Decisions decisions decisions

Left the crappy hostel this morning, and hit the road for Lima. Camping is so much better than dirty hotel rooms. Just outside our first gas stop today we saw a row of trees so full of nesting egrets that they looked like flowers in the tree. There must have been hundred of them in there! Saw some fellow motorcycle travelers at our lunch stop. Everyone seems to be headed for Dakar. The group we saw today all had a giant duffel across the back of their bikes. It contained a paragliding chute and gear. They are going to do that over the Dakar! Sounds like a great time. Right after we saw them some very impressive trucks went by hauling and immense load if grass. It looked like the truck was way overloaded. (Pictures)

We had some delicious street ceviche today. Just outside of the fishing port where there were hundreds of fishing boats! It came with an awesome slice of sweet potato and some dried corn which was great in the ceviche sauce. Followed it up with a watermelon and we were good to go. The towns were depressing again today, just as the scenery outside them was spectacular. The mountains to our east went up to 22k! It was a great temperature for riding most of the day. The wind picked up again in the heat of the afternoon. We ended up at a campsite on the beach just outside Lima. Gonna check out the race tomorrow! The trip sure has been different than my imagination pictured it to be thus far. Things have been a lot poorer and dirtier than I thought they would be. Most of the ride has been depressing, with sprinkles of amazing mixed in there. It's hard to believe that this many people live like this in the world. The people who run our campground fish in a nearby stream every night for dinner. Tonight he caught 8 tilapia! They spend their days on the beach miles from any town and their nights are spent in a locked fortress for security reasons. They have large Rottweiler guard dogs and everything is locked up. I am not sure who this is protecting against but it seems like all of South and Central America is like this. Even if they are happy, what kind of a life is this? Some live in cardboard huts in the middle of the desert that resemble solitary confinement at a maximum security prison. It really makes the consumerism of the US seem so much worse. Going to hit the sack now, got a big day of race festivus tomorrow!