We had a very pleasant night, temperature in the mid 60°F's and no insects. Not what we had expected from a desert.

Continuing south the landscape changed gradually to a more classic desert scene, flat and sandy as far as the eye could see. And fewer settlements. Though the temperature still remained around 70°F - contradicting our expectations of the word desert.

In Chiclayo at the southern end of the Desierto De Sechura we did a little grocery shopping, photographed a rather large and maybe impressive statue of Christ against a background of telephone wires and adobe hovels. We were also stopped by a police officer on a motor cycle who only wanted to chat and practice his very good English.

South of Chiclayo the country side was still very dry, though now more stoney with many rock hills at a distance from the road; it still felt like desert; and again there were periodic large patches of irrigated corn fields.

Nina decided she wanted to have lunch in the town of Pacasmayo on the beach, she got this idea from the guide book. So we set the town pier as the destination in our GPS, took the appropriate turnoff from the highway and headed into town. First impressions were not encouraging. The road into town was rough and lined with very poor looking buildings. Nina's take on this was a little more optimistic - "its a wide tree lined boulevard". I invite you the reader to look at the photo below and judge for yourself.

The town proper was an improvement over the approach, with paved but incredibly narrow streets, traffic lights and modern gas stations. After some demanding navigation (the GPS did not predict road works that closed some of the streets that accessed the pier) we parked near the pier, had lunch, and explored a hill top look out with yet another large statue of Christ, and a cemetery.

After Pacasmayo we decided we were too late to visit the archeological ruins at Chan Chan today so headed for the coastal village of Huanchaco for the night, and will visit the ruins tomorrow. The guide book suggested this was a nice place and that one of the hostals provided camping. At the turnoff to Huanchaco we came up behind a ford pickup and camper with Colorado plates and followed it to the northern end of the beach and a small RV park. The occupants were a German couple who live in Colorado and have been traveling off and on in South America for a couple of years. We parked with them for the night on the beach in Huanchaco.