The lady serving breakfast at the hotel seemed to take a liking to me. She picked up that I liked black coffee without sugar and she made sure my cup stayed full. I hit the road fully caffeinated.

I had no idea that this part of Peru was so desolate and dusty. I have no idea what drives the small settlements along the way but it is certainly not agriculture. Looming up from the haze, the foothills of the Andes tantalized me all day. I had intended to turn east and head into the mountains today but my plans changed when I met another rider.

The traffic slowed up ahead and I drifted onto the shoulder to pass everyone. I saw that it was a construction stop so I rolled to the front of the line to wait for them to re-open the road. At the front I saw another heavy bike with Columbian plates. The rider was very tall for a Columbian. I pulled up along side to say hello and exchange a fist bump when the flagger waved us through. Instead we just waved to each other as we took off. Soon he disappeared in my rearview mirror.

Later in the day I stopped to refuel and have a cold drink. It was warm today in the mid 80s, but not unbearable as I think it is pretty dry. When I got on the highway again I saw that same rider up ahead. I could see something hanging of his right pannier, dragging on the ground. I pulled along side and pointed it out to him and we pulled over. The rider was a young man from Germany named Aaron and he suggested that we stop and have some lunch together.

We picked a random restaurant on the side of the road and the owners could not have been more delighted. It's the kind of restaurant that serves a single dish for day so they don't ask you what you want, they tell you what they are serving. They were serving a lentil stew with pork belly which was delicious. While we ate the owner asked if he could take our picture... Im sure for his instagram post entitled "two gringos".

Aaron was an interesting guy to talk to. Only 26 years old he had traveled by motorbike in Asia, Africa, Australian, North American and now South America. We decided to ride into the mountains together tomorrow which is great because I was having some trepidation about riding that section solo.

We ended our day in Chimbote which is a busy costal town. We walked down to the central market to have a look around. I was impressed with Arron's outgoing ability to approach strangers and chat with them in Spanish. When I commented on this he laughed. "I only understand about 25% of what they say to me... but that is 10% more than I understood last month." I can totally relate to that.