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Other entries in Huacachina

Crying mummies, freezing desert and fined!

So what happened since the last report¿ As usual a lot !

Let´s start from the beginning, in Chachapoyas. The reason we wanted to get  there was to visit Kuelap, a huge Citadel, pre-Inca, built by the mysterious Chachas (or chachapoya).

The citadel was high up in the mountains, and after 3 and a half hour on a dreadful trail we got there! But this time we were on a guided tour, comfortably seating in a minibus!

The Chachas were very different from the Incas and other locals. They were very tall (1.75m in average) fair skinned, often blond and blue eyed! The "Viking theory " has been discarded but no one knows where they came from! They built a lot, although of the 1000 sites identified, only a handful are being searched and can be visited.

While in the village, we came accross a german who was walking to Cuzco through the mountains. He started in Chiclayo. Now if you check on a map of Peru, you´ll see what it means!!!

After a couple of days in Chachapoyas, it was time to move on. We made our way to Chiclayo (1 and half day ride due to state of road, road works, blocades etc). There we visited the Sipan museum. It contains the findings of various tombs, lords, priests, high ranked soldiers. What impressed me most was not all the gold and jewellery but how those old blokes would get buried with 2 or 3 of their favourites wives, all generally very young girls, killed to follow their master in the underworld, along with dogs and lamas! The very important guys would also be buried with a couple of soldiers and a priest, just in case!  I did not find out how they were "sacrificed". It seemed they were killed before the burial though.  It seems it was not fun being a young attractive girl and catch the eye of important old bloke in those days!

We then moved to Trujillo, or more exactly in the nearby surfing village of Huanchaco. Now don´t expect we got on the water. Since we got down to the coast, following the Pan-American highway south, with the pacific on our right and the desert on our left, you may  think we are getting hot! Well despite being so close to the Equator, it is absolutely freezing, foggy and very windy.

In Trujillo we tried to find a repair shop to change my leaking fork seal and fit fork gaiters. I will leave Alistair to explain the details on his post! Bottom line, after some research on the internet and the friendly advice of a fellow biker who used to live in Arequipa, (check www.smellybiker.com, it´s brilliant!) we decided to wait and repair stuff overthere!

Without anything else to do in Trujillo, we got moving again. We had a long way to go until south of Lima. Few days riding non stop. On the way we stopped briefly to  visit the temple of Sechin. To be fair, there is not much left, I thought it was rather unimpressive. Same for the museum. The only thing that moved me was a mummy. It was the remains of a young woman (according to the details she must have been 18 to 23 year old when she died). It was a human sacrifice, and the details were gruesome! Her hands and feets were tied, a heavy ritual stone place on her belly. She was buried alive and died of asphyxiation, her mouth was wide open gasping for a last breath. Now when you think of mummies you think horror movies. There was nothing scary about her, it was a very sad sight. She was killed 3600 years ago according to the description, on a ritual sacrifice to some blood thirsty god.

I just thought about her last terrifying days. Had she cried, begged for mercy¿ Or was she brain washed onto thinking it was some sort of big honor¿

I wondered what it was about old blokes in power, who seem to enjoy so much sacrificing young girls to gods or take their young wives with them in death¿ I did not take a picture of this girl. I think she should be left alone.

From Sechin we rode continually for 2 days, spending half a day crossing Lima. It was stressing and I won´t spend much time about it. Just know that I am normally a very calm rider, but there I ended up sticking my finger up many times, swearing all the spanish swear words of my vocabulary to all taxi drivers!

On the way to Lima, the wind calmed down but the fog got so thick that we could barely see at 5m! I´ve never been in such thick fog before! We got through and further south  we manage to speed. We were stopped by the police for... er.. speeding!

Now I´ve heard so many stories about  corrupt cops that I was expecting anything! To be honest we were speeding, hard to deny it. The cop took Alistair´s driving licence and explained they would retain it until we pay the fine of 350soles (about 120 USD). We were told we had to go back to the previous town to pay the fine. I told him that we did not have that sort of money with us and we had to continue to the next town to get cash. (Making clear we don´t have much cash with us!) We did not care too much about the licence as it´s a copy so we were very relaxed. Then the cop said that if we paid within 15days it was half the amount. I thought "aha! Here we go for the bargain! " so after a lecture on speed limits and why we must respect them, my jaw dropped to the floor when the cop gave us the licence back and told us it was fine for this time but to keep to speed limits!

Half an hour later we were stopped by the police again! This time I promise we were at the limit! A policeman came and actually he just wanted to warn us not to stop if anyone made us signs, as there were robberies on that stretch of road!

So today we are having a day off, in the small oasis of Huacachina, where there are only tourists and prices are matching this! It is a favourit site for sandsurfing as there are massive dunes all around! I will take some pictures to share this with you!

We are only 2 hours ride from Nazca, so tomorrow we will move there for a couple of days and try to flight above the lines! Watch out for the photos!

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