A dark smog cloud approaches us dozens of miles before we reach Lima. When getting closer it turns into yellowish-grey stinky fumes that make visibility murky like ground fog. In the evening Ill have to take a shower to scrape the dark greasy coating off my skin. The Panamericana leaeds us through the 8.5-million-metropolis without turning even once. Lima is Perus capital since Francisco Pizarro founded it on a beautiful day in January 500 years ago and declared it the centre of his empire. The Spaniard was taken in by a misconception regarding the climate. Outside of the summer months a wall of coastal fog sinks down on the city in addition to todays smog. Here the pulse of a centralist country beats, but it does without me. Im not keen on huge cities with some museums and few colonial buildings that survived the numerous earthquakes. Limas infamous traffic isnt worse than in other big cities: dense, asking for attentiveness, fast, and big-city.
Another 100 km south we start a trip into one of Perus wine regions: Lunahuaná. The grapevines and apple trees are irrigated by a river that unluckily supports an unhealthy population of black flies as well. We camp bleeding from their bites at Camping San Jeronimo at km 33 in front of Lunahuaná. Romantic tenting is down at the river with bearable cold showers and moderately clean bathrooms, vehicles park with o.k. bathrooms and water supply but showerless further up, each for 10 PEN per person: S 13°0009.8 W 76°0935.1.