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Notes from the Peruvian Desert

May 13, 2009 | posted by Lars under peru, updates

A couple of jottings from the past two weeks since we landed on this continent, as they come to me (read: loosely reverse chronological, by topic):

• We’ve been biking countless hours through the Peruvian desert mostly into headwinds of 20+ mph.  Or, we’d rather not count them too closely - though 7-10 hours a day is a good estimate.  Being deserts, these have been largely dry and, well, deserted sections of road, though as we’ve come farther south, some days begin with heavy fog (depending on the heat of the day before, from what we can gather), where one can only barely see truck headlights 100 meters ahead.
• With this desert travel, we camped for the first time in the Sechura Desert of northern Peru.  We slept out beneath the stars, about 60 miles from anything larger than the odd solitary adobe and mat home.
• Thanks to the headwinds, we spent one afternoon hitching rides with truckers.  My achilles tendons were complaining loudly about having to pull a not-so-aerodynamic set of panniers around, and with a month in the Andes beginning in a week and a half, we opted to err on the side of rest.  Praise God that they have been feeling better this week.
• Two days ago, we stayed with the Missionaries of Charity in Chimbote.  For those not well versed in their Catholic religious orders, this is the order founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India with a committment to “wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.”  We may not have been “the poorest of the poor,” but they took us in anyway and almost effortlessly, it seemed, made us feel at peace and at home.  Their radiant, though subdued dispositions and simple, relaxed presence were models to me of the fruit of deep prayer and service.
• While staying with the Marist fathers (another Catholic order) in Sullana, through serendipitous conversations, we were able to connect with the Peruvian Mennonite Church there and for several days in Trujillo, with good hopes for Lima.  “Oh, you’re Mennonite?” the Irish priest asked us.  “The ladies I was just talking with mentioned something about a Mennonite church in Sullana.”  Sometimes, when email addresses and phone numbers don’t go through, word of mouth still works…
• In Sullana, while preparing for the desert stretches ahead, we decided to make homemade granola bars.  By the end of the whole endeavor, we chalked it up to an experience in intercultural cookie baking, though, from finding ingredients in the grocery store to baking them at the home of the parish house cook.  All things considered, they tasted and looked great, though the ants made us eat them quicker than we would have liked…
• We have three new photo albums up, from the banana plantations of Ecuador, to northern fishing towns (including the setting for Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea) where life echoes with empty static like the inside of a seashell, through the desert moonscapes, and on…
• And now, it’s time to walk back to the Catholic church here in Barranca, where we’re staying the night.  It’s nice to need long sleeves in the evenings and a sleeping bag at night again (but winter in the Andes? ask me in two weeks!).  It seems like ages ago that we were similarly bundled up in Georgia, but we’re coming full circle on the seasons over the course of this trip!