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29 April 2013

Peru - March 2013

05/03/2013

Adrian lands in Lima just after 20:30. I had told him that a taxi would pick him up and bring him to the hostel, but decided at the last minute to go to the airport and pick him up myself. There was no emotional reunion, just a manly hug. 

Overnight : Lima

06/03/2013

Adrian and I are up early, for he must be chomping at the bit to see some new birds and well, I just get up early every day. We start birding around Parque Kennedy, a rather lush public garden across the road from us. Continue birding while we take in breakfast at the outdoor restaurant. Another taxi back to the airport to collect out rental car. 

The journey becomes something of a pain as it turns out that the rental agency is not at the airport. We waste an hour and an expensive taxi ride to get to the correct place. Paperwork filled out relatively painlessly and we are off. Unfortunately we have picked up perhaps the lowest clearance car in all of Peru, a Nissan Almira. We make a pact to drive very slowly over bumps and ditches, although we probably both subconsciously know this is never going to happen. Load the gear and checkout of the hostel. I am glad to be leaving too - almost 4 weeks in the same place has made me lazy.

Lima’s traffic was easy enough to get through at midday. We make good time to the town of Pucusana south of Lima. The birding starts almost immediately in some scrubby fields before continuing onto the port itself and adding some coastal species. We bird into the late afternoon before returning to the hotel to find that we have a flat tyre. 

On goes the rather smooth spare before we head off to find a ‘Grifo’ for a possible repair. The punctured tyre gets wrestled off with some very old gear before being repaired. Back to the hotel to replace tyres again. [It would transpire in weeks to come that this repair probably damaged the tyre causing it to bubble. We would ultimately end up paying the rental company $US200.00 for a bloody tyre]. 

Overnight : Pucusana

Score : 043

07/03/2013

Having seen all the birds we wanted at Pucusana, we decided to leave early and head towards Paracas some 300km further south. A short stop near San Vicente de Canete netted a decent some more good species. It was decided to bird the town of Paracas before heading off to the national park further south. Depending on how we faired, we would either stay in Paracas for the night or try to get some more distance out of the way. 

As it happened, we cleared up in Paracas with an hour or so to spare, only Peruvian Tern causing me a headache. With an hour of light left, I figured it best to head for the touristy town of Huacachina. I knew the place, the beds were cheap and we could relax with some regular western food. The next week was going to be in the high Andes with crap food, no internet and little for comfort. 

Overnight : Huacachina

Score : 083

08/03/2013

We departed early, having to leave money for our bill on the counter as there were no staff in attendance. The drive carried on through the same desert and scrub as it had since leaving Lima. Birding was intermittent before we took a 5 minute break to allow Adrian to climb the platform and look at the Nazca Lines.

That done we headed through Nazca to the small eco lodge of Wasipunko. I had no intention of staying here, so we birded around the outskirts. Birds in the bag, we returned to the town of Nazca for a late breakfast and a strategy session. We decide to give the Nazca Valley a try despite the soaring temperatures before heading up the long climb to the altiplano. Adrian had started to suffer some form of illness. We settle on too much sun and UV exposure, so he is dispatched to buy a stetson - like it or not. Typical pom, thinks his whitey skin needs a quick tan and gets a roasting instead. The days of a South African perma-tan departed when he got on that plane!

Adrian is hardly in the best health to be heading up into the high Andes, but he seems game. We stop numerous times en route, birding at different altitudes and nailing pretty much every birds that we were looking for.

The rain starts to fall in the late afternoon, but it is neither heavy or a problem to our birding since we are simply driving to the next destination. We bird a small lake just above Puquio before heading into town. By now Adrian is really suffering, so I leave him to rest and sleep while I head off into town to arrange some take away. He eats a decent amount before collapsing into a deep sleep. Not only is he suffering from some stomach illness, he now has to deal with the effect of high altitude and shitty Andean cuisine. The only positive to be taken away is that he is not in Bolivia, the food could be a lot worse than it is here.  

Overnight : Puquio

Score : 115

09/03/2013

I didn’t really want to wake Adrian up too early given his health, but there were birds to be seen and we headed off to see what we could make of it. I have woken up a little under the weather myself, bones and muscles starting to ache. The first stop of the day nets us a number of unexpected species, but the longer I bird, the more I am starting to notice my slow descent into ill health. While Adrian has not exactly recovered, his head is at least clear so the birding continues apace. 

The bendy switchback drive up to the altiplano eventually does me in. Not only am I not well, but I get terrible motion sickness from the excessively winding road. We reach the high Andean Lakes of Yauriviri, but I know I am cooked and cannot drive any longer. The plan is to bird the lakes and perhaps take a walk around one too. I manage the lakes, but after parking up for a small walk decided I had best not continue exerting myself.

Adrian get the keys handed over and completes the drive. I don’t recall much of the next 100km’s or so to the town of Chalhuanca. I do have to check us in, for Adrian speaks no Castellano and the locals here speak no English. I just about manage to fill in the forms before crashing into bed for a horrible sweaty, half comatose sleep. Neither of us touch much of our dinner, despite knowing we needed to eat. 

Overnight : Chalhuanca

Score : 136

10/03/2013

We defer the early morning and get up around 07:30. I am starting to recover, but am careful not to overdo things just yet. Adrian as usual has a clear mind but has yet to recover his guts. The two of us are seemingly suffering the same symptoms, so we have to drive with the windows fully down...

More birding as well descend the Chalhuanca valley towards the town of Abancay. We stop periodically before pulling into Abancay just after midday. Lunch is in order and I know of an excellent cake shop. It starts to become apparent that Mr Burne does not have a sweet tooth. I fail to recall tis aberration, but am not complaining - more cake for me. [It would transpire that my brother has become a very picky eater - almost no meal passed without him ditching some of his dinner.]

The afternoon was going to be freebie, some time to catch up on paperwork and plans for the forthcoming excitement of the Manu Road. Perhaps excitement for Adrian, more trepidation on my side - there was no way that the Nissan was going to get down the Manu Road! A problem for another day I suppose. After a few hours we changed tack and headed up to Bosque Ampay for a few hours. The plan was only to visit tomorrow morning, but given the good weather we attacked the lower part of the forest and managed to get a large number of the targeted species. We would come back in the morning to pick up the remaining species. Rather happy with our haul we headed back to Abancay for some more food and good sleep.

Overnight : Abancay

Score : 163

11/03/2013

We are out early again towards Bosque Ampay. Much to my concern there has been heavy rain overnight. We end up slipping and sliding on the dirt roads, unable to get close to the park entrance. I briefly consider parking up and walking the rest of the way there, but ultimately decide to skip the effort. We have seen seen the majority of the species and will be coming back here after visiting Cuzco and the Manu Road. Better to get on and drive to Cuzco now.

Adrian looks slightly disappointed with this outcome, but it is for the best. He has no idea what type of climb we have to get up here in any case. Adding on a further few kilometres would not be welcomed. The thick cloud and light rain make the climb out of Abancay slightly treacherous. We top out and start the descent passed Currahausi. Some children shout, ‘no pasar‘ (no thoroughfare / don’t pass). I ignore it, thinking they are just having a windup at the ‘gringo‘ as usual. Some thirty kilometres later it would turn out that the whippersnappers were not taking the piss. For indeed, there would be no passing here. Not far after the mighty Apurimac River was crossed, a large landslide had closed the road indefinitely.

Truckers told me that the road had been shut for three days already. Road maintenance crews were probably racing against time to clear the wreckage, I mean, this is THE Panamerican Highway after all - the ‘aorta’ of South America? Nope, nadda, no one in sight...

Now we had a problem, for there was no way around from here. Well there was actually, it would mean going all the way back to Nazca, driving south to Arequipa and then north east to Cuzco (4-5 days roundtrip I would have guessed.) There was nothing to be done here now, so we turned around and drove back to Abancay.

The remainder of the day was spent consulting our options and re-planning the entire trip. Adrian doesn’t do logistics, so that ended up being my job. [This was not going to be the last time that we would have to change things drastically either.] In very simple terms, we would cut out all of Cuzco and Manu. Essentially we would continue the journey as if it was two weeks later when we would have driven from Cuzco back to Abancay in any case. Get back to Lima a few weeks early and fly to Cuzco instead. In some respects, it presented me with a little peace of mind too - for we would have to rent a motorbike in Cuzco, something that would go down the Manu Road much easier than this low sprung piece of Japtrash.

We spent a few useless hours birding in the lower Chalhuanca Valley for very little before having a big dinner and retiring for the night.

Overnight : Abancay

Score : 164

12/03/2013

So it was, that a day after the rain had wrecked our chances of getting to Bosque Ampay for a mornings birding, we were up and trying again this morning. This time the roads were a little easier to drive on, but we parked up a little short of the entrance just in case. A long hike up the mountain produced most of the remaining species that we had been after. In fact we managed to get off the mountain rather early and start the drive towards Andahuaylas.

This also marked the end of my ‘guiding’. Up to this point, I had cycled and visited all the above mentioned locations. The moment we crossed the Chalhuanca River and started the climb to Andahuaylas, we were both in new territory.

The road was dirt, something that we had been explicitly told not to drive on. Like most things in life though, I prefer my own judgement over the instructions of others. So it was that we slowed down slightly while we climbed the narrow dirt road up into the clouds. We followed the same pattern of driving for a while and stopping to bird at likely looking spots. Along the way a taxi driver had sped past us (nothing unusual in Peru). We did keep passing the fellow as him and another vehicle seemed to stop every few kilometres. As expected, we eventually ended up stopping at some point and being joined by our fellow travellers. As can be expected, the occupants were very friendly, the driver even offering us a quick ‘nippie sweety’ to help with the ‘saroche’ (altitude sickness). I have been here long to enough to be game for such things, so up went half a tot of some unlabelled white fluid. Adrian had a go as well too, something both of us immediately regretted for the crap tasted and burnt like battery acid on the way down. Nor would the aftertaste go away no matter how may biscuits or crisps we ate after that. I think both of us felt out stomachs turn a little after that - I certainly wasn’t going to be farting about near any naked flames.

All the fun over with, we continued out journey towards the town of Andahuaylas. We rolled into town in the late afternoon and found a decent hotel. This evening was Adrian’s first experience of a ‘locals‘ restaurant. The type of place where the preconceived Western cleanliness has never permeated. There is no menu here, if one is lucky you might get a choice of chicken or beef for main coarse. First coarse is always a very large and hot soup, something I have taken to in Peru for they tend to be packed full of vegetables as well as some type of protein. Main course of rice and meat follows with a mug of tea. We also ordered a 2 litre bottle of Inca Cola, total price S/. 12.00 (just less than US$5.00, for everything!)

The money we spent on the hotel had just been saved on dinner! A good sleep in some decent beds. Tomorrow would be another long drive to Ayacucho..

Overnight : Andahuaylas

Score : 175

13/03/2013

Not much birding on the menu today, so we left at the more reasonable hour of 06:30. A cloudy and somewhat wet morning drive that came to a rather sudden halt only 20km’s towards Ayacucho - more bloody road works. The road would not open for another few hours, cue a long breakfast and much coffee. 

Off we went again on a shocking mud road before getting stuck at yet another set of road works. Here we whiled away a few hours birding the scrubby habitat next to small village. The road would only open after 16:00 meaning we had little chance of making it to Ayacucho during daylight hours. At least we had some company on the roads, for this area still suffers from banditry and remnants of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path rebels). 

The roads deteriorated further if that was indeed possible, the road works causing thick mud to hide large boulders. The poor car was receiving some heavy blows underneath. Each knock causing an audible ‘oww’ to emanate from my lips as if that somehow appeased the disagreement between metal and rock going on underneath us. 

A late arrival into town was shortly followed by much farting about trying to find somewhere to stay. Eventually a place materialised, the ever present urine odour ignored due to the proximity of a pizza parlour. We wouldn’t be staying long, and it was cheap. 

Overnight : Ayacucho

Score : 179

14/03/2013

Today was the ‘big drive‘ - somehow we were to drive from Ayacucho through Huancayo and down to the Pasco Lowlands. Our preamble hardly installed much confidence as we were took over an hour to ‘escape‘ the town. Now it was time to go like the clappers if we were to get anywhere near to Villa Rica.

First we had to negotiate a long stretch of dry river valley - more dirt roads. Another flat tyre too. The pit team were much improved since their last effort, each knowing and executing to perfection. We could have had Fernando Alonso out of the pits in about 15 minutes, last place, probably 10 laps down...

A few more handy birds as we made our way through this remarkable valley (whose name escapes me at present). Yet another long delay for more road works. There was to be no dallying about as we reached the large town of Huancayo, just a quick crisp and soda stop. Back into the crouched position for another stint. We had now climbed out of the valley, progressing through the high Andes again. At least the roads were now a little straighter and didn’t fluctuate quite as much. We kept on climbing slowly, the temperature correspondingly colder. Into the town of Tarma where we took a turn to the right and started dropping out of the High Andes.

It had already become impossible to reach Villa Rica during daylight hours - a rule I had made and was about to break for the second day/night running. My trusty navigator had become slack causing an unnecessary re-route. At least it did not cost us too much time, but it meant another 20 minutes of bloody taxis causing mayhem all around me. With only 20km’s left of the drive (>550km’s today), I was just about starting to lighten up when the asphalt gave way to muddy track. Great, just what one wants after 12 hours behind the wheel was a slippery, muddy road in pitch darkness. More cursing from me and pain for the cars bodywork as we slipped and bashed out way over the mud.

Rolled into Villa Rica just after 19:30, took a few trips up and down the main drag until we had settled on accommodation. The neighbouring Chifa (nominally a Chinese restaurant/food) was hit soon after touch down. At least we would not be driving much tomorrow. For the first time on the trip, we would be able to walk out of the hostel and into the field.

Overnight : Villa Rica

Score : 185

15/03/2013

With some level of disappointment, we awoke to drizzle and grey skies. There was nothing for it but to head out and see what we could make of the conditions. Not many of these birds were new for me, but for Adrian almost everything that moved was a ‘lifer’. So I buried my weather disappointment and put in my best efforts to find him as many new birds as we could.

The rain relented for a few hours and we managed to add a large number of species to the list. Leaving the trail behind us, we retreated back to town for breakfast just in time as it happened. The rain returned and drenched everything for a hour. I could not complain though, Villa Rica exists only to provide the world with coffee - and I tucked in quite happily.

After a longish breakfast we jumped in the car and headed a few kilometres up the road to the large lake. The rest of the day was spent driving and walking along the lake edge and surrounding coffee plantations adding numerous birds to the list. Despite the shitty cloud cover, we had had an excellent day. Another Chifa dinner before heading back out towards the damn for a spot of night birding. Return empty handed for the first of many ‘tired sleeps’. 

Overnight : Villa Rica

Score : 255

16/03/2013

Back out for another drive around the dam. Last nights rather useless night effort had caused a little disappointment. We struggled to pick ourselves up this morning, wasting much of the morning finding very little. Just as we were getting ready to depart, a bird party kicked off and we recovered somewhat with a small number of additions to the list.

The start of another drive, but fortunately we were not going nearly as far as a few days ago. Out target was the famous Lago Junin. With the late start to the drive, we only rolled into the small village of Junin after 16:00, just enough time to get an hours birding sorted. My navigation expert was asleep once again, meaning we drove down the wrong side of the lake. We made something of our bad position by adding a number of drab looking, but very important birds to the list. On the road back to Junin, Adrian shouted to stop, the last tick of the day being Burrowing Owl - something I told him would be easy to see [it was the first and only one of the entire trip as it happened]. I jumped out of the car just to make sure, sending my camera flying onto the road with a thump. I never have my camera on my lap, but for some daft reason that is exactly where I had put it. [It would only be in the morning that the level fo damage would become apparent - some broken plastic mounts making any amount of focus almost impossible]. The major target - Junin Grebe which is only found on this lake was not one of them though. Accommodation and then a rather poor dinner in the wet and cold town of Junin. 

Overnight : Junin

Score : 274

17/03/2013

With all the changes in plans, I had come up with a small brain waved idea a few days ago. The main birding section of the Santa Eulalia valley was much closer to us here in Junin than it would be from the Lima, the usual starting point. Thus we were headed there this morning to see the major species before going back to Junin and having a proper go for the Junin Grebe in the afternoon.

After two hours we were only a few kilometres away from the turnoff when the inevitable occurred. The long line of trucks meant only one thing, another bloody landslide. By the time we reached it, we were only 1km from the turnoff having drive the better part of 100km’s to get here. So we turned around again and headed back to Junin. Another 200km’s of wasted mileage and time.

We arrived back in Junin just after 10:00, time to find the local conservation office and hire a boat. A boat would make the grebe a certainty. However, it was a Sunday and little was moving. I did find something resembling the local conservation office, but only ended up getting ourselves hooked up with a local fellow who wasted 2 hours of our time taking us to a view point and explaining the history and laws of the lake. Believe me it was one of the more interesting 2 hours I have wasted in my life... Eventually we managed to palm him off and carry on birding ourselves, not that we could find the grebe. The embarrassment of standing on the shores of the lake, being able to see the opposite bank but not being able to see a bird that sits on the water and only lives here!

Oh well, we could not dwell on this any further and started the drive around the lake towards Huanuco. The drive took on an element of ridiculousness, a some recklessness, a bit of luck and some skill. For the road was rather submerged and my poor navigator was dispatched on two occasions wade through the frigid water such that I could see where the road was and more importantly where it wasn’t. Not that i had much interest in turning around, I was really wanting to know just how deep in the lake we would be sunk if I got it wrong, or the engine flooded. I managed in the end, sinking the car to the bottom of the doors a few times, flooding the engine once. The remainder of the drive to Huanuco proceeded without much hassle until we reached the city itself. Again we arrived after dark, strike three for ‘not driving after dark’.

Inexplicably in Peru, the roads between cities and towns are generally good, but the moment one enters a town they disintegrate into hellholes. Add to that the mix of tuk tuks and other irritating traffic, Peruvian towns are notorious places to drive and deserve their reputation. Another fart about trying to find accommodation, but given that we were going to be here for three days I wanted to make sure. We did find a decent enough spot in the end, a place that was outside of the city and closer to our birding destination the following morning. As of a broken camera was not enough, my laptop now refused to start. This had happened before and I knew that I needed it to start in t
order to backup the last few days of work. Nothing would work though, I now had a broken camera and a dead computer. Had the hotel call a pizzeria for room service before another shattering sleep.

Overnight : Huanuco

Score : 280


18/03/2013



Despite yesterdays long night, we were out at sparrows fart to head up to the birding sites of the Carpish Tunnel and Paty Trail. Got stopped along the way a few times by the cops, or who the locals call ‘tombos’. Nothing doing, but they like to check paperwork for the fun of it. The birding started off at a cracking pace, plenty of new colourful tanagers amongst others. By midday the cloud forest was becoming devoid of cloud and the heat kicked in. We had other stuff to deal with in the afternoon such as another flat tyre not to mention my broken computer and defunct camera. 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent fiddling about with the above mentioned issues with limited degrees of success. Pizza delivery again for dinner and caught up with some re-runs of Law and Order.

Overnight : Huanuco

Score : 313

19/03/2013

Today was little different to yesterday, out early again and more stops by the police. Rain during the evening had swelled some of the rivers causing them to rise above the road level. Some locals had climbed out of bed to help clear the rubble and received a few Soles from passing traffic. More stunning species added to the list before returning to the hotel for another crack at the computer and camera. Not much luck with either of them, so we settled in for more Law and Order and pizza delivery. Tomorrow was going to be the monster of all drives, down the Andes and then far north into the Amazonian lowlands.

Overnight : Huanuco

Score : 330

20/03/2013

Todays drive followed the same path as yesterday, so we took another quick stop to check the bird parties around Carpish Tunnel adding a few more species. One horrid drive followed as we dropped out of the mountains and into the Amazon. Quick stop for breakfast in Tingo Maria netted a few more lowland species before we came to a grinding halt at yet another Tombo road block. This time the passports and licences were taken for half an hour before being returned without fault? 

On we went, getting stopped by some different law enforcement personal. The major drug cartels have hooked up with the remnants of the Sendero Luminosa (Marxist rebels) to traffic large amounts of coca paste through this area. The cops seem powerless to deal with the problem, so the communities have organised their own defensive units to patrol the roads. They are located every 20km’s or so and don’t have much more in the way of weapons than 12 gauge shotguns. Despite this, they are friendly and don’t ask to see your papers - just a small ‘donation’ for guarding the road. This was no problem of course, just the donation bit seemed a little perverse given that the person asking for it was armed with a shot gun. One could hardly refuse could you? Over time we got good at it and barely stopped, treating the stop and donation more as a drive through penalty.

Soon the nice new road gave way to gravel. After lunch we lurched to a stop at a large river. The bridge was in place but not drivable yet. So it was off to the pontoon for the crossing. Only we had to wait for the three boats covered in wooden planks to assemble the requisite number of vehicles before departing. Another hour wasted and again our destination seemed unattainable during daylight hours. So much for the rules.

As it happened, we rolled into Tarapoto just in the nick of time. After weeks of tough hospedajes, cold weather and shit food I plumped for a very upmarket hotel. Here at least we could park the car safely and have a comfortable bed for a change. Not great for the budget, but at this point I figured it was worth the comfort. My brother was only going to visit me in Peru once right? A good dinner in the local restaurant before getting a decent shower and sleep. Tomorrows birding was much anticipated, best not to be too tired. 

Overnight : Tarapoto

Score : 348

21/03/2013

Up before dawn for the 20km drive out of Tarapoto, this mornings destination was a another tunnel (birds like these things for some reason?). Our luck had run out so far as the weather was concerned. A heavy downpour started before we reached the site and did not let up the entire time we were there. After four hours of waiting for nothing, it was decided to retreat. A quick breakfast before heading out to some riverine forest. Here the weather was much kinder and we birded effortlessly. While I have made little mention of the specific species we encountered, I’ll make an exception here for the good views of Hoatzin. A remarkable species that does little flying. Youngsters have small hooks on their wings to help them scramble along tangles. As far as I recall, Hoatzin’s are thought to be the most pre-historic of living species. 

More driving about in the afternoon for a handful of other lowland species before returning to our plush hotel for a quick dinner and another decent sleep. Back to the Tunnel in the morning. 

Overnight : Tarapoto

Score : 386

22/03/2013

Back to the Tunnel and to our increasing disappointment, the weather was much the same as yesterday. Yet again we sat our posteriors under a conveniently located blue tarpaulin waiting for the action to begin or at least the rain to clear. Sitting about aimlessly is not something that either Adrian or I do easily, so we were in and out of the rain trying to make things happen.

The rain receded to a drizzle which was more than enough for us to get out and start ticking off a host of new hummingbird species. With the main target species located by 10:00, we shoved off to the hotel for breakfast. Our drive this afternoon would not be long, so we had time to enjoy our breakfast.

The drive to Moyobamba was pretty straight forward as expected. Locating the hospedaje on the other hand was almost impossible despite being within spitting distance of the place. The access road turned out to be a small hidden entrance. In the interim we drove up a dirt road and beached the vehicle on it’s differential, drove in circles and had inaccurate directions given to us. After a frustrating hour we took one last punt at said hidden entrance and finally found our way. La Casa de Seizo is a small hospedaje run by a Japanese couple. They farm freshwater fish and shell fish, something we had for dinner on both nights. Not that one could tell that the fish was farmed in freshwater dams. Which ever way they cooked it there was no muddy taste.

We had already added a decent number of Hummingbirds to the list in Tarapoto but there were still more on offer around the feeders. A late walk around the surrounding bush increased the list further before an excellent dinner.

Overnight : Moyobamba

Score : 399

23/03/2013

The valley running through the hospedaje and the associated bush is known as Quebrada Mishquiyacu. For the first time in weeks, we were able to walk out of our rooms and bird the surrounding areas. No driving today for a bloody change. As it happened, we headed north past another area of humminbird feeders and deeper into the cloud and riverine forests. Birding was a little slow to start with, but we bagged the major species. By midday the heat was increasing, whatever bird activity there had been almost ceased. Thus we headed over to another property that had some more hummingbird feeders. Although no more than 600m from La Casa de Seizo, the feeders were located slightly higher up and surrounded by hummingbird friendly flowers. We were not disappointed, adding another bunch of hummers to the list. The afternoon by contrast dragged on without much further activity.

Another pleasant evening hatting to an older American couple (who had lived in Peru for many years) before another excellent dinner. Tomorrow we would be heading south for a few more stragglers. 

Overnight : Moyobamba

Score : 415

24/03/2013

Up and out early again, although I am not sure either Adrian or I were overly keen on the early start. The birding activity was quite flat again. Further birds were added, but the effort was not worth the pittance that was twitched. Decided to cut our losses and head further north.

We loaded up our gear and the American couple and set off for the town of Rioja where they jumped out for a day of supply shopping. We headed a little further up the road to Yacumama Restaurant. An odd place to bird perhaps, but there were some tricky species that were known to be easy here. Indeed it did not take us all that long to pull out the target species before heading to the outdoor restaurant for a lunch.

We had no sooner returned to Rioja when the heavens opened yet again. The afternoon was spent having a very cold shower before departing for the nearby inselberg of Morro de Calzada. The intention was to bird through the late afternoon and into the evening for some nocturnal birds. All was going to plan until the local police turned up and told us to move it. It was too dangerous for us to be out here apparently. I remonstrated for a while and as much as my limited Castellano would allow for, but they were having none of it. The locals perceive all Gringos to be the same, young kids travelling only to get cheap alcohol and drugs and visit Machu Pichu of course. I want to bash my head on a wooden plank at times like this. Not that there is any point to arguing with the law, back to Rioja for a Pollo a la Brasa (roast chicken) and chips. 

Early to bed, another long day in store tomorrow. 

Overnight : Rioja

Score : 428

25/03/2013

First target this morning was to get further north of Rioja to the tiny village of Aguas Verdes. Things ended up rather Keystone Cop, we left after 45 minutes of farting about not sure if we were even in the right ball park. Incredible how information from three separate sources could be so contradictory.

We made light of the effort and moved further up the road to bird off a very high bridge. A few tricky and unexpected species were twitched. Further up the road we stopped at another pinprick sized village called Afluente. I would say without referencing this with Adrian that Afluente was perhaps one of the best 2 hours of birding we had all trip. The place crawled with birds, may of which we had too little time to identify. Despite standing next to each other, we both saw species individually which required a little effort to find again. Then it was over, the bird activity simply dried up and we carried on up the road and back into the the bloody rain.

Our next target species was to be looked for en route to Pomacochas and no amount of rain was going to stop us from searching and hopefully finding it. The Royal Sunangel, in the top 5 I’d guess of out target species for the entire trip. Fortunately, an easily accessible site is well documented - a small outcrop of rock from the road cutting. We climbed up and combed the rocky outcrop, a site no bigger than a basketball court perhaps without luck. 15 minutes, 30 minutes but nothing. We were both getting that horrible, sinking feeling - we were going to dip.

For change, it was not Adrian that found the bird but I. A fairly plain, royal blue bird sat unperturbed allowing us excellent views before disappearing for a feed. That was all we needed, off the outcrop and out of the wind and rain. We had no further plans for the afternoon so headed straight to Pomacochas and found ourselves somewhere to stay. We had not planned to go looking for the number one target of the entire trip today, but given that we had a few spare hours it was difficult not to be tempted out.
As it happened we did get a hatful o decent species but not the major target. Never mind, I had only budgeted on looking for the fellow the following afternoon in any case.
Overnight : La Florida, Pomacochas

Score : 460

26/03/2013

Another early start to get up the Rio Chido Trail. The trail head was only three kilometres from town, but the hike itself was going to be savage. Without getting into the gory details, we began our climb at 06:00 and did not reach the bamboo forests until gone midday. One might say what is wrong with that? I might reply that this was not a continuous or steady hike - we stopped to rest and breathe every 50-60 metres for the first few hours. The mountain crushed us for most of the day. At least we were adding the odd species, some of which were particularly important. However, the major target (Pale-billed Antpitta) of the climb did not make an appearance nor a squeek.

There was little consolation to be had from any of the other Antpittas or Tapaculos. Nothing was showing or calling. We had to be satisfied with our haul which admittedly did include Lulu’s Tody Flycatcher at 3 feet... The walk down only took a few hours, while easier on the lungs was horrendous on the knees. Lunch was very much required now, a large plate of ‘Chicheron’ (pork and vegetables). 

While having lunch I made an unexpected but crucial discovery. There was a hummingbird conservation site barely 10km’s away that contained a large number of our major target species. Lunch was finished sharpish before we scooted down the road to find the ECOAN reserve. Not exactly the cheapest place to get into, but it was the surest chance we had of finding the trips most sought after bird - the Marvellous Spatuletail. 

A handful of other sought after hummingbird species made an appearance before the daddy of all hummers the world over snuck in for a few seconds. The male put in another appearance about half an hour later, not much more than a few seconds again. Next to no chance of photographing the fellow, but it is an image I have etched permanently onto my brain (something that will be permanently etched onto my skin shortly as well). It was some way to finish the day. Thoroughly crushed after our physical exertion today, but over the moon with our Marvellous Spatuletail twitch we headed off to celebrate.

Unfortunately this is not the place to celebrate such a day for a decent restaurant and beer are impossible to find. So it was a somewhat low key end to the day. 

Overnight : La Florida, Pomacochas

Score : 477

27/03/2013

Today we would be back tracking to Abra Patricia for an early mornings birding before deciding where to stay/go this afternoon. Abra Patricia has a massive reputation as one of the key cloud forest birding spots in all of northern Peru. We started a little slowly, but cloud forests can be like that. Continuing down the road, we added the odd species here and there. This was not as good as expected, so we ducked into a nearby restaurant for a cup of coffee and a strategy conference.

We would ditch the high ridge and head down the road to Valle Hermosa and try the trails instead. I don’t believe we had walked more than 100m along the trail when the heavens opened for the nth time. The rain increased it’s intensity, the surrounding valleys thick with rain clouds. Neither of us took much convincing here, so we turned around and went back up the mountain. We did stop at the Owlet Lodge (another ECOAN reserve) to enquire about costs of staying here. The cost was something extortionate - over US$200 per person per night. That was the final nail in the proverbial coffin as far as we were concerned. Abra Patricia might have a massive reputation, but our experience as well as that of others we have read about suggest it might well be otherwise. Having an amazing bird list is one thing, but if it rains almost permanently then what exactly is the point. It’s like living in Scotland or Ireland with all the bleeding rain.

By now, we had assessed our options and felt that Leimebamba was within reach. We cut it a little close again, but did manage to reach town with an hour to spare. Some truly crap roads that again had us muttering in empathy with the cars undercarriage. More local Andean food, which was half decent for a change actually. We crashed heavily this evening, the early mornings and hard hikes taking their toll eventually.

Overnight : Leimebamba

Score : 486

28/03/2013

More driving though the mountains today in order to reach the town of Balsas located on the banks of the Maranon River. The Maranon Valley is a very significant section of any birding trip to the north of Peru. The deep valley has created a natural barrier allowing for the evolution of species unique to this area of Peru.

The drive out of Leimebamba and into Balsas transcends some spectacular scenery, although not something the driver appreciates much on the narrow cliff faced roads. Inexplicably, the dirt road gave way to asphalt allowing for quicker than expected travel. The odd stop here and there produced a few new birds, but it was not until we dropped to the banks of the Rio Maranon itself that we started to tick off the really important stuff. A quick breakfast was followed by some more birding. All the major ticks in the bag by 12:00 meant we now had options. There was supposedly a hospedaje in town, but we could not find it, nor did we have reason to use it now.

The question now was whether or not we could bird the intervening areas and make it to Celendin this evening. As with most of these propositions, we were game and set off to escape the crushing heat. Not that we were rushing of course, stopping at pre-determined sites for more Endemic species. By 15:00, we had reached another key spot - Hacienda Limon at Lucma. We knew there was a small hike to come, so there was to be no farting about here. Bird in the bag we cruised straight back to the car and set off at a rate to try and make Celendin by nightfall. We had however hit the rather magical trip list score of 500, something neither of us had ever done before. If it is not rain killing our day, it is road works. Another 30 minutes wasted, the slim chances of reaching Celendin in day light now put to bed. 

We did have just enough light to make it over the precipitous pass before a gradual descent into the town of Celendin. Gear stowed, car parked and a little time at the internet cafe before the consumption of a large pizza. More logistical work this evening, we had driven way beyond our agreed mileage, but were also many days ahead of schedule so the plans needed a little altering.

Overnight : Celendin

Score : 507

29/03/2013

Todays drive from Celendin to Cajamarca proceed as smoothly as could be expected. A few bits of gravel and plenty of roadworks, but nothing to slow us down much. The target today was the city of Cajamarca, more specifically a small birding location north of the city for the exceedingly rare and localised Grey-bellied Comet. We attempted to take a shortcut to Rio Chonto but only ended up driving back and forwards for an hour. 

Sod it, I could not be bother to fiddle about anymore with the duff directions. We drove into Cajamarca and back out again along an incredibly crap road. Happy at least that we were in location, we set off expectedly. A quick twitch here would give us the entire day to enjoy the city of Cajamarca, or more importantly get some washing done amongst other mundane stuff.
A quick twitch it was not to be though. Fully five hours it took us to finally locate the blighter. I was again happy to pull the bird out of the bag especially with Adrian looking rather sullen, convinced we had dipped. A distant view it was, but a tick is a tick ultimately. More relieved than over joyed we headed back to town to stock up on supplies and generally take some time out.

Overnight : Cajamarca

Score : 511

30/03/2013

Another relatively straight forward drive out of Cajamarca this morning as we headed off to the town of San Marcos. Again we set out expectant and were again made to work very hard. Unlike yesterday the hard work did not result in a sighting of our targeted species. We ultimately gave in, the Great Spinetail was not playing ball - if indeed it is even still present on this site. One cannot win all these battles, but we still walked away with some tricky species including another Endemic.

I drove the next stint all the way to Sausacocha Lake where we stopped for a trout lunch. We decided against the journey to El Molino (Purple-backed Sunbeam) and instead aimed for the town of Utuzco. We could have a few hours rest as well as being closer to the following days bird site of Sinsicap.  

If only we had known what was in store so far as the road conditions were concerned. By this stage we have driven many hundred of kilometres on dirt roads, nothing overly tricky or particularly decrepit - at least not for any length of time anyway. So we have been breaking the rules for a while, I have copied and pasted this directly from an email we got from Europcar :

“Recuerde que el vehiculo puede conducir en zonas asfaltadas, tenga cuidado.”

The translation goes something like this, “Remember, this car is only suitable for driving on tarred roads, drive carefully “

So clearly we were not paying much attention to the car hire rules. Having said that, even if we had hired a 4x4 I’m nor certain how much more comfortable we would have been on this road. Not even photos can really do the ‘road’ much justice. We had the misfortune to arrive just after a heavy downpour, meaning the road was covered in lakes as large as half a football pitch. Where did one go, was there a shallow route through? These questions repeated themselves every time we dipped the wheels into the multitude of lake. If it wasn’t another lake, then we were sliding through thick mud giving the car a completely new paint job. The licence plate completely covered in mud, not that I was in any hurry to clean such things of course, when we were able to get going I hardly remained below the official speed limit. 

It was a few nervy hours later when we cleared the war zone and had our wheels back on the tar. Almost immediately I took a wrong turn - my navigator dozing yet again. Rather grouchy, tired and irritable we made it into Utuzco in the late afternoon. The only hospedaje in the town that had WiFi was also the site of an ongoing wedding and the concomitant deafening music. WiFi was more important, so we checked in regardless.  

What was suppsoed to have been a quick shower and dinner ended up heavily delayed. The hot shower was not working and instead of simply replacing the electrical shower head, the local genius wasted 90 minutes trying to repair it. I politely asked him to shove off eventually and we headed off for dinner instead. By now we were in the same state as Pavlog’s dogs. We ordered an entire Pollo a la Brasa with an equally large accompaniment of french fries. Adrian maintains that they are chips despite having lived in England for the last 10 years? As has become the norm on this trip (albeit rather contradictory to our respective sizes and weights), Adrian is full before I have even warmed up. Never mind, I Hoover up the most of the remaining food.

The wedding has started to wind down by the time we return much to our delight. Even better it seems that the staff have given up trying to repair the shower head and simply replaced it with another one. 

Overnight : Utuzco

Score : 517

31/03/2013

The planned trip to Sinsicap started a little earlier than planned. At 04:00 some plank, actually multiple planks started playing musical instruments very loudly and particularly badly. As one heavy eyelid followed the other into the open position my brain which had threatened to awake did not. Perhaps a few more minutes of sleep re-entry before it all started again. Now my brain did wake up to the recollection that today was the end of Semana Santa. As anyone who has read up until this point will already know I have a below zero tolerance for religion at the best of times, ever mind when I have it fudged down my throat as now. 

A year of uninterrupted calmness, my new approach to calamity (a smile and a shrug of the shoulders) was in severe danger of reverting to my old nasty form. Had there been an automatic weapon to hand, or at worst a potato I could have shoved down that damn trumpet I may well have done so. As it was, I attempted to get some sleep for the next 2 hours before giving up and getting packed. The stupidity is pervasive, but when supposedly educated societies like Europe and US have yet to free themselves from this cancer, how can I point fingers at third world part of Latin America? 

Moving on, we had some downhill for a change as we dropped quickly down the western edge of the Andes towards Sinsicap. Unfortunately it seemed as though our poor car was starting to give up. Despite Adrian reminding me on a continual basis to ‘nurse the car home’, it looked as though I had failed in that department. The brakes gave off a terrible stink, something I suspected spelt the end of the brake pads. Which would not have been an unreasonable assumption given their excessive use down all the hills. Despite that fact that I always to gear down heavily when slowing, the brakes had taken a battering. A quick inspection suggested that the brakes were indeed very hot. I also had a suspicion that the brakes had become locked due to the hand brake or sticky mud. Either way, I drove at snails pace for the remainder of the descent, only getting into 3rd gear at most and almost never touching the brakes. We would have a closer look in Trujillo where we could actually get mechanical assistance.

Have reached the desired turnoff, we had a long and slow drive up more dirt roads to reach the upper parts of the valley and our targeted species. We had planned on camping in the area tonight, but it looked less and less likely that this was going to happen. Many fo the targeted species fell quickly, only the rare and localised Endemic (Russet-bellied Spinetail) making us do some overtime. With birds in the bag by 14:00 we again moved ahead of schedule dropping out of the Andes completely to the major city of Trujillo.

We reached Trujillo expecting to see a decent city. It looked more like South Africa for the most part with 15ft high walls, electric fencing and private security officers guarding premises from gun towers! And then there was the smell... While I normally abhor staying at ‘Gringo spots’ (ie: pretty much any beech resort with cheap alcohol that gets a mention in Lonely Planet. Come to think of it, they really should re-title themselves as Drink and Drug Planet, for I doubt many of the readers are too lonely after their nightly binge.) However, evident security issues along with the sewage and fish aroma of Trujillo made the nearby Huanchaco just a little more attractive. Not that we were staying with the Gringo scum, a secluded upmarket hotel would be home for tonight. We both needed a decent sleep, something that was worth paying for tonight. 

Overnight : Huanchaco

Score : 525

7 February 2013

Peru - February 2013

01/02/2013

Up and out of the door at 05:00. Today was going to be a long cycle and there was some more climbing to be done before I got started properly. The first two ours of the day wasted while climbing another 600m. My body is hurting on these climbs - I have done quite a few recently, but my mind is starting to quit the battle. How much longer I am going to be able to face the mountains is debatable.

Clear the climb just after 07:00, two hours of cycling to gain 15km’s - not the start I was hoping for. The next sector was relatively flat and the wind would not play much of a part. The hard shoulder deteriorated, meaning I either had to bounce and bump along or play chicken on the live highway. I did both depending on how I felt and how clear the roads were. I felt much better after cracking out 20km’s in less than an hour. Time for breakfast - at which point muggins realises that he has bought no snack foods... So breakfast would take a little longer today - would get out the stove and cook some noodle soup. I am in the desert, but it was certainly not hot yet - cool enough for soup. Then the problems started, the gas bottle pump was leaking. So I could not get any pressure into the bottle and I sure as hell wasn’t about to light the burner with petrol leaking all over the show. Briefly attempted to problem solve but have no luck. This must be related to the petrol leak I had in the mountains - pressure differential probably blew a seal.

No breakfast for me then. Pack everything back onto the bike and head off - hoping there may be a village or something similar along the way. There was absolutely nothing until the 50km mark. When I say nothing - I mean not even a human sign barring the road it was that barren. The best I can find at the roadside stall are some biscuits and very cold Coka Cola. There is a transmission station nearby which offers a foot of shade next to one of it’s walls. I take refuge there and relax for a 10 minutes. I’m not on my own though - flies of plague proportions keep me company, as long as they stay off my face - they can do what the hell they like. Trying to swat them of all parts is a mission in futility. 

Back on the bike and another quick 20km’s has be taking another stop under a tree. The desert has finally given way to a wide river valley full of Acacia trees and some human settlement. I have no sooner sat down when Jean cycles up. Jean must be in his 40’s, a short, scrawny Frenchman - it is not impossible to think that he has been on the road all his life. We sit and chat for half an hour - an inordinate amount of time for cycle tourists heading in opposite directions. Chat over, I think I have another 20km’s to Ica - numbers I am now counting with the sun and bloody head wind in abundance. I’d love to know how the wind is a permanent southerly - except when I get on my bike and it becomes a northerly!


It soon becomes apparent that I have a little further to go. I stop at a service station and have a tub of ice cream to cool me down and give me a little more energy. Despite yesterdays lethargy, I have cycled like a champion today. I enter the city of Ica, cycling the outer ring road and turning left to the small desert oasis of Huacachina instead. Yes, it is a gringo town - but I am actually looking forward to hearing English spoken and having some western food. I have been in Peru almost 50 days now and have had my fill of ‘local’ for the moment. One hostel full, a tout shows me a decent new hotel for a reasonable rate. I check in and get my gear stowed away. Try a few times to connect to the WiFi - I can connect, but there is no internet. The receptionist says that the internet signal comes and goes. Then I notice that the router is plugged into one of those USB modems. Sod that I think, back to my room and wheel my bike back outside. I refuse to pay on arrival now, not until I am satisfied with WiFi capabilities. This is the first time I have walked out though. My tout has a worried look on his face when he sees me and dashes about to find me another hostel with proper WiFi. This found, I see the place full of tourists tapping away at laptops and other devices - this will do then. It is the weekend and most of the places are quite full, so I am happy to have been able to find a bed. Shower, WiFi, food and beer.

02/02/2013

Today is spent relaxing while working on my birding plans for the upcoming months. Eat lots of food, drink lots of milkshakes and generally don’t move very far from the table.


03/02/2013

Pretty much the same as yesterday. Sit on bum, plan stuff and fill my body with food and drink. In the late afternoon I replace all of Chanchos cabling - brakes, gears etc. There was no particular need to do this, but since I had replaced most of the other parts subjected to wear and tear, I figured it was good form to do them too. The cables were a little worn, but would have carried on working just fine for another 5000km no doubt. Pack my gear and get ready for the final push. Tomorrow I will reach the Pacific Ocean - where I intend to dive in and savour the crossing of a continent. 

04/02/2013

Today is the day, barring a fatal accident - I should finish the last leg of a trans-continental cycle. Cycling back into and out of Ica is taxing, the road rough and the traffic displaying the usual crap standards of driving. I take my first break of the day a little out of the town and fill up on fluids and few biscuits for the trip. The next 30km disappear in one sector - not that I planned on cycling this far in an hour, the conditions simply allowed for it. More barren sand dunes interspersed with the odd wattle and daub style house. 

I take one last break before the final stint - the turnoff to Paracas is just over 10km’s to the sea. I lose my hard shoulder, but traffic is light. Despite the wind, I pump my legs to - the distance going by much slower than I had hoped. I kept looking for the sea just like the Vaalies (people generally from Johannesburg, which is located in the former Transvaal Province) used to do when coming to Durban. The early morning cloud obscuring any distant views. As it happened, I could barely see the sea even from a kilometre away. The road took a last drop just prior to the town of Paracas and right now this was blocking my view too.

Then it appeared - not a grand vista, the Paracas town sits in a quieter section of the bay formed by the Paracas Peninsula. What a stark view - I have seen coastal towns, beeches and the likes all over the world, but I have never seen one located within a desert. I have never been to Namibia, but I imagine that this is what it looks like. Barren sand dunes of varying yellows and reds interspersed with precipitous cliff faces. The sea was not the deep blue I had been expecting - perhaps the placid shallow waters and the now exposed sun were against my imagination in producing a light, aquamarine to silver spectrum. 


Perhaps I make that all sound disappointing - I wasn’t, but I had been thinking about this view for weeks now and it just looking much different to the lonely, coarse sandy beech with deep blue waves I had been expecting. I posed for one quick self-portrait before removing my shoes and socks - I was going for a dip in the ocean. Despite all my travelling over the years, I cannot honestly be sure if I had ever seen the Pacific Ocean before. I recall driving past a large body of water, certainly a lagoon in Costa Rica - whether I saw the sea or even thought to look I don’t recall. So for me, this was my first view of the worlds largest ocean. While I have never been all that interested in swimming, I have gone for a swim in every ocean and sea that I have visited. So off I went, head first into the quiet water of the Paracas bay. Full of litter, dirty boats and who knows what else. Probably not the prettiest or cleanest place to have made ones introduction to the Pacific, but I’m sure the views and quality will improve in time. 

Sat down for a quick bite to eat and some coffee. Posed for photos with a local family who wanted to put their 3 year old on my saddle. (Maybe it is the desert heat, but I let them...) Found an economical hotel that even had Wifi where I dropped my gear, had a quick shower and headed out to see what birds I could find. 

The harbour was full of seabirds, taking full toll of the busy fishing boats and restaurants who dumped all the fish guts out on the beach every now and then. Sat quite intrigued with the Peruvian Pelicans. They are not very quick on land - a very displaced, slow waddle to get anywhere. However, when the latest 8 year old kid comes running out with 3 bags of fish guts - you do wonder if the pelicans are only looking at the fish guts as a potential meal. The whole bag gets emptied and pelicans are there - normally the first one on the spot nails the entire lot. They turn their head sideways and scrape their gigantic bill along the sand, hoovering everything up into their large pouch. Then it is much like drinking shots, head gets thrown back and the lot disappears as quickly as it was engulfed. The gulls stand about whinging and hoping for the odd scrap to fall their way, but pelicans are not messy eaters and nothing leaves their ‘scoop’ once it has been engulfed.

Leaving the pelicans, I continued a little further down the beach adding a number of gulls, terns and other seabirds to the list. I was quite stuffed in the heat, even though I was only out for about 45mins. With Stetson on, I could not feel the impact of the sun - I have been remembering the stupidity every since for my arms and shoulders got burnt to a crisp. The sun is just as savage down here as it is at altitude. Spent the rest of the day editing photos, fiddling with spreadsheets and aimlessly watching old episodes of House, CSI and L&O. At least there is something to watch in English, even if I am mostly listening rather than watching.

Dinner was a poor attempt at pasta, they also seemed to forget that it contained chicken. I was in no mood for arguing or getting excitable so went back to my room for a sleep. Tomorrow was another early start to get out onto the Paracas Peninsula.

05/02/2013

Up and out of the hotel at 05:30 for the cycle to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas. This is more of the same in terms of habitat - desert, cliff faces and sea front. However, it holds many species that may not venture close to the bay. For some or other reason I thought that the reserve was much closer and smaller than it ended up being. I found myself cycling much further and harder than I had expected to do. Up and down some horrid little climbs before I came to the first small bay filled with ‘peeps’ (little brown grey wading birds that produce a constant litany of quiet peeps as they go about the job of eating). There wasn’t anything new in terms of lifers here for me, but they were all new birds for the trip list. My first lifer of the morning was not long in coming though, the rare and endangered little Peruvian Tern. Diving for fish and then flying off into the desert where their nests are located. 

Then it was time for some dirt road cycling - the main area of my interest lay to the southern part of the reserve. More up and over along the dirt roads through the sand dunes. I made a number of stops, the bird list ticking over nicely with such cracking new additions as Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes, Blackish Oystercatcher and Wandering Tattler. I reached a small fishing village which had received some excellent reviews of the local beach side restaurants. However, this was not a friendly place - the boats had not returned from the their days fishing yet and the harbour was packed with trucks and their drivers. These were not the friendly drivers of the big artic vehicles that I often refer to. These were delivery van drivers - and there was an antagonistic air to them which made me feel decidedly uncomfortable for the first time since I have been in Latin America. I don’t respond very well to people shouting, “hey” at me. Normally I just ignore it, but this lot were  quite insistent and I caved in eventually, responding with my most gutter Dutch/English vocabulary. I decided not to stick about and headed off sharpish.

Up and over one last killer of a hill where I decided to leave the bike rather than freewheel over down the other side. I’d rather walk back up and have have the downhill to start the return journey. I was drawn to what looked like a small shark swimming in the shallows, until said ‘shark’ came up for a breath of air and a look about - a Marine Otter. Young or old, otters are seriously cute and this one was no different despite the distance form me up on the cliff edge to it in the shallow waters. In all my excitement at seeing the otter and previous birds, I had forgotten that I was still missing perhaps the most attractive tern on the planet. Luckily for me, there was a breeding colony at this site - hosting a few Peruvian Boobys, but mostly a huge number of Inca Terns. A number of photos snapped, I proceeded to walk around the rocky bay looking for the few remaining ‘sticky birds’. 

Everything was falling into place today, as first a single Surfbird and then a small flock of them showed up just as I was starting to despair of finding them. A few more mammals in the way of South American Fur Seal, South American Sea Lion and Long-nosed Common Dolphins. By the end of my walk I sat to study the species I was still missing - the most glaring omission remained the Red-legged Cormorant. While it is perhaps not a common species, this is one of the best places in the world to see it. Despite there being many cormorants (Neotropic and Guanay), I could not find the Red-legged. I kid you not, I picked up the bins and scanned a small rocky island in front of me that had a handful of Peruvian Booby and some Neotropic Cormorant - and there it was. White spot on the side of the neck, red facial patch, and red legs. Well, that only left the Humboldt Penguin which I didn’t think I had much chance of seeing at this time of day (they leave in the morning and only return in the evening). I planned to give them a better go in Pucusana further up the coast in any case. 

With birds seen and the sun starting to emerge I made a dash for the town. I arrived shortly after midday, having seen my fill of birds and still having cycled over 50km’s. I was hungry and had something specific on my mind. So I was rather disappointed when I arrived at my restaurant of choice to find that they had no more chocolate brownies and ice cream. I have been here long enough now to know that restaurant never stray from their menus, they won’t even replace one ingredient with another. I tried anyway, all I wanted now was a crepe with ice cream. None of the restaurants that served crepes were interested in adding ice cream though. I found a small restaurant off the esplanade, and they served crepes with Duche de Leche! They also had an ice cream freezer, so I had a pancake and bought a separate tub of ice cream. I was going to have crepes and ice cream regardless of the many restaurants myopia or obstinance. 

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and updating the lists. In fact, I spent many more hours -until 01:00 the following morning working on my spread sheets. I am now getting quite good at working with Apple’s Numbers program - progressing from columns of summed numbers to writing intricate algorithms to do the same thing without the need for plenty of columns laboriously filled with ‘1’ to be summed. All was going well until 23:00 when I got stuck with one particularly tricky entry. I was trying to get the algorithm to add the quantities of one column with a specified date range dependent on a specific location. Normally when I struggle to formulate the equation correctly, I use the various Help options  or the various Mac forums for similar answers. Nothing much was helping me, but two hours or fiddling finally cracked the bugger. Problems solved, I hit the sack - no pressure to get up on time. In fact, I needed to waste some time tomorrow as the trip to Pisco was only 20km’s and I didn’t want to try getting accommodation at 08:00 in the morning.

06/02/2013

Of course, having no pressure to wake up early means that I am certain to do just that. Bright and curly tailed at 06:00. Doze for an hour before heading upstairs for a continental breakfast. I have ignored the blog for the last week, so spent the next hour furiously knocking out some paragraphs. By 10:00, I decided it was time to go. Packed and set off along the increasingly rubbish road. Much of Paracas and Pisco were levelled in a huge earthquake circa 2007. Paracas is mostly rebuilt now, or at least the tourist sections are - but I think the roads suffered too and at present they are just about doing the job. The large number of tanker trucks hardly helps the roads condition though. 

Then I had the most unreal experience I am ever likely to have in the desert - it rained. This was nothing torrential, it wasn’t even strong enough for me to cover my bags - but there was enough to wet the roads and the surrounding desert sand. More interesting, there were no thick, angry grey clouds either - just a very wispy piece of fluff! This was novel and it kept me rather cool for most of the journey. I reached Pisco easily enough just over an hour later. Hostel found quickly enough, I dropped my stuff and immediately headed out for the local Pisco wetlands. Unfortunately, large sections of the wetlands are under piles of rubble - you do get a clearer picture of just how destroyed the town was when you see the quantity of rubble here. Either way, there was not much of a wetland - found a few of the birds I was after before cycling on the rocky track as far north as I could looking for some ponds of water. There was nothing here though - perhaps the earthquake changed the geography enough that the ponds have now disappeared. There is precious little water in the ‘river’ - more like a small drainage ditch.

Back to the hostel before walking into town and buying some new clothes. I have lost a few pairs of underwear and a shirt in Cuzco, my favourite blue and white checked shirt’s collar fell off before I realised it needed changing. I also needed another pair of short trousers - it has been over a week since my only pair has been in the wash. So a nice bright blue shirt (I can do colour some times) and a hideous pair of Burberry style checked shorts. I really cringed when I bought the trousers, but they had a span of pockets which is my main requirement, otherwise it was more trendy swimming trunks - but what use are they. There was a well camouflaged pair of very dark trousers, but they were a 34” waist - I could jump through them without touching the sides. The next best was a 32” - got back to the hostel to find that I need to put the belt on for these too - my waist is comfortably 28” now. I was hoping to have found a shop catering more for the locals, as our body sizes would be similar - but that was it. All the clothes shopping I’ll be doing for another few years.


07/02/2013

Woke up a little later than planned. Worse, there was no early morning fog cover to keep the sun away - it was blinding bright at 07:00 already. Sod it, I decided to spend another night here and do some more work. So I spent the day checking and critiquing the work that is being done on Global Twitcher, a listing website I use for all my checklists. Currently much work is being done to allow users to use either of the worlds major bird nomenclature authorities (IOC and Clements). You’d think that in a science dominated by DNA that all lists would be the same, but this is not the case. Personally I am very pro IOC for reasons previously mentioned and perhaps beyond the scope of boredom for me to explain in detail. That was my day.

08/02/2013

Today I was up early for departure. Again, the fog was non-evident but I pedalled onwards none the less. It soon became apparent that Pisco sits in a ‘fog hole’, for the fog cloud soon filled its usual position providing cover from the incessant heat. Cycling progressed at a decent pace today, perhaps I am cycling a little harder as I get closer to Lima and thus closer to finishing this punishment. With some surprise I entered Chincha at the 40km mark, at least 20km sooner that I had expected (Google again...)

Chincha is a right hole and I saw no point in stopping when I was cycling so strongly. This now put the resort town of Cerro Azul in my targets. It was going to be a much longer cycle than the 60km’s I had planned on, closer to 100km now. Getting to Cerro Azul today would save me a days riding though and it would undoubtedly be a much nicer place to spend the night than Chincha. 

No further convincing required. Another enforced break at the 55km mark as yet another front tyre punctured. Am seriously sick of these tyres - very nice to cycle on when they maintain their pressure - but they puncture awfully easily. If I had had much further to go, I would have sourced some thin plastic tyre inserts.

I cycled so strongly that I rolled into Cerro Azul just after 13:00 having covered fractionally over 100km’s. Looking at the time splits - I’d have finished among the peloton if this had been a TDF stage - loaded touring bike and all (perform ‘head wobble’). Yet another gorgeous little beach town - very clean and well organised, the deck chairs and umbrellas must have been set out by a German. I found myself a decent crash pad and decked myself out for a little Mac work before almost falling asleep at the keyboard. 

09/02/2013

Up and out early again, today was an 80km stretch to get through in order to reach the last of my birding destinations before arriving in Lima. Again I set off like a train, shifting along at TDF pace for the first 60km’s. The arrival of some horrid hills and head winds soon had me ‘treading water’ before cutting east towards Pucusana. More damn hills and the sun was now out, pounding me with all its radiation. (I have a terrible leg tan as a result)

The final stretch contains a very steep descent, something I was rather conscious of having to cycle back up when I left. That was a problem for another day though. Pucusana is another of those beach resorts, a very popular one by comparison to everywhere else I had been - but it is not very pretty, built around dirty fish docks. The standard of accommodation is equally crap - a massive disappointment given the places popularity, I had been expecting much better. It was what it was, and this was my last chance to find the much sought after Humboldt Penguin.

I checked into the what must have been the dodgiest hotel in town, but it was cheap at least. Nothing else I looked at seemed any better. Pucusana also has water restrictions - so one had to make a dash for the showers at certain times of the day, something I was not aware of initially. So after a long and very sweaty cycle, I entertained myself with a large bucket of cold water. Shower sorted, I was out for a spot of lunch and to find a cash point - I had all of NS20.00 left. Despite promising not to let myself run so low on cash again - especially when the town I was leaving had accessible cash points, I had done it anyway. True to form, the only cash point was not working. NS20.00 was not going to get me far, so it crossed my mind that I might have to check out the following day instead of staying for the planned two days. Most of the restaurants accepted cards, so perhaps I could work things that way instead. I didn’t even have my normal supply of emergency US dollars having used them weeks ago in Chalhuanca without replacement! Idiot.

Later in the day I tried the cash point again and much to my luck it was working. Now I was at least sorted for cash. While I had only planned to go looking for the penguins early the next morning as they departed their roosting site, I decided to go for a preliminary scouting route to see where everything was. This involved a steep climb up a rocky hill that ended with a vertical drop into the ocean on the other side. I sat for about half an hour and just watched the common birds go by. Whereas I had struggled for two days to find Red-legged Cormorant in Paracas, here they were the commonest of all the cormorant species. While scanning the foamy littoral, I noticed some porpoising movement in the water far below. Upon closer inspection these turned out to be a small number of Humboldt Penguins, an adult and a few immatures. Despite only taking my eyes off them for a few seconds to get my camera, I was unable to relocate them. A few minutes later they showed again, but ducked back under the water before I could get any photos - and that was the last I saw of them. 

Target bird twitched, I no had a free day tomorrow. Mini parrilla for dinner - small metal BBQ, hot coals and a grill cooking your selections of steak and chicken. 

10/02/2013

Nothing much happened today. Spent some more hours working on the Global Twitcher website before compiling and writing the ‘American Blog’ piece which I published last week. Sat and looked out over the small beach for a while after lunch. A quite disgusting place full of feral dogs running around, shitting all over the place and fish heads floating in the wave wash. There was even a sign at the top of the road forbidding people form bringing dogs to the beach - but the authorities cant/won’t even deal with the all the feral ones. People and kids run about in amongst all this crap - no surprises when they get sick as hell then.

Dinner at the same place as last night - it was also the only place that I could get WiFi access. 

11/02/2013

At least I was leaving the shithole of Pucusana today - or at least I was supposed to have left early. Today I was greeted with a rear wheel puncture despite having checked that the tyre was fine last night! Yet again, I could not find the course of the puncture - hopefully it would be the last one I would have to deal with for a long time to come.

I had all of 65km’s to get to Lima today. The conditions were not great for cycling, but I made decent enough time. By 10:00, I was already entering the southern outskirts of the city. A small wrong turn meant I had to make a detour, but it was not all that long before I had the coast in sight again. There was even a cycle lane on the sidewalk for me to get onto. Not that anyone paid the lane much respect as cars were parked all over it, taxi drivers used it as a drop off and pick up site and pedestrians struggled equally with the concept. How odd then that after almost 8000km of cycling, the closest I came to being knocked off my bike by another road user happened here off the road, on a bloody cycling lane. Despite driving past and front of me, the dumbo taxi driver then open his door on me. Much to his surprise (?), he received loud and vicious verbals from me - just enough time to shut his door such that I could give it a good punch as I went passed. I really do hope that the window managed to give him a decent thump on the head - but I doubt it would have had a lasting impression.

He wasn’t the only one to get a whack today either - another moronic pedestrian walking in circles while remonstrating wildly with someone on his mobile. Despite having circled numerous times in my direction, the muppet continued to walk in aimlessly - probably expecting me to stop my bike and wait for him to finish before moving on. With some delicate timing, I managed a perfect and satisfying head slap as the prick turned around for the umpteenth time. I didn’t stick about to see whether he needed a change of underwear or if he just carried on shouting at his phone.


There has been a noticeable and progressive lack of respect for other road users as I have gotten closer to Lima. What is it with city people that they think their lives are so much more important than everyone else’s. They are the only road users (the world over) that go into this aggressive bubble when they get behind the wheel. They don’t give way, they positively aim at pedestrians, cyclists and motorbikers. What I would give to have a paint ball gun or better when cycling or running in city traffic.

I eventually reached the upmarket neighbourhood of Miraflores. This is Lima’s version of Chelsea/Knightsbridge or much of coastal Cape Town. The views are incredible over the Pacific Ocean, the infrastructure and buildings all modern and all capable of withstanding strong earthquakes. Much of the lower beach road is a Tsunami zone - with numerous signs and exit points to the higher ground just above. I am not a shopper in the slightest, I hate the inconvenience of congregating with large numbers of mindless sheep, but I might say that the Larcomar shopping mall is the most beautifully situated in the world. 

12/02/2013

Today was a sit back and relax day. Spent some time researching the various motorbike shops and put together my plans for the next few days.

13/02/2013

An action packed day running around Lima looking for and at motorbikes. The first place I went to was called Barbacci Motors. I walked in, had a look about - a helpful assistant answered a few of my questions and offered to quote me on the bikes I was interested in. Quotes in had, there was no hard sales pitch either. I’m not sure why I bothered going anywhere else, I was already set on a specific bike and the non-sales pressure had further convinced me that I really liked this place. I rather resent strong sales pitches!

Anyhow, I carried on to a few other places looking at some Honda and Suzuki bikes. They were certainly nice, but way above my budget. So even though I was already leaning towards Barbacci Motors, I was now settled on them. I tried researching the model of bike, but could find nothing on it. A little concerning, especially since this was some Chinese model. However, I figured I didn’t really have a choice. I further consoled myself with the knowledge that the Chinese had in all likelihood nicked the Japanese patents - so this was probably as near enough a decent Honda without the badge.



Just to be certain I decided not to make any purchases today, I would sleep on it for the night first. 

14/02/2013

First action of the day was to head off to Barbacci’s to start the buying process. The lovely sales assistant from yesterday was on hand again to help me out. Despite my lack of Castellano and her lack of English we managed to get most things sorted out before resorting to Google Translate for some of the finer details. A painless process that lasted no more than an hour. I would receive the bike this afternoon and then have to sit tight until my ownership papers came though in about 10 days time. 

So, with that sorted I continued the process of trying to ship my bicycle back to South Africa. At least the cost was starting to reduce - it started off at way over US$3000 and had now come down to around US$800. Still way too much for it to be viable. However, I had not actually boxed the bike up yet, so the volume might reduce when I had.

Walked to the motorbike store to take delivery only to find that I was supposed to take collection at my residence, not the garage. Quick taxi ride back to the hostel where I signed some more paperwork and received a whole span more. For some reason or another my panniers and helmet had not made the journey. Another walk to the garage to collect my gear and ask some more questions. The lovely Tania sorted out my questions and gave me her email address should I need any more help with the licensing process. This was all going too smoothly for my liking, there would have to be a catch somewhere!

Legged it all over town trying to find boxing and packing material. After many kilometres, I came across an entire street of merchants selling boxes, bubble wrap and other assorted gear. Bubble wrap and boxes sorted I set off for the hostel, a good 3km’s away. The flat pack boxes were too heavy and unwieldy to carry - so they got the African treatment and were placed on my head. This caused much entertainment and laughter for the locals as I walked home.

Now came the task of breaking up Chancho and boxing him. What started off as a plan simply to remove the front wheel turned into an entire demolition job stripping everything into component form. Chancho in pieces along with the panniers and other gear of no further use was boxed up with much difficulty - the boxing tape rather weak and useless.

I now had a box much smaller than what I originally thought - so new dimensions sent to the agents - am still waiting for an updated quote from them.


15/02/2013

Not much on the agenda today. Spent most of the day sorting out the final few errors on the Global Twitcher site before the Admins were to launch. It must be noted that I could only report on the errors with respect to my own list - so hopefully they were generic. The list goes live in a few days, I just hope I have managed to help enough that there are not a large number of problems to deal with. 

16/02/2013

Boredom finally got to me today. I decided that I needed something to occupy myself so set off looking for running shoes and a Nike+ chip. The shoes were easy enough to find - they are seriously bright but they also had a big discount and I really didn’t want to be spending too much money on them. The Nike+ chip was a little more problematic, but I did eventually find one in an Apple shop. The staff had no idea what it was called or even what it was for, but recognised the picture I showed them thankfully. 

Running gear sorted, I had one last item on the list to arrange - getting my lip pierced again, this would be the 4th time that I have had said piercing put in. Found a decent spot, good hygiene and processes - so felt comfortable enough with the pre-piercing process. I have had my lip pierced so many times that there is a fair amount of scar tissue - which makes the piercing process more difficult on every subsequent occasion. It also make every subsequent piercing more painful than before. Tears streamed down my face, not just when the needle was pushed through (which took a few shoves), but also when the piercing was put in. Normally a straight slug goes in with the needle, but I don’t like them all that much - so instead of waiting for the hole to seal and then replacing with a ring, I had the ring put straight in. This necessitated some more twisting and pushing as well as many more tears. The staff thought this was really funny - so did I actually, but they were quite involuntary.
 
Later in the afternoon I put my trainers on and headed out for a run along the escarpment overlooking the ocean. The first few kilometres felt just like the old days, but it was soon apparent that this was not going to be as easy as I remembered. My pace dropped off, the legs and arms got sore - and generally I felt rather crap after 3km’s! There was no way I was settling for such a short run, the mind took over and simply instructed the legs to carry on. I managed 10km’s before deciding that I had done enough for my first run in 14months. I may have cycled thousands of km’s, but the muscles are used in a different way and it was not much help to my running.

17/02/2013

Legs barely wanted to move today - absolutely shredded from last evenings run. They would have to sort themselves out, for there would be more running later today. A lovely US motorcycling couple (Tonia and Dell) have arrived at the hostel for a few days. Going to plunder their brains for idea and tips on the motorbike as well as the route they have travelled to date - all the way from Delaware through central America to Lima.