Peru, Waltako Beach Resort 23rd - 25th November

We left Cuenca early to avoid the rush  hour and headed south out of the city and within half an hour we were going through a pleasant alpine pass with scattered fields, pastures and trees.

We climbed higher and the scenery slowly changed from green fields to arid mountains with steep valleys and rocky slopes. There had been some landslides and there were major rock works which involved cutting a new road further up the valley side with deep cuttings, embankments and new bridges. It would be great when it was finished but lots of the sections were just rough bumpy stones without any grace surface let alone any tarmac.

There was also another reason where the road was being moved. There was a river in the valley bottom and at one point a new dam was being built across the valley. In a couple of years this will be a smooth ride along the edge of a shimmering blue lake but today is was a dry, dusty bumpy road.

 Where there is water there are fields, pastures and hectare after hectare of banana plantations. And then suddenly the fields change abruptly to arid coastal desert where there is no water to irrigate.  

                                      

We crossed the border between Ecuador and Peru. There share facilities so we stopped and queued at one window to get our exit stamps from Ecuador then joined the next door line to get our entry visas into Peru…making sure that we all got at least four week visas.

We drove along the coast and soon came to our first Peruvian city, Tumbes. One thing that was immediately obvious was the change in the traffic, there were dozens of tuk tuts wherever you looked that clogged the roads. And i was still on the look out for vochos…although this one I nearly missed...nice paint job but I only got a poor picture as we shot past.

Then it was a 90kms drive to our beach front camp site at Waltako Beach Resort. We pitched our tents under see palaces on the beach.

It was a great place and we had it to ourselves. There was a bar, a swimming pool. we could swim in the sea if we wished but it was a bit cold and a bit rough o we stuck to the pool. For lunches we would eat in the restaurant but as we were camping, we would still be cooking our evening meals for ourselves.

It was nice and quiet but towards dusk, we noticed that wherever we looked there was movement. The sand crabs were busy feeding and running across the beach.

That evening we cooked for ourselves under the cliffs and Kim found two kittens who came to join us looking for scraps.

 The next day most of the group lounged around on the beach. But I walked the 3kms into the local village which turned out to be more like 5kms but it as a pleasant walk along the beach to the small local fishing village. There was no bank, no supermarkets and most shops seemed to be either a shed on the side of the road or some one’s front room. And there plenty of tsk tuts everywhere so I couldn’t resist a few pictures.

 There was plenty of sea life washed up on the shores including a dead elephant seal, an eel as long and thick as my arm, a parrot fish, a pencil fish and a turtle. It’s shell was badly broken having been washed against some rocks where it was hidden but my curiosity was stirred by the sight of several black headed vultures fighting over the carcass. But it was pleasant walking along the beach with little modern development along the shore.

 The walk along the beach was more rewarding where there was some live wildlife such as these two curlews searching for food along the tide mark.