Rocks, sand and birds.

It is clouded. A car loaded with supplies carries Manuel, Reed and me on its back and takes a right. The road passes through bald rock formations and turns into gravel. There is no green anywhere nearby to be seen. The car accelerates fast and with aprox. 80 kms p/h we enter the desert. The driver must be knowing what he's doing as he seems to be a rally courier. After some sharper curves and ups and downs where I need to hold on tight the air becomes heavy, filled with the smell of burned garbage. That's how they process their waste here. Luckily it doesn't last for long. After 1 km the air gets fresher again. 3 kms ahead I can smell the sea.

We are on our way to la Barranca; a small town in primitive conditions next to the pacific in the Northern coast of Peru. I'm making my way down from Ecuador and I've entered officially my third week in the southern continent.

Ever since we've entered Peru I feel like I´m the guy in any Axe commercial. Girls constantly smile at me and some smile and wave for my attention. In comparison to Ecuador, Peru seems less conventional. When we arrive at the village it is all ruins and grey scaled colours. The ocean is grey, the sky is grey, the rocks are grey, the houses are grey. We drop our stuff and go for a walk. The local girls start laughing as soon as we walk nearby.

It's hightide and there are three surfers in the water. There is a deserted football field and a volley net, no one is playing sports, but some kids are enjoying being bashed by the incoming waves.

We arrived from Piura. The first city were we spent the night and hit the cinema to kill the time. Piura has very little to do, so when we found a cinema for 7,50 soles (2 dollar 50) we saw Seven Pounds (translated as 7 almas) and finally I found one of those movies that provoked my tears again. I recommend you to go see it.

Coming from Guayaquil to Piura, that's a ten hour busride. Just after having falling in a profound state of sleep (after 5 hours) you have to get out and do the migration procedures. a couple dozen of sleepwalking travelers stand in line for a passport stamp, filling out a form of citizenship. When we arrive at our first Peruvian stop the air if filled with an insane amount of birds. Everywhere they fly. When we look up there are so many nests we can't even count them. All of that in a desertlike landscape: surreal.