Day 43 – Tuesday, March 10, 2026

There was a bit of a misunderstanding at breakfast- I told the young waitress that I wanted a large portion of fries eggs made from three eggs, she reappeared by not one, not two, but three serving of fried eggs (each of two, I think). Ouch. I finished two of the three, but did not want my cholesterine levels to shoot up through the sky, so I left the third one - they actually charged me for it (compare it to the free breakfast in Chile!).

I said good-bye to the nice hotel with the pool.

It was a pleasant swim the previous evening

Regarding the roafd, there was not much to complain about - no headwind, broad shoulder, not too hot - the miles accumulated nicely. The scenery was interesting - green areas barely above sea level, with fruit vendors (e.g. a large area was selling grapes), villages, towns - then it would get barren all of a sudden and a long climb up to 200 meters of altitude would begin, then drop back to where it was green again. Hmmmm.

At a toll station, I was on a soon amazed to see that some trucks have 15 axles. The cute puppies impressed me!

I had a free transport, though I do have 2 axles

Cutest things!

While biking was actually not permitted on the PanAmerican highway, donkey caarts with four donkeys pose no issues, apparently.

No bikes permitted...

...thoogh carts with two donkeys going the wrong way are...

...Four donkeys can only ride in the correct direction...

The closer I got to Lima, the more vendors there would be. There were a large number of ice cream vendors and then ones selling filled bread (with olives, cheese, etc) baked there in an oven.

Ice-cream vendors next to each other

Furnace for freshly baked bread

Another noteworthy things was that there were huge billboards on the side of the road - like twenty-something meter high. Interestingly, most faced thw opposite direction, i.e. the traffic coming from Lima. One such billboard was claiming that bodies of women should not be commented on.

Please no comments about the bodies of the ladies

I rode some 153 km with an ascent of 950 meters. I thought of making the remaining 40 to Lima, but I deemed riding on the 3-lane PanAm highway at night as dangerous. The place I reached was called Punta Hermosa, a surfer´s paradise. Interestingly, this settlement and other ones in the area are gated communities, with security checking traffic. I was told that within each community, there are further checkpoints for posher neighborhoods, then one more for the super rich. Interesting! There is also quite strong police presence. Someone claimed this to be the safest area of the entire country.

For almost the same price as my resort hotel with pool where I had stayed last night, I found a run-down surf hostel, with international hippie staff and guests, whose age is less than half of mine. One guest is a biker from Australia - who rode all the way from Patagonia.

So I tucked the 40 km till Lima for the following day.