Canyon del Pato to the coast at Trujillo

ihana.com - big trip - diary - peru - june 2003

Wednesday 25 - Thursday 26 June

North of Yungay, the road turns to rough dirt and leads into a tall, narrow canyon. Over 40 tunnels hacked out of the rock in the 1950s allow vehicles access to the Huaraz valley and the hydroelectric dam wedged between the canyon walls. Signs warn drivers to toot their horns before entering the dusty tunnels, lucky for us the oncoming buses we met were on the open road. Stopping to admire the view, we had stone throwing competitions chucking rocks down into the pools of water below, the other side of the canyon a mere stone's throw away.

By the time we got through the canyon to the village where the power plant is, we'd lost one of the rear shock absorber bushes, something that hadn't happened since Bolivia. We still have a fair few spares as this is a common occurrence on very stony, rough tracks and we were soon on the way again. Almost out of the bad roads and in the now wide, green and fertile valley, we lost the same bush again. Changing it this time was literally a pain as T got eaten by sandflies, shorts not a good idea.

We arrived suddenly at the main road and a town that, after asking the locals where we were, was called Santa and only a few kms north of Chimbote on the coast. It was late and, evidenced by the stage and loudspeakers, it seemed that Santa was going to have a party that night. Turned out that it was the 441st birthday of the town. The town square was packed and, being the only gringos around, the locals, especially the females, found us more interesting than the party. This wasn't difficult as the 'party' was mainly a way for the mayor to remind people to pay their taxes interspersed with terrible singers and dodgy acts. Nobody at all was drinking beers and when the promised Matacoco-esque (but nowhere near as good) firework tower finally fizzled out everybody trudged home, the only interesting bit being a set of rockets which decided to head straight into the crowd instead of into the sky.

Things didn't get much better the following day when we arrived in Trujillo, a place we'd expected to be a bit of a party place. There are some nice colonial buildings around the main plaza but nothing really to merit a longer stay, the ubiquitous coastal fog cloud is still ever-present and the Thursday night bar scene left a lot to be desired.

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