Day 36 – Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The small settlement of Quilca was pretty — the view of the nicely lit church could have been in a Spanish town, too. I woke up once in the middle of the night and was amazed by the view of the valley lit by the moon… It is an example that a settlement can be clean and tidy, probably by the power of the local community. Alas, there are many other places which do not follow this example and Peru — cities can be quite a mess.

Down in the valley, there was so much green…

The valley meeting the ocean

Pretty view...

The first thing that crossed my path in the morning was a pig. It got a bit foggy afterwards, as I was riding in an area with actual signs of human settlements — in sharp contrast to the previous day. There were small villages, a factory, a restaurant or two and large beaches with a mega car park — which was completely empty at this time of the day.

Going home

Small seaside settlement

Bit of a fog

Here there was an interesting view. There was salt residue in abundance, making a valley look like an Alpine (Andean…) ski slope.

Red slope

I reached the seaside settlement of Samuel Pastor with a huge Mary statue, and close to it was a municipal event for the elderly, right on the beach. I stopped for breakfast and had to wait a long time for a rather sorry sandwich.

Municipal event for the elderly

Soon I reached Camaná, a bustling district capital. I had the feeling that every square inch is used for commerce; nearly every building is some kind of shop, then the streets are mingling with food vendors, shoe cleaners, etc. This was authentic Peru — and yet again, apologies if I am hurting anyone’s feelings — I felt a strong resemblance to Asia. Here I found a bike shop and had my front brake disc replaced.

Busy town

The town is surrounded by fields of wheat (yeah!) — it is March, so harvest was going on.

Harvest in full swing

Pretty purple flowers

Then it was back to the barren Atacama desert (strong contrast…), where on a rather busy road (which shall stay busy for the remaining 800 km or so), I got to the nicely organized small settlement of Ocoña. I found a place to stay and stopped at a home restaurant for a soup, then found a street vendor lady selling a yummy cake.

Home cooking — really, the child of the family was playing in the neighboring room

At my accommodation, the lady was kind enough to wash my clothes; it is always nice to be refreshed. While walking in town, I witnessed an amazing moonrise.

Moonrise

Similar to Camaná, I had the feeling there are more shops and restaurants than inhabitants — Peruvians seem to be quite the entrepreneurs.

I had ridden just some 100 km this day, with about 1,000 m of climbing.