Bush camp Motupe to Lambayeque. 72 kms, 64 metres of climbing. A nice early day.

After sleeping in my new tent for the first time, and first time on tour, it wasn't that bad. I crashed out at 8 pm and woke around 6 am. Putting the tent up was pretty straight forward last night and packing it away took about 5 minutes. I need to get the construction and demolition of the tent down to an art, because when we get further south and the weather is horrendous, I need to be able to do it quickly.

The group rolled out of Motupe around 8.15 am. By the time I got along the dirt track and up onto the main road, cyclists were all ahead of me. Barry and Lupcho had raced up the road to catch Jorst and James, but didn't catch them. I was glad to ride with the bunch of about 15 riders, and today I felt better so did some turns on the front. Now that has to please some my bike riding friends back home.

We rode along a dead flat road, with the usual kids calling out 'Gringo, Gringo'. We just waved at them and continued on. Today was a really pleasant day of perfect temperature and the headwind wasn't that bad. Once again the very small towns we rode through were of the mud type and tin roofs. Every bridge we rode across showed no water in the rivers below. This place is so dry right now it's amazing. I'm not sure when the rain comes in this part of the world.

We continued on into Lambayeque at around 11.40 am to find James and Jorst's bikes but not Barry and Lupcho. By the time I had a shower, shave and washed my clothes for the next 2 day's of riding. Barry and Lupcho arrived some time later are having gone the wrong way. At the end of the day it doesn't matter one bit what your time is, as long as you arrive at your destination in one piece.

My home more commonly known as 'Tent Hilton'. Named after my very good friend Mr Rodney Sanders. 

 You can see we camped in a dust bowl last night, but I'm not complaining as there's another 70 more nights of these coming up.

 I took some photos in the local market in Lambayeque. They all wanted to show off their catch.

 More fishing moments.

 And boy hasn't she got a big one.

I took the above photo during our trip to the Museum in Lambayeque. It's amazing how these bodies are preserved so well after all these years.

Once we had lunch at the Hotel Santa Lucia, Buck, Max and myself went for a walk of the markets and tried to locate a shop that would sell up a 'Claro' sim card. We were told that the town wasn't big enough to have an agent, meaning we would have to wait 2 more days until we have our rest day.

Max left us, so Buck and I went and visited the famous Bruning Museum. The museum was established in the early 1900's, contains hundreds of gold and silver pieces, as well as textiles and ceramics from the Vicus, Chimu, Moche, Inca and Lambayeque cultures. For a bit of useless trivia, Lambayeque is the home of King Kong milky candy, a popular dessert with filling made of fresh milk, pineapple sweet5s and sometimes peanut. This part of Peru is also famous for their Alfajores.

Buck and I had had enough walking around so went back to the hotel to rest up. When I got back Barry, Lupcho and Franz were going to the town of Chiclayo to check out some bicycle shops. I thought what the hell, I'll go to bed early and catch up on the hours of sleep I've already missed this holiday.

The taxi was about $5 US for the 15 minutes trip for the 4 of us one way. A pretty good bargain. Once in town we looked at several bicycle stores, none having Peru cycling jerseys, and a couple of clothing stores, all to no avail. I was told Lupcho our mechanic on the tour has a bicycle store in Huanchaco, the town where we're having our 2 rest days. We should be able to get a cycling jersey for sure.

As we were catching the taxi back to Lambayeque, we came across a serious motor vehicle accident with the car on it's roof in the middle of the road. How crazy is this? It was one of the mad taxi drivers from this part of the world. The drivers in this town drive exactly like the idiots in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and the list goes on and on.

Tonight will be another quiet night, no dancing girls or loud music. A nice meal and do some reading.

Tomorrow we head towards the city of Pacasmayo. Not sure what awaits us. I do know it's not a bush camp.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.