Tollbooths are always a good spot to hitch rides.

#teambrenda.

View from my hotel in the corner of the square in Cerro Azul.

And sunset on the beach in Cerro Azul.

And an unappealing piece of land on the way out of Cerro Azul the next morning.

Ica we come! For the first time in Peru, I’m not heading towards Lima.

Guided through the featureless desert by Jesus and a freaky plush clown.

There was a river near this stretch.

And then we were back into the desolation.

Driving between cliffs.

Nice sunny day for it.

Road through the mountains.

Ludicrous coastal road into Lima.

Lima.

Mmmm, ceviche. (Raw fish with onion in lime and spices). Mmmm.

Something wonderful.

Something glorious.

Flower pot…

…of chocolate mousse.

Along the spine of the Andes, with huge snowy mountains on the horizon.

Looking down on Laguna Conococha from a spot at 4200m, the highest place I’ve ever stood waiting for a ride.

One day I want to take that road off into the distance.

The little town by the lake, where I bought some incredibly stale bread to make my lunch.

Fixing up the church.

Then on the way down in a little truck with a very dirty windscreen.

Interesting and varied landscapes.

And striking rock formations.

Views.

A little roadside shrine.

And the little truck I was riding in.

With my backpack safely in the back.

Waiting for a ride much further down the mountainside.

And then I got a ride in the back of a police car! That’s one to tick off the life list. And yeah, that’s a baseball cap casually hanging from his gun.

Those cops were based in Chasquitambo, a little town where I decided to spend the night.

It was a funny little place.

With strangely ornate lampposts.

Barren hills.

And a mushroom.

Probably my favourite ever hitchhiking photo. This couple, who from the way they were dressed and the blissful smiles on their faces, were clearly on their way to get married, emerged from a modest hotel at the edge of Trujillo where I was standing looking for a ride and wandered off together towards town in the baking heat. ♡

Hitching in a convoy of truckers, taking a ridiculous detour through the fields to avoid paying a toll.

Desert, out of the moving truck.

Horizon.

A tollbooth we couldn’t avoid.

Holy shit, a curve in the road!

Up the mountains or down the coast?

Then dizzying altitude at 4200m before we dropped down into Huaraz. The highest pass I’ve ever hitchhiked!

There goes the road.

Coming straight up from the coast, it was windy and very cold.

Then ten days of relaxing and enjoying myself in Huaraz yielded only this photo…

…and this one.

Chan Chan. (My camera lens got scratched so sorry for the occasional hazy bit in the middle of the photos).

Walking in.

The walls.

Walls.

Carvings like this edge many of the constructions.

A central space.

Designs around the edge.

Details.

More patterns.

Recesses.

Covered over for protection.

3D animal patterns.

Slightly smushed patterns.

8-bit patterns.

Walkways.

Random patch of greenery.

Mountains way off in the distance.

This path would not get past Health and Safety back home. Two feet wide over a ten foot drop.

Safer paths.

And more.

The fish point the way.

The bins are equally idiosyncratic.

Then in Trujillo I stayed in this wonderful establishment.

If you’re looking for a place to relax for a few days, I’d highly recommend Vilcabamba.

It’s beautiful, the weather is hot during the day and cools down nicely in the evenings, it’s got lots of nice architecture around the little central square which I didn’t photograph, and as tourist towns go, it’s really sleepy and not at all obnoxious. Go!

Then skipping a bit, I’ve already crossed into Peru. This photo was taken just beyond the border. Peru is mostly desert west of the Andes and it’s much poorer than I was expecting, especially in the north. As I said to the people who gave me a ride, crossing the border reminded me of crossing borders in West Africa, like from the Guinea to Mali for example.

Sorting out our papers at the customs post, with added lens flare.

Hitching out of Piura, beside a roadside stand.

And later the same day on the beach at Pacasmayo.

The malecon.

Under the pier.

Fishing boats.

I went for a swim and the Peruvians, many of whom were sitting on the beach in woolly hats, looked at me like I was crazy. Admittedly, the water was really cold and the air was cooling fast, but it was just like going for a swim on a cooling summer evening in England: you go numb quickly and then you can’t feel anything. Having said that, when I got back to my hotel and got in the shower to warm up, there was not hot water and after that I was bloody freezing.

First, the nice outer wall of a theatre.

And then the park.

Such a park.

I mean, look at this place!

And there are loads of them!

And even a sodding pipe!

And, of course, a boating lake with a pagoda and swan pedalos to rent.

And then the boredom.

Zzzzzz.

Zzzzzz.

Zzzzzz.

Zzzzzz.

Even the dog’s bored.

And who the fuck cuts their name into a cactus?

This person, apparently.

And then back to sleep.

Zzzzzz.

I haven’t sat in the bed of a pick-up truck since Central America. Always nice to get the wind in your hair.

Nice sunny day on the way south from Puyo.

Some slight warning clouds but nothing too serious yet.

Then my first ever ride standing up in one of these steep-sided commercial trucks!

The driver stopped at a roadside stand and bought me one of these.

No idea what it was called but it was full of cheese and pretty tasty.

Then the clouds became a cause for concern. The rumbles of thunder were so loud they were almost scary.

And I got a ride in the bed of this covered-over commercial truck (another first) just in the nick of time. At one point it was hailing hailstones three centimetres across.

And then, being in the tropics, the thunderstorm abruptly stopped and never came back.

And I got a long, long ride south which I eventually had to bail on because the guy was driving so fast around the tight curves on the road that I threw up spectacularly. So I ended up in this town, Gualaquiza, for the night.

It wasn’t so bad.

This was in some town further south…

…where, unbelievably, I got picked up by a woman and her daughter, a girl called Katherine who used to live in Hackney and spoke English with a London accent.

Katherine is almost finished an architecture degree but she isn’t very tall.

Highway to the Danger Zone.

Look like a normal town, right?

Wrong. It’s called Shell, after the oil company, which is kind of weird.

It was a lot greener and a lot hotter out of the mountains.

See.

Pleasant river I walked past while hitching.

Wood pile.

Mmm giant raspberry juice.

Vote Lenin.

And then I was in Puyo.

Not the greatest bit of sculpture I’ve ever seen. The girl on the left looks like the creepy kid in the movie Akira.

Leafy.

Puyo’s not very grand Malecon.

That’s literally all of it.

Obviously I climbed the tower. Just wait a few photos.

Bridge.

River.

There you go. View over Puno from the tower, with typical threatening rainclouds a la rainforest. It absolutely hammered it down a few hours later.

Be careful with those smartphones, kids.

“Only you, I don’t need more”

Nice wall art on the way out of somewhere. Ambato? I think Ambato.

Colourful buses on the edge of somewhere. Baños? I think Baños.

One of the many squares in Baños.

Let’s play tourist town bingo! Centre with random assortment of eastern-ish healing techniques? Check. Indian restaurant with a name something like Shanti Shanti? Check. Israeli place which serves falafel way worse than my great aunt’s? Check. Juice stand which sells oreo milkshakes for 4 times the price of dinner at a local restaurant? Check. Completely interchangeable collection of gift shops which could be anywhere in the fucking world? Check.

Bigger square in Baños.

A bit of spiritual guidance.

Narrow street.

Waterfall behind town.

Weather turning sour.

Misty.

But a sunny day hitching out.