Not all rice is from China

Jan 29 Corire to Camana

It never ceases to amaze us how noisy a small town can be after dark. Corire was an almost constant buzz of bikes, cars, trucks and honking horns. It is very customary to drive with one hand on the horn in case you have to check that it is still working by giving two or three short blips, beep-beep-beep, yup still works. We thought we might stay a couple of nights here to wait out the weather in the high country but after all the racket we decided it would be better to head out to the coast somewhere instead. We made our way to Camana following a great little gravel road along the river all the way to the coast. The valley is a beautiful green oasis of rice paddies, corn fields, watermelon patches, and even some livestock. But mostly rice paddies. We get some long looks as we pass through the farm worker shanty towns or as they catch a glance of us from their work in the fields. Entire families make a living in the fields as there are little kids to old people toiling away in the heat.

Camana is along the Panamerica Sur highway so it is no surprise that it is well developed and a center for commerce in the region. The GPS shows an interesting little beach front development that is only a couple of kilometers south of town so before we commit to something in town we check out the beach front. La Punta (the point) is a well developed beach with full facilities for tourism. The popular area of the beach itself was at least 4km long and along that stretch it is wall to wall restaurants and Hostals. We are craving some fresh seafood all of a sudden so we find a nice place with parking and call it home for the night.

Our little restaurant of 4 tables is as rustic as it gets, as are most of the places along the beach. Dirt floor, plastic tables, tarpaulin walls, loud music and fantastic fresh seafood. I thought I had ordered a fried fish and a mixed seafood dish for Brenda. So when the mixed seafood platter showed up we were immediately overwhelmed with the size and were hoping that they made a mistake and made the platter for two people instead of one and forgot about the fish altogether.

We dug into the platter regardless and every time someone came out of the kitchen we were hoping that they were not bringing us more food as the platter was simply huge. Lucky for us no more food showed up as we could hardly finish what we had and when we paid they charged us for the solo platter, not the platter for two. I can’t imagine one person eating all that or how huge the platter for two would be.

After a short walk on the beach it was time for desert and the watermelon was cheap and looked refreshing so Brenda got her fix for the day.

A few to choose from.

As there was no WIFI in all of Punta it was a quiet evening enjoying the warm weather and ocean breeze, people watching and planning our route.

Peru sells gas by the gallon. The math works out to $1.55/liter. So enjoy the cheap gas in Canada.