And now, our bike trip ended after 50km Nazca. We did not ride on the Pan American for several reasons:
For our last day in cycling we got up very early (5am) to avoid the heat and so see the Nasca lines located 30km away. On the road, the Peruvians have built a watchtower to see three figures of the lines: the hand, and the tree lizard (about him almost erased)
A Palpa we took the bus to Ica. We have been helped by a guy. In fact, not easy to take a bus flying with bikes. The drivers are not very eager and caregivers. Our "help" was the forcing of taking a bike and opening the cargo bay of the bus. Without him, we would have waited an eternity before being caught. In any case, we generously rewarded. In Ica we took another bus (stop) to Pisco. Didier wanted to reach the sea but cycling I did not want to ride. It would have been better though, because either the bus or out of it, the result is the same, it has been stolen our camera, GPS and our money! Yet we are still cautious. I believe that the passenger sitting behind my seat to take our "purse from under my seat. Fortunately we regularly download the pictures on our computer, only those three days are lost.In addition to being robbed on a bus where we would never have been, Pisco no longer looks like nothing because the city was flattened by an earthquake ... When to the beach is junk land ... Nice place to relax! short, furious.
In Pisco, we still help by another guy to take the bus to Lima. He also did the forcing. The driver would not open an empty cargo bay. On the whole bus ride, it was only desert. Amazing, I had no idea that Lima was surrounded by a desert.
We had a week to "lose" in Lima that we split into two parts. The first two days (Friday and Saturday), we stayed downtown at the Hostal España highly recommended. It is a colonial building full of paintings and sculptures. From our room (tiny) we have a view over the rooftops of Lima. Not bad and cheap. Two days was enough to visit downtown and its colonial buildings. The restaurants are two times more expensive than what we used and I am disappointed by their lack of charm. Cusco is better.
Saturday night, I stuck a nerve in the shoulder, I very badly but it didn not prevent him from taking the road to Miraflores. It was pretty easy because it is Sunday and in addition there was a cycle track on a good part of the journey. Arriving at the end of this track, we came upon a group of cyclists who were preparing to leave for a tour. It was bent right through the shoot and some questions.
Having toured the hotel, we chose the Friend House, a small hotel with few rooms where you can finally cook ... This is the guesthouse of the Peace Corps (American volunteers who go on mission two years). It is unfortunate that there have no other tourists with whom to share our memories.
Miraflores, another world, much of''white''and people easier. It is no longer dock in the street at every turn by beggars, vendors and touts. In fact it is almost like Europe. We are also a few meters from the cliffs overlooking the beach. On the whole length of these cliffs there is a park, very close but it looks really nice.
We enjoy the last few days to go running and swimming. The temperature of the water is excellent with beautiful waves. This is an opportunity to take a surfing lesson. The catch? Didier and I are lame: I always find it difficult to shoulder and Didier has a sore knee after running twice. We can not find boxes for our bikes, we must say that there are only two bike shops in Miraflores. In one of them was a box well, dirty and full of holes,''that''honest trader tried to sell us ... We finally found for fridge boxes on a heap of rubbish from one site. We started by cleaning out the boxes ... then set folding and cuts to make beautiful boxes bicycle. For the last day, making our bags one last meal at a popular restaurant, walking in the neighborhood to see the sea and we got into a taxi. We have not even had to negotiate the price, our host called a taxi honest did not even ask a higher price for our bikes. Suddenly, we were generous in allowing him 5 soles a tip (of a race of 35 soles ...) The registration went smoothly as well, the price € 80 per bike was almost right, we just added taxes ... By cons, we decided to eat something once in the boarding area. Double error; there was only one restaurant and a snack (when there were more choices in the public area) and the prices were apparently slightly more expensive than in town. Slightly? Only at first glance, in fact they were in dollars! The price of a bottle of water in town: 1 Floor (25cent) to airport: $ 5 (4 €)! Finally, we spent our last soles in cookies and a bottle of Pisco ...
