12th February Piura – Cariamianga 159 miles

We had a late start today as we had to wait to pick up laundry having run out of clean clothes, it wouldn’t be ready until 1pm. So into town for a leisurely breakfast, it is funny that a lot of hotels don’t’ serve breakfast, and then we can chill in the square and do a bit of reading, I in fact double the total amount read since we left home.
We manage to get underway just after 1 and first stop is fuel, well a lot of people are interested in us and our bikes but this has to be the biggest gathering we have had, there must be 20 plus people gathered around us at the pumps.
Once out of town we seem to progress reasonably well and then we hit a large town and completely lose the road again, how can that happen, I think once you are there they don’t want you to leave. That probably cost us 20 – 30 minutes and we eventually had a young chap on his motorcycle guide us to where the road was.
The border is only 100 miles but it takes us until 4.30 pm to get there and we have no idea why it took so long other than the hold up in that town.
We then start the process of clocking out of Peru which is normally the easy bit and then getting us into Ecuador and the long winded bit, checking the bikes in through customs. Not too painful and we are away at about 5.30 – 5.45.
One of the customs guys has told Martin that our chosen destination is 4 hours away, so we wont be going there. The next major town is 35 miles according to the sat nav and we are told it will take 2 i/2 hours, how can 35 miles take 2 ½ hours?
Well the road is paved and is supposed to be all the way, some of the surface leaves a bit to be desired with repaired potholes and the occasional bit of gravel. The road begins to climb and twist and although we seem to be doing quite well the sat nav decreases its mileage about 1 in 2, in fact it stays on 22 for ages and eventually goes to 19 and then back to 22. We have now run into cloud or fog, same difference we cannot see a thing and guess what it is dusking.
To add to the joy the road has washed away in places so we are going over wet clay and the road narrows to one vehicle width where the other bit has disappeared into the valley below.
We stopped in a little village but nowhere to stay, we contemplated asking if we could sleep in the church but soldiered on instead.
We came to a dual carriageway with a very ornate central reservation but the road was clay and mud, how mad is that. Soon after at 8 o’clock we crawled into the town and stopped at the very first hotel and booked in, we still don’t know how much it costs but were most relieved to be here.
The mileage from the border by the way was just over 50, I think they drew a straight line rather than a very wiggly one.