Trujillo to Mancora

After looking around the Chan Chan pre-Inca ruins and spending some time out at the beach town of Huanchaco, also recovering from getting sick it was time to head north again and do some hard riding through more deserts. This time though I had a riding buddy, a young Austrian guy with a dodgy local bike and some hand made saddle bags! It actually worked out well as some of the places we were riding through are a little dangerous so having a riding partner was a great help, this said we did come very close to getting held up and robbed in one town!! Anyways, riding with someone else was a great change and we seemed to be riding well and doing a lot of kms in good times so it made the boring scenery and headwinds a bit easier to manage.
The further north we rode the hotter the temperatures were getting and the terrain more barren but the riding was fun and just so different from riding by myself. Also, we had a couple of really early starts so were up and out the door by 4.30am as we had some serious kms to do, but riding in the dark was hard going and probably not the smartest thing to be doing! After a couple of 100km days we got a good flow going and on the third day out from Trujillo we had the Sechura desert to get through in one day as there is not much in between the two towns on either end of it. The road was flat and it was hot with shifting winds but we managed to complete the 215kms and get through it by late afternoon. Carrying all my gear plus an additional 10 litres of water certainly made the bike a little heavier but as the day went on the bike got lighter as I chopped through the water and food in the 38 degree heat! I was knackered and had very sore legs after the longest ride of my trip so far but we had another 185kms to do the next day so it was an early night and out the door at 4am again the next day. This time with extra sore legs and a bunch of hills the going was even harder but we managed to get through to the beach town of Mancora. We were off the bikes and straight into the closest bar for a beer to celebrate our 400kms in two days before finding a hostel for the night. The last couple of days have been spend eating a lot of food and relaxing on the beach in preparation for the next week or so of riding across the border and up to Quito, Ecuador. Peru as been a great place but it is a extremely large country and cycling through it has had its fair share of challenges so the prospect of a new country and getting back into the Andes mountain range are going to be a welcome change. Border crossing are always fun and the first few days riding in Ecuador will be through lots of banana plantations and I hear in they have free bananas on roadside stalls so that is going to suit me just fine! Oh, and for those who have forgotten it is my birthday next week (24th April) so just send the gifts etc on to Quito, Ecuador and I'll get them when I arrive! Look out Ecuador here I come!!

Riding Stats
> 12th April - 106km
> 13th April - 107km
> 14th April - 215km
> 15th April - 185km

Total 6047km