Northern Peru Adventure - Part 8 - The (not so) old man and the sea!

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, was one of our set books at school, and, unlike most of the others we had to study, I absolutely loved it. Being a loner myself I could really empathise with the main character, Santiago, and his lone struggle against the elements and his beautiful giant Marlin, though I would never have been brave enough to venture out to sea like that alone! Ernest Hemingway had spent time at Cabo Blanco, not far down the coast from Mancora, and some say it was the inspiration for the novel, which was set in Cuba (and written while he lived there!) - in any case some of the film version starring Spencer Tracy (who always reminded me of my grandfather as there were visual similarities!) was shot on location at Cabo Blanco, so it was a must visit place for me.
Heading South from Mancora there are other places of interest and the first was El Nuro, where they do turtle watching excursions. Just before the turning to El Nuro I stopped to take a photo of one of the several places along the Panamerican Highway where floodwaters from the Andes, rushing across the arid coastal desert, had washed away the road. The diversion round the breach caused by the flooding has become a permanent part of the highway, and now several loops form part of the road!

Panamerican Highway near El Nuro

One of the "loops" originally created by Andean floodwaters washing the road away

El Nuro

Cormorant drying wings

New development at El Nuro

A lot of turtles inhabit the coastline here and have become a tourist attraction - with trips organised so you can swim with the turtles. This is something I strongly object to - any close human interaction with pelagic creatures is, in my opinion, dangerous to them. If they associate humans with food (the tour organisers "chum" the waters to attract them close to the pier) and so lose their fear of humans this puts them at risk from those wishing to harm them. There were also two men fishing at the end of the pier, very close to where the turtles were swimming, so there is also the risk they go for the bait and get hooked.

Here, too, the pelicans roost on the fishing boats

Blue-footed Booby by the pier

More Blue-footed Boobies

Centre shot one of the turtles surfacing 

Despite the warnings this swimmer was very close trying to get a selfie

Warning sign "Prohibited to touch the turtles"

This boat was cleaning their catch and tossing scraps overboard attracting a flotilla of Pelicans

Brown Pelican

Turkey Vulture on the beach

Heading back to the Panamerican Highway to continue Southwards I spotted a sign to Cabo Blanco, and though it led to a dirt road I decided it would be more interesting than the tarmac highway, and my bike is supposed to be off-road, so I took the turning and pressed on. The road was in reasonable condition for the most part, but there were a few places where the sand had blown across making progress trickier, but no great problem for my knobbly tyres. 

Beautiful deserted beaches along the way

This "pier" is where the gas from the rigs comes ashore

... and becomes a perfect roost for seabirds

Cabo Blanco in the distance

Cliffs above the coast road

Some interest shapes formed by wind and water

Approaching Cabo Blanco

One of the multitude of gas rigs along the coastline here

"Best friends" these two seemed unconcerned by my presence, lying in the seawall in front of some fishermen's houses

Boats at anchor

I have always had a fascination for fishing ports, so checked if it was OK to go onto the jetty to see the catch being unloaded 

Heading out onto the jetty I saw this large group of Pelicans - waiting patiently for the scraps the woman above was throwing to them as she cleaned the fish

The jetty was quite busy

... with boxes full of beautiful fish

... being tallied up by the person on the right

On the opposite side at the far end more Pelicans being fed the cleaning scraps - they did fight a lot over them

These Boobies were much closer to the action, and away from the bullying of the Pelicans

I tried to keep out of everyone's way as it was very busy, with more boats arriving all the time, and ferrying the catch by tender to the jetty - it looked like this cost them a few fish each time!

Another load arriving at the jetty

Most had the fish already sorted, but some arrived with the catch mixed, and were made to turn away to sort and box the catch before pulling alongside again

Red Snapper, I think

Another tender arriving - behind is the coastline I had ridden along from El Nuro

Bonito in the orange basket

... and more Bonito

.. and yet more 

More boats sailing in - Cabo Blanco is unusual in that most of the fishing fleet are sailboats

One of the ones turned away to go and sort the catch!

More expectant Pelicans

Eventually I decided that watching all these fish being landed had made me hungry, so I headed off for a Ceviche lunch at a restaurant opposite the jetty, knowing it would be fresh, and it was wonderful. Ceviche is a traditional Peruvian dish of raw fish, that is marinated in lemon juice, which "cooks" the fish surprisingly quickly. Raw onions and chillis complete the dish, and it is usually served with choclo (large white sweetcorn), and slices of potato or Camote (sweet potato) - a small plateful is often served as a starter, but I had it as my main course. Another place I definitely will return to one day, and somewhere I would like to spend more time than a day trip.
Heading up from Cabo Blanco to El Alto I stopped to take a photo of the view from the top

Looking back from near El Alto - Cabo Blanco is hidden below the cliffs, but some of the fishing fleet is visible

Bleak lunar-like landscape a short distance from the coast

One of the gas "pumps"

 before heading back up the coast to Mancora. An amazing day all in all.

From a high vantage point on the Panamerica you can see one of the "loops" where the road has been washed away, and the detour eventually became permanent!

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.