AUGUST 25 - LAS LOMAS TO CHULUCANAS

Another fairly easy day - 76 km, 500m A, 645m D

A noisy night - dogs barking all night, and when the dogs weren't barking the roosters were crowing.  There are lots of dogs in Ecuador and Peru.  There have been lots of instances of dogs chasing bikes and a few bites.  None to Laura or me, luckily.  We have all learned to scream at dogs chasing bikes as this sometimes startles them and makes them back off.  

We're in the desert and what appears - rice paddies!  We are entering an area of intensive farming. 









This tower was in the middle of the road.  Somebody's idea of an attraction, I guess.












Look at this - a mototaxi pulling a cement mixer, along with 3 people.  Definitely, an all purpose vehicle.









We start seeing a lot of adobe brick houses mixed in with the wood and clay brick versions.











Lunch stop, interupted by a herd of sheep (oops, forgot the photo).

Somebodys home business - making the adobe bricks


An older mode of transport.  One fellow with a horse drawn version hollered "How are you?" in perfect English as I rode past.










Banana plantation - the bananas are wrapped in plastic bags for protectiion from some insect I guess.   I saw a Dole sign at one large warehouse nearby, so this may be where some of our bananas and mangos come from.







Something new in Peru - "wet river crosssings."  They are conrete roadways that flood when it rains.  We went over one that was wet, but also covered in algae and very slippery.  Laura made it through but I skidded and went over.  Don't know what was worse - getting wet or having my pride hurt.  Apparently, a number of riders skidded into the water




Adobe under construction.  We're thinking about giving out a unique gift from Peru to all of you - a hunk of adobe brick









Main street of Chulucanas - chaos with all the people, mototaxis,and donkeys pulling carts.

We rolled along like gangbusters and did the 76 km before noon (remember we started at 0630).  Here's our digs for tonight.  We are at the "Riosol" resort in Chulucanas. Most of us have to camp.  We've ordered "Chicharron" (deep fried fish) for lunch and will head into town to have a look around and try to post all of these.  We are in the land of Ceviche and are looking forward to it.