World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2011-08-30 2011-09-01 Peru

2011-08-31:

38
Distance today: 31.0 km (Accumulated: 27834.0 km)
Elapsed time: 02:57:26
Country: Peru

Start 11:32am., 15c, overcast and light wind, at house number "2890" on Ave. Costanera in Lima. Finish 15:41pm., 18c and same at cross of Ave. Croatia and Ave. Nestor Gambetta at Pan American highway, North; Lima.

The Pan American Highway, Stage II !

... The Pan American Highway winds its way up along the West coast of South America and has already for many month been my daily place of running. I've enjoyed its silent streatches 1½month through the Atacama Desert at 1500-2500m. altitude, the sparsely populated segments in the North of Chile and Southern parts of Peru, as well as the hairraising first impression about 50km North of Santiago when I came running unsuspectedly onto it 'fresh' from the Andes Mountains and liberating silence and pure nature at 2000-4000m. altitude on the run across the main passes - where upon beeing thrown into the inferno of the traffic and narrow tunnels just North of Santiago with its 4-lane highway, metal barriers with no room for runners (..I first saw a runner out jogging nearly 3000km later, near the border to Peru, a fair leap away from the dense traffic of middle Chile).

But also the "Panamericana" has shown me small cities which thrive by its traffic, offering friendly places to stay for the night before another day of highway running; amazing vistas' of the Pacific Ocean from its winding curves with about 1500km of coastal running so far. Lately it has also taken me past some of the main Inca sites, such as the famous Nasca Lines (pre-inca, though) which it literally passes right across, cutting straight through a nearly km-wide drawing of a lizard through to be dating more than 1000years back.

Still, I couldnt help dread another round of 'big city highway running' with all its dangers of beeing hit by the traffic wizzing' by and dense exhaust fumes.

Luckily there was none of the such when running through Lima ! :-)

Instead it was a strange display of steep contrasts:

Yesterday Sarah and I ran the first half through Lima, the 8million people capital of Peru. And as you can see from the pictures from that stage it was a display of beaches, surfers enjoying the wawes, fancy seaside restaurants and only limited traffic despite beeing right along the rich Mireflores part of the city.

Today, the absolute opposite - We had been warned that this part of the city is "no gringo" territory with risk of assults when foreigners pass by and we certainly didnt see any tourist there; instead dusty roads even deep inside the city; heavy industry, workers pouring out of equally dusty factories for their lunch-break as we ran past; houses half fallen apart. Yet still smiles whereever we went. Usually I ofcourse would listen to and follow a warning of a dangerous area when running throug the contries and across the continents, but when reseraching the route the day before we definately got a good feeling even in the so-called 'worst quarters'. And, they proved to be just as valuable an experience as the polished tourist-reality' of the city squares which more or less is the same in each metropol in the world, while the dusty sidestreets often is where you get closer to the local vibe..

And, Peru certainly is a contry worth running in no matter if its the rich quaters or the dusty backstreets :-))

- As per the finish of todays run I have reached the beginning of the North part of the "Panamericana". Im courious if the next months will bring an equally amout of adventures and sceneries to be enjoyed along it. With Equador and Colombia right ahead now, I suspect one might be in for a treat if the legs can hold !