), which really just repeats what we already know, make you worry too?

Enough of playing the moralist… We turned our backs on the dreary flatlands and headed back toward the mountains. With a tailwind and increasingly beautiful views, we made great progress on the first day. In an impressive gorge, we found a flat spot to camp between high rock walls. That made traveling fun again! Unfortunately, that came to an end the next morning. Both David and I were very tired and just couldn’t seem to get going. The heavy, oil-soaked fried eggs for our mid-morning snack ultimately finished David off, so we spent the afternoon in the shade of Catache’s village square.

What followed was a two-day climb on mostly unpaved roads. The countryside was refreshingly green, and the rolling landscape was dotted with small farms, grazing cows, and pigs tethered along the roadside. We really enjoyed the route, but we barely made any progress. This was partly due to the rough, rocky surface and the inclines, and also because of the friendly locals who stopped us every few hundred meters to ask where we were from and where we were headed. David’s exhaustion didn’t help either. Somehow, though, we still made it to Cajamarca. In this small, pretty town, we took a two-day break, strolled through the alleys, cleaned our bikes, and treated ourselves once again to a real cup of coffee, which, unfortunately, didn’t taste that great😉.

On the day of our departure, David was very tense at breakfast and tried to eat something even though he had no appetite. Assuming that cycling was the best medicine, we hopped on our bikes anyway. When we stopped for a coffee break after 20 kilometers, the hoped-for improvement hadn’t yet set in. The fact that a bite of a Snickers bar triggered nausea in David was the sign for us to turn back. We cannot and will not continue like this!

On the way back to our lodging, we passed a clinic where David wanted to inquire about an appointment. He suspected that, like countless other travelers, he had picked up parasites and wanted to get it checked out. It appeared to be a private clinic, as David had to pay for everything in cash on the spot, but he was seen immediately by a trustworthy doctor.

The prescribed lab tests all came back negative. Was that a good thing? It would have been quite helpful to know the cause of David’s discomfort. Well, we picked up the prescribed medication in a pharmacy to soothe David’s gastrointestinal tract and checked back into the same lodging. Our warm-hearted rental host, Herbert, was happy to see us back, and our “roommate”, also named David, was still there, sitting in his usual spot on the sofa. So we felt almost at home and arrived just in time to watch the penalty shootout between Colombia and Switzerland. Actually, we never intended to get interested in this World Cup, but that’s just almost impossible😉.

Now we’ve been in Cajamarca for another three days and will stay until David feels ready to continue our journey. The last extra day in Cajamarca, however, is on me. Because I wasn’t careful enough when trying some street food and spent last night in front and on the toilet…