Ayabaca

Since I have been lying low in Lima for the past few weekends, I decided it was time to get out and visit a new place. A friend suggested that I join him on a trip to Piura, and, since I've already had great experiences in the North, I jumped at the chance.

Our first stop was a pilgrimage to a church in town in the mountains a few hours away from Piura. My friend makes this trip every year, although this year his plans were postponed due to the heavy rains that caused the landslides elsewhere in the country.

Our first task was to secure transportation. You might think this would be easy since my friend had been here before. Not so this year, as the police were carrying out extra checks on all transport vehicles, driving the regular combi drivers into hiding. Securing passage required a bit of back office dealing-talking to people on random street corners, slinking down some back alleys, and driving around some side streets until the combi was full.

Luckily for us, we were able to contract a ride in an extended cab pick up truck...and we didn't even have to sit in the bed for the 4 hour trip!

No kidding-he's really sitting on a stack of plastic chairs in the back of a pick up truck!

I also realized how lucky we were once I saw the condition of the unpaved winding mountain roads closer to Ayabaca. And this is not a place you want to break down-the towns along the way are so small that when you stop to refuel they bring out the gas in a 10 gallon bucket with a funnel!

Drying meat to make cecina

But Ayabaca was worth the trip! The town that greets you is a oasis of paved roads and commercial activity. (Does that give you a better idea of the conditions along the way?)  The main square is pretty and the chuch is just the kind of place you'd want to find at the end of a pilgrimage.

Unfortunately, we only had a few hours to spend in Ayabaca before we had to head out on the return journey. But it was the first of trip of many adventures!