Northern Peru Adventure - Part 2 - onward to my destination

The Panamerican Highway is around 30,000 kms (19,000 miles) in length running from Alaska to Argentina, apart from around 160 kms (100 miles) between Panama and Colombia, called the Darien Gap, where the route passes through swamps, marshes and rivers making it too expensive to construct a highway. Much of the route is along well-made roads, usually principle roads through the various countries it passes through, some even purpose built, but in many places in Peru it goes right through the centre of towns, cities and villages, turning here and there along different roads as it makes it way through to join the highway the other side. At times you find yourself riding along a pot-hole ridden section through a shabby suburb, with no indication that you are still on the main highway - you reach a t-junction or cross-road, and there is no sign telling you which way the through route is, and at times you even find the road closed and have to find your own way back on track.
So it was with some delight that shortly after leaving Piura I found myself on a newly constructed section of fine dual carriageway, though this was fairly short-lived, and soon I was in the town of Sullana. The highway runs right through the middle so should not be an issue, but at the far end, just before the river Chira, you go round a roundabout and there are two exits side by side - one, the main road, heads into a tunnel, which has a "no motorbikes" sign, so I take the right exit and see the main road alongside me disappear into the tunnel, so keep going. As always there are no more road signs so I just keep going straight, hopefully following the route of the main road, and soon see the river to my left, and the main bridge crossing running alongside my route! I can see a smaller bridge some way ahead so keep going, and take this bridge, even though there are still no road signs, and keep going forwards - eventually with no warning we meet another road, with just a small "give way" sign at the opposite side of the road. I assume that I am back on the Panamerican Highway, but then notice I am on a road running parallel to it, with no sign of any links to it! So I turn back and eventually ride through a petrol station which straddles the two road, and am back on my way!
The countryside I am going through now is quite lush vegetation, so a very pleasant change from the coastal desert I had ridden through yesterday, and at first traffic is quite a lot heavier as it appears to be a populated area, so I have to keep my wits about me as there is a proliferation of three-wheelers, though they are pretty good at riding on the hard shoulder leaving the carriageway clear. Though as I leave Sullana district behind the vegetation turns to, I think, rice fields, and traffic becomes sparser.

I passed this huge (for Peru) water park, though there was no-one there

At first these mountains could be seen in the distance

These fields soon give way to arid scrub, and at times the road runs arrow-straight for mile after mile through this bleak landscape

More sand!

Featureless landscape

Though there were still some hills on the horizon

I just kept on eating up the miles, looking for some shade when I needed to stop and stretch my legs or have a drink, and passing the occasional car or truck - at times traffic is so light it is hard to believe that this is a Highway, and Peru's main transport route for freight, and also the link to Ecuador to the North.
Sights like this, a canyon created by rainwater run-off from the Northern Andes, helped to break the monotony 

Deep ravines carved by rainwater

The road ran along the ridge

The riverbed dry for most of the year

but for the most part there was little to see along the way. This area has seen a lot of oil and gas exploration, much by US and British companies (Peru only "owns" the rights to 26% of the oil and gas production, the rest has been leased to foreign companies who have the resources to exploit it!), and in some places pipelines run alongside the road, and working and derelict pumpjacks are dotted around everywhere.

Pumpjack

I understand that some of these pump oil and others gas

I had made reasonably good time so far, as it was all along the highway, and once the road left the pumpjacks behind and dropped to follow the coast the journey became more enjoyable - the region is still arid desert, but having the sea alongside for much of the way, and passing through numerous small towns made for more pleasant riding I still had to make a stop every hour or so to stretch my legs and ease my numb butt - dirt bike saddles are not any good for touring - and managed to find a tree for shade when the time came.
I knew that the hostel I was booked in was a little way outside Zorritos, but the address just said KM582 Panamerica Norte, and kilometre posts were in short supply, and in fact I rode straight past it initially - the sign was angled such that it was not very visible from the road! When I reached Zorritos I realised I had gone too far so turned back, and managed to find it at the second attempt!

My bungalow at Zorritos

I hadn't stopped to eat on the way so my first priority was food, however the restaurant was closed, so I rode into Zorritos and found a small restaurant and ordered some ceviche (Peru's national dish of raw fish, which is "cooked" by marinading in lemon juice) - they recommended fresh caught swordfish, and it was heavenly, easily the best ceviche I have ever had in Peru.

Map of my route from Piura to Zorritos

Then I headed back to the hostel for a siesta - having covered another 250 kms that day.