And that has made for a very quick change in climatic zones, and its not green and wet any more, its dry and hot and brown.
The forest gave way to scrub land, and that has very quickly become desert... and its a harsh desert at that. Lots of sand and very few plants... But there are people living for many Km either sides of the towns along the sides of the highway... But they are VERY poor!
The highways are pretty good (well, the one Im on) and the people are friendly... But it looks to me like Peru is poorer than Ecuador!
There is plenty of abject poverty in Ecuador to be sure... Ive ridden past lots of it! But in Ecuador, it seemed to me that most people had a tin roof and a solid little (if grubby) building to live in. But there are entire towns of nothing but lean-tos here in Peru... And adobe construction seems far less common here.
Now, this could just be the perspective from the path Ive ridden, from the jungle side of the mountains,over the altiplano and down toward the coastal plains, so I may be wrong here, and it may be that the house construction style here is because of the climate ... But it seems that many of the people here have far less than the poorer people I saw in Ecuador.
You remember the kids story about the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf?
I assume you do...Well, it seems that Im on a tour of countries that took after the different building styles of the little pigs...
Over in Ecuador they build their houses nice and strong out of bricks like the third little pig.
But down here in the deserts of Peru, they follow the first little pigs strategy, and the houses are literally built out of straw!
Many "houses" are just woven straw mats for walls and a tin roof if they are lucky. The less lucky ones use plastic sheet or simply dont have roofs at all. The more established places seem to use walls made of the dried stalks of the maize they grow for food, and these are also sometimes smeered with mud to make them more wind and rain proof... Did I mention that its very windy here too... Real sand dunes formed into that crescent shape and drifting along slowly in the wind.
Anyway, I took a few pictures while riding along on the bike, but they are not great, and I was far too self conscious and embarrassed at my own gluttonous affluence compared to here and it felt far too intrusive to stop and stick my camera into other peoples lives...
