TRAVERSE 59
TRAVEL- PERU
FRANCESCO CICCARELLO( W) / SERENA BARONCINI
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLOUR
Throughout our journey in Peru we encountered many aspects that seemed like a movie yet we were always brought back to reality as we were unaware of everything we could discover, risking letting our visa expire in order to discover the thousand and more souls of this nation.
The entrance was one of those triumphant ones that foreshadowed the adventure we would face. Near Suyo, the first town after the border with Ecuador, the Panamerica Highway deviated to enter the country and an army of tuktuks engulfed us in an infernal traffic worthy of a South East Asian capital. All on slabs of asphalt full of potholes that could catapult our bike into another dimension.
After days spent in the Andes the climate became hot and humid, announcing the entrance into the desert. Everything that was not covered by the asphalt of the
N1 was under a blanket of desert sand: cars, houses, and even the unfortunate trees. The architecture was essentially composed of brick and stone houses without plaster or floors, which opened onto squares and dusty streets.
We stretched out to the ocean where endless beaches were left in their natural state with the few visitors who parked close to the waves. The poetry stopped when we turned our gaze towards the fishing villages where the disused fields were covered with everything that was abandoned to the wind. Children played football on huge landfills while adults unloaded fishing boats with crates of fish that would fill our European tables.
Most restaurants offered“ Cevice”, a traditional dish based on fish and seafood cooked with lemon juice. Some people still used the " caballitos de totora ", ancient boats made of woven reeds, depicted on Moche
TRAVERSE 59