After re-packing the van Friday morning and having the amazing chicken pesto sandwiches for lunch at Cafe Andino one last time, we said goodbye to our hosts and hit the road. We continued up the Santa river valley aiming for a campsite at a refugio.

After 40 minutes on a slow dirt road, we made it to the refugio at over 14,000 feet. It looked like a good base for hiking, but it was deserted and there wasn’t really a flat place to park the van, so we headed back down and camped in a pullout above the main road. It was cold and quiet and once the clouds cleared out the stars were amazing.

The refugio

Our campsite overlooked the Santa river valley.

We awoke to a great view the next morning.

The next morning we resumed our drive to Lima. We would drop from over 14,000 feet to sea level in about four hours. As we descended the terrain became drier, and eventually only the river bottom had any plant life at all.

We had heard reports of unusual rains in the region – Our host in Huaraz, Isabel, had warned us that the main route to Lima had been washed out earlier but had been re-opened. As we headed down the valley we saw evidence of the flooding.

We were stopped a few times as crews worked to clear the roads.

That night we camped in the small Lashay Nature Refuge

The park actually has trees, which are rare on this desert coastline. Also, it’s about 500 meters above sea level, so it’s a little cooler too.

I went for a hike around the perimeter of the park and spotted lots of birds.

“Christ on a Crest.” Great term. Thanks Melanie!

Picnic tables! Can’t remember the last time we had a campsite so well equipped.

After a quiet night in the park we drove back to the Pan Americana and continued South toward Lima. We hadn’t planned to stop (as we visited there once before), but then we found some fun things to do with Quinn, and Jen found a family living there who wanted to meet up. We’re glad we did; we had a fun day there.

Our first stop was the electricity museum. The draw was an electric trolley, but they had lots of cool interactive exhibits too.

I tried to explain to Quinn how this old jukebox worked, and how we have 1000x as much music stored on a thumb drive as fits in this big machine. I don’t think he got it.

We met up with Aimee and her daughter Augustina at a chocolate museum the next day.

Augustina is six too and the kids had a great time making chocolate.

New friends!

We stayed in Miraflores, a wealthy suburb of Lima. It has high-rise apartments along the coast and a great waterfront walkway.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our next exciting update that will feature driving through a (nearly) trackless desert, our first break-in (don’t worry, nothing was stolen) and our first flat tire!