Rest days in Huanchaco, Peru

Andes Trail days 22-23 of 142, Aug 20-21, 2019

Photos on Google

After 7 straight cycling days, where we covered over 750km, it felt so great to arrive in the beach town of Huanchaco knowing we had two full days to relax. The beach almost looks like California, complete with a pier that sticks out into the Pacific and a bunch of surfers and “Escuela de Surf” places. There are tons of restaurants all along the beach, and they seem to be hungry for customers as it is low season here (winter).

We woke up on the 20th and walked a few meters down to the “Otras Cosas” vegetarian restaurant for breakfast. Crepes, fruit salad, juice – delicious. It was still cloudy and gray in the morning. Andrew and I had a walk all through town but it didn’t look great. After noon, the clouds were actually lifting so we went out again, with Martin, and found a nice Ceviche restaurant that had a 3rd floor dining room with a view. While we ate, the clouds lifted so afterward we walked out to the end of the pier (cost of 1 sol, about $.30). We kind of frittered away the rest of the afternoon then went out to dinner with a big group of 10. The place we found looked good but everyone agreed the food was a little sub-par. On the plus side I used my credit card to pay the whole bill netting me about 310 soles including a bunch of small bills which are much more valuable than 50s or 100s.

On the 21st, Martin and I were hankering for French Toast (he calls it eggy bread), so we headed to the place we had seen the day before that advertised French Toast. Alas it was closed but a little further, we found Cafe Chocolate which looked good and had great French Toast with honey and fruit. James from NZ joined us, with his bike packed and ready for touring. He had only ridden 500m when he decided to hang out with us for an hour. Totally low-pressure touring I guess! He did this part of the Andes Trail with Bike Dreams back in 2012.

From there we caught the bus to Trujillo (only 2 soles, amazing deal) and rode past the archaeological site of Chan Chan (most extensive pre-Columbian site in South America). But it didn’t look exciting enough so we rolled on by and got off downtown. Trujillo is Peru’s 3rd biggest city with over 800,000 people and we headed for the center where there is a nice square, a beautiful church and a fun walking street. Martin and Andrew bought Peru SIM cards and Wim and I hung out at a coffee shop after seeing the sights a bit. We split up and headed back separately, Wim and I immediately went out to lunch at Otras Cosas again where we made a big discovery: I was right – I did recognize Wim from the late 80s in California. We finally connected the mutual friend and realized we had met and climbed together and probably had ridden together, in another life, over 30 years ago! Small world. Alan McEwen, if you’re reading this, Wim says HI!

In the afternoon, it seemed like nothing really needed doing so we passed the time chatting and drinking beer looking at the Pacific. Then it was dinner time and we went back to Otras Cosas and had another great meal. Life is good. And I’m even looking forward to cycling again tomorrow morning!