December 29, 2010

Guayaquil

As I was leaving Machala, proclaimed to be the Banana Capital of the World, I rode past the Bananero monument and continued past banana plantations,



on the way north to Guayaquil. At one of the food and drink stops on the way, I saw a guy with a Banana Republic T-shirt, which I thought was pretty funny.

I also saw many plantations with cocoa trees and stands selling coconuts, whose content is a great refreshment and helped me to make swift progress, and I arrived in Guayaquil in the afternoon after crossing the bridge over the wide Rio Guayas,



Guayaquil neither looks nor feels like a place that's boring; after 1600 km (and no flat tires) since leaving Lima, I look forward to staying here for a couple of days before flying back to the US.

December 28, 2010

Machala

Today was not going to be a long riding day, but I left Tumbes reasonably early,



since I expected the same kind of amusing chaos at the border that I had experienced in Central America. Well, it didn't quite work out...that is, the chaos: After 20 km as I was passing Zarumilla, I was thinking I had taken a wrong turn, since there was absolutely no traffic, except for myself, on a section of freeway that looked pretty new. But after a few more kilometers, I arrived at the Peruvian immigration checkpoint, which was not exactly crowded:



I promptly received my exit stamp and proceeded to Ecuador continuing on the luxuriously empty road,



Entering Ecuador was easy, even though there actually were two people in line in front of me. It was almost frightening how well organized everything was. In conjuntion with the freshly paved road, it felt a bit like crossing the border from Switzerland to Germany during a World Cup Final, with Germany and Switzerland being the finalists...but, then...there they don't stamp passports anymore and they have bananas only in grocery stores: what a change of scenery since the day before yesterday. The desert disappeared and now I am riding past banana plantations and shrimp farms,



I will probably ride all the way Guayaquil tomorrow and stay there one night more than planned.

December 27, 2010

Tumbes

East of Mancora, the road closely followed the coastline. Besides picturesque fishing villages and pretty beaches, I had the opportunity to admire a piece of automotive history that was parked on the side of the road. In the unlikely case that you have ever wondered what kind of vehicle Lieutenant Columbo would drive if he were a redneck, this may be the answer:



It's the pickup truck version of the Peugeot 403, which was build from 1955 to 1966. Despite some evident wear and tear of the exterior as well as the interior,



the truck seemed to be fully operational.

One more thing...east of Zorritos, the road turned away from the coastline and, shortly thereafter, I arrived in Tumbes



I had read some comments in my Moon Handbook and elsewhere that were suggesting that Tumbes is the typical dirty border town filled with questionable characters. So far, my impression is very different and I find it kind of nice. Maybe the bad guys are taking a Christmas break.

More tomorrow from Ecuador.

December 26, 2010

Mancora

I enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas Day in Piura. But, while banks and many stores were not open, Christmas was hardly noticable and it all seemed more like a regular day: In the morning, I was at a cafe, when an elderly guy came in to have coffee while reading the morning paper. Outside, the street was being paved, and the clothing store next door was as crowded as a typical Macy's on Black Friday.

I left Piura early today and had a second breakfast in Sullana,



Until I reached the turnoff to Talara (where I had a humongous fish for lunch), the route was mostly flat with only some mild climbs. Then the road turned to the north-east, and the mix of desert and agriculture changed to desert and oil fields (owned by various Peruvian as well as foreign companies, such as Petrobras); the interesting terrain was interspersed with pumps and pipelines.

As I stopped for water at a gas station in El Alto, I inadvertently disrupted a casual Sunday afternoon drinking contest that seemed to have been in progress for a while. A few minutes later I was handed a beer and I was glad that there were only about 30 km left on the road to Mancora.





Mancora is quite a lively place and known for its surf as well as its party scene. The plan for tomorrow is to get to Tumbes, maybe further across the border, depending on how lively Mancora turns out to be.

December 24, 2010

Piura

Until last night I had been under the impression that the route from Chiclayo to Piura traversing the Desierto de Sechura is entirely deserted between Morrope and Piura, and, in particular, that there is no water. Therefore, I had started thinking about how to pack a dozen additional water bottles into my bags. But, last night, as I was browsing various websites at the hotel bar, I found some information indicating that there are in fact several restaurants on the way. This turned out to be accurate; the first restaurant appeared about 60 km north of Chiclayo, then the next about 12 km later and so on. So staying hydrated was no problem. But, better yet, the tailwind allowed riding comfortably at speeds around 25 to 30 km/h; I have much respect for folks going in the other direction. Additionally, the terrain was almost entirely flat. (I studied the google terrain map last night, but couldn't find any contour lines.) There were some stretches that were also straight, which makes you feel like you're going downhill, then you look around and think you must have been going uphill,



Then, after more than 200 km, I arrived in Piura and had to slow down...well, a little bit,



I will be here until Sunday and relax a bit after 1000 km from Lima...Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2010

Chiclayo

I started early and was perpetually being greeted by friendly horn-honking taxi drivers as I headed north past the bus terminal.

I was curious what the situation in Paijan would be like, a town some 60 km north of Trujillo, where attacks of bicyclists have been reported. Lucho from the Casa de Ciclistas had kindly offered me to accompany me through Paijan, but since I had missed him yesterday, I had to rely on my own judgment.
It turned out that a police checkpoint was set up at the southern end of Paijan (this seems quite common, though, as I have noticed those at almost all major intersections and town entrances) and one of the officers immediately asked me to stop when he saw me approaching. I asked him what the situation in Paijan is like and told him that I had heard of problems there. He explained that there is quite a bit of crime, but he added that I should be fine as long as I kept going and didn't stop. The tailwind then helped me to breeze through Paijan, while staying close to the center of the road and keeping an eye on any mototaxis that might be getting to close to feel comfortable. After today's impression, Paijan isn't exactly on top of my list of friendly places, but I guess I would have stopped for water or a snack if I had not known about the problems.

Paijan is part of a cluster of towns surrounded by sugarcane plantations. As I was heading north, the irrigated areas became sparser and the desert reappeared. Past Pacasmayo, the sugarcane was back along with rice fields, which form an interesting contrast to the desert landscape. After a little bit more than 200 km, the tailwind then literally blew me into Chiclayo, where I had fun navigating New York-style traffic:



December 22, 2010

Trujillo

The day started with nutritional support from law enforcement: a truck had broken down on this hill



and was blocking both lanes. A police officer who was directing traffic asked me where I am going. When I said Ecuador, he handed me a giant bag with apples, bananas, and pastries, and insisted in me taking the whole bag...how nice.

I still stopped for lunch after getting through Chimbote, the largest fishing port in Peru. For the first ten miles or so north of Chimbote, there was a lot of agriculture, made possible by irrigation. Then it was desert again before getting closer to Trujillo with large plantations of asparagus (on the left) and sugarcane (on the right)



I am not surprised that a google search shows that asparagus is an important vegetable for Peru's export industry.

It's a bummer I missed Lucho, whose Casa de Ciclistas is famous among bicyclists passing through here, but maybe next time!

December 21, 2010

Casma

Almost all desert today with quite a few road signs with cars on wedges going up, and also going down.



Vast portions of the desert area north of Pativilca seemed to be owned by a company that I assumed operates mines...I was slightly wrong...it turned out that they specialize on poultry slaughtering and processing.
About 30 km south of Casma, I was climbing up this gentle hill and thinking that it would be nice to have a little snack



Then a restaurant appeared on the side of the road and stopping there turned out to be an excellent choice: Clemente, the owner, is a remarkably nice guy who has a huge heart for people who are hungry and sweaty and just got off their bikes. Not to mention that my Picante de Lapas was outstanding.



Casma is a nice place, and so is the hotel I am staying at. There is a sign in the bathroom that is green, so I figure it has something to do with water conservation...(Imagine doing that in California...)



December 20, 2010

Pativilca

Not surprisingly, soccer is very popular in Peru. The owner of the hotel in Ancon was immensely excited about Barcelona beating Espanyol 5:1 last night. Then I watched the delayed broadcast of Bayern Munich beating VfB Stuttgart 5:3...soccer can be a high-scoring game, after all.

The day started out a bit on the misty side



and there were also some hills



that were not quite as dramatic as the signs suggested.

At food stops it is always so hard to decide what to get



December 19, 2010

Lima to Ancon

I am writing this from Ancon, a pleasant small town about 40 km north of Lima in Peru, after my first day of riding from Lima to Guayaquil in Ecuador. So....how come I didn't continue my ride in Panama, where I left off in January? Well, there's the Darien Gap, which means land travel from Panama to Colombia is only possible if you're willing to deal with swamps, mosquitoes, and other fun stuff. (I have been told that it is possible, though.) So I moved my attention to stretches further south that might be fun riding and started focusing on desert areas in Peru and Chile. I liked the idea to ride from Santiago de Chile to Lima, but that would probably take three or more weeks, and I wanted to limit my trip to about two weeks. (But I will sure do that ride in the future. It will be very reassuring to know that I can expect to be rescued with a red, white, and blue rocket-like contraption in case I fall into one of the many deep potholes along the road.) Looking at availability of flights, Guayaquil-Lima seemed the best idea. Now the next question...how come I decided to ride south to north? The answer lies in some physics that is illustrated in the picture below (from my ancient school atlas from Germany), where wind directions are depicted with blue arrows:



Thanks to the sun heating up the equator region, I can look forward to tailwind. (The counterclockwise wind patterns on the southern hemisphere are a result of the Coriolis force.) Last night I stayed at a hotel right at the airport in Lima and originally I was planning on taking a cab to Ancon, since I had read and heard more bad than good things about riding on the busy streets near the airport. But then when I looked out of my hotel window,



I saw people running on the median of Avenida Tomas Valle, the street that would take me to the Panamerican Highway. They didn't seem to be running away from anybody or be chasing innocent bicycle tourists; in fact, they were jogging on the bike/pedestrian lanes in the median. Contrary to descriptions I had read, this looked like a fun way to start the ride, which it was,


even though there were sections dominated by Vehicular Darwinism, in particular close to the Panamericana Norte.

January 8, 2010

El Cangrejo, Panama City


My dear friend David put together this nice map:


View ~GEZZdBEi.kmz in a larger map

Thanks a million, David!

After almost four weeks (this even beats cricket!), the final score of kilometers vs. flat tires is 3024 - 0. Prost!

San Felipe (Casco Antiguo)

After a short early morning ride, I am at a coffee place in San Felipe, the old part of Panama City. I took the same route as yesterday, with grand views of ships going through the locks,



and onward through the Gaillard Cut,



And finally some leisurely pedaling along the waterfront in Panama City,



I still have about four kilometers of riding left to get to the hotel where I'll be staying until Tuesday, and I am kinda hoping to finally have a flat tire...after all I have been carrying three spare tubes with me all the way from Mexico! I will send a report with stats etc. later today before I start consuming libations at the German Brewhaus that's supposed to be near my hotel.

January 7, 2010

Gamboa

Technology meets wilderness - the road from Panama City to Gamboa is mostly just a stone's throw from the Panama Canal as well as the Panama Canal Railway.
The canal is an enormously impressive engineering feat. There were two sets of locks I passed as well as the Gaillard Cut through the Continental Divide with another big bridge, the Centennial Bridge. (The apparent pyramid in the background of the picture below is the bridge suspended by cables.)



Some sections of the road through the rain forest with screaming monkeys created the impression of untouched wilderness...until the next oceangoing ship appeared around the corner.



Just south of Gamboa, there was an interesting bridge crossing; this one was interesting not because the bridge was huge, but because it was small and narrow,



The place I am staying at is quite a treat. I keep thinking it is like in the middle of the rain forest...but wait...it is in the rain forest,



January 6, 2010

Isla Perico

I am writing this from one of three little islands south of the Panama Canal entrance that are connected to the mainland by the Amador Causeway. (You can see the causeway on the first picture below in the background.) Crossing the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal was quite...I am going to use a word here that's often used very inflationary these days, especially among college students whose brains are not stuffed as densely as their parents' wallets...awesome. After what I had read and heard, I knew that bicycles were off limits on the bridge and that the police might stop me trying to get onto the bridge. There was in fact a police checkpoint on the north side of the bridge with several officers, but I decided to nod politely and speed through. No problem. (In case they had stopped me, I was prepared to hand them one of my Pan-American Diversions cards and, using up all my Spanish in the process, explain that I am doing this for a movie production for ridegeist punto blogspot punto com :-) Again, the view and the experience were awesome,



even though I would recommend it neither to novice cyclists nor to the faint of heart,




South of the bridge was a structure that, from the distance, looked like the remainders of a building that had fallen victim to a major storm,



Looking at it more closely, it turned out to be a construction site bearing a striking resemblance to the 'Experience Music Project' in Seattle. It did indeed turn out to be a building designed by Frank Gehry (Panama's Biodiversity Museum).


January 5, 2010

San Carlos, II

Main activities today included food intake, considerable time spent in the water, as well as attempts to blur some epidermal color contrasts caused by local exposure to UV radiation...



Here's the plan for the next days: tomorrow I'll stay near the Panama Canal entrance on the Pacific side and then in the rain forest for one night. Then I'll have several days left to enjoy Panama City before flying back home.

January 4, 2010

San Carlos

Today it was only a short ride that, due to pleasantly ferocious tailwind, mostly felt like flying. From here it's only about 100 km to Panama City, the end of the current journey; but I think I will take a short detour and stay in Gamboa for one night. Gamboa is in the middle of the rain forest by the Panama Canal between the Pacific and the Caribbean and there's supposed to be a nice resort.

This is a short post, since my netbook isn't waterproof...back into the water....

January 3, 2010

Penonome

Some easy Sunday morning cruising along the highway to Penonome,



It was pretty hot as most of the days, so my water mileage is not very good, maybe about 60 mpg or 4 l / 100 km. When I arrived in Penonome around noon, I was very delighted to find a decent hotel with functioning - as opposed to merely noise-generating - A/C and cable. So I could chill out in the cold breeze while watching Camioneros del Hielo, my favorite TV show. I had the choice between a room on the third floor and one on the first. I choose the one on the first, which, besides me not having to carry my bike up and down again, also has the benefit of being located between the two hotel bars. The security guard at one bar entrance has a shiny revolver in his right hand and a wand metal detector in his left hand. It looks like it will be an interesting night.

January 2, 2010

Santiago

What a spectacular ride today. This was probably the least populated section on this trip. It started off with views of the Chiriqui Highlands in the background while I was riding through a mostly agricultural region,



Then things became a little bit more dramatic (and exhausting), as sections of the highway were on ridges with great views,



and quite a few uphill and downhill sections,



This may sound like a strange comparison, but I found the route topography somewhat reminiscent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, even though vegetation, people, etc. looked very different (especially this time of the year). About 50 kilometers or so west of Santiago the road conditions became a bit challenging (reminded me of the Autobahn system in East Germany before 1989, which, due to lack of resources, had mostly been left in its pre-1945 state by the Communist regime). But then, I wasn't going at 100 miles per hour, so I could easily avoid all the huge cracks in the concrete and the kitchen sink-sized potholes. For tomorrow night, I am planning on spending the night in Penonome, and then spend a few days by the ocean. Splash!
There was a question about coffee: coffee is good, and available, not only in Panama. On my first trip to Chiapas and Guatemala years ago, there was only Nescafe everywhere. Now you can often get delightfully delicious coffee even at truck stops. I was thinking of going up to Boquete, but it's not a through-route east, so I skipped it.

January 1, 2010

David

A new year, a new country. Last night in Golfito I spent many hours at a bar and had a great time - there was not much going on in terms of New Year's celebrations; it was more like a usual crazy Saturday night. On the way to the border, I saw this ice cream vendor:



The other day in an email to my sister I commented on the obvious prosperity of Costa Rica in stark contrast to other countries I passed through. Prosperity is also quite obvious in Panama. (A regular supermarket was stocked with items such as Bitburger Premium Pils and Lindt chocolate.) That said, there is also a high poverty level and Panama has the second most unequal income distribution in Latin America. So I was surprised I didn't see any armed guards outside businesses such as gas stations during daylight hours.
 

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