Week 3 - Blundering and Bouldering

Having only ever cruised through Euopean border crossings, I didnt see at first what all the fuss was about. It took all morning to get the truck and all passengers stamped out of Ecuador and into Peru... doesnt sound too difficult, but we drove round in circles visiting 4 different offices before we were allowed to pass. Only one market stall was destroyed in this process...

Apparently everyone was allowed to cross here except us...

The morning's frustrations were forgotten after a swim in warm Pacific waters and a game of Volleyball on the beautiful Punta Sal beach. Waves were fun to swim in but too small for boards, so I've yet to try surfing.

Cerveza by the beach at Punta Sal

Our collage of landscapes was expanded with a long desert drive down the Pan American Highway. After a sandy bushcamp, campfire and another truck dance party we were back into the mountains and stocking up food in Cajamarca...

The streets in a lot of these towns are barely wide enough for one truck (One building in Cuenca has an extra lick of red paint), so trying to pass a parked one lead to an unfortunate wingmirror/hostage episode...

We heard the crash but chose to ignore it and skip town quickly, a few minutes later a 4WD chased as down and blocked our road gangster style.A scarily angry woman demanded that 3 of us stay in her appartment until the broken truck was fixed and paid for. This cost $1151 and half a climbing day (but at least she became friendly when this was agreed to).

Toby going for a dyno

A handful of quality boulder problems were to be found at the nearby Coja, and the new routes book saw some action for the first time. Our campsite was some sort of farmyard visitor park and pretty weird to be honest... a few folk played football with the locals, but I got busy learning to slackline. Got a full traverse in eventually (yeah!). Anyway, the little bouldering destination had tickled my climbing appetite, but not being much of a boulderer I was looking forward to Hatun Machay, which was rumoured to be the best sport climbing in Peru...

Well monopolised boulder

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