Peru: Oxapampa > La Oroya > Lima

1 day ago

2 min read

May 2026 |

My last rides in Peru before a long stay in Miraflores, Lima, then a 4-month break back in Canada and SE Asia.

Oxapampa > La Oroya

Most of this ride was a backtrack from my ride to Oxapampa. See my prior post for details. But in a nutshell is was a decent highway ride from the edge of the Amazon back up to high alltitude Andean plateau.

I didn't have a set plan for my stop for the day. I saw La Oroya on the map, about halfway to Lima. It's a fairly bleak place, a major mining center, and at 3800m it's cold at night. The place is like a scene from a future apocalypse movie. And that's not far from the truth: I Googled the town, and it turns out it's one of the most polluted places on earth, due in part to its "lead smelter acid plant", with an average life expectancy very low due to high cancer rates.

Ride: 207 km / 5 hr

Road: Paved, good

La Oroya > Miraflores Lima

After 6 weeks of many bone-crushing rides in the north of Peru, I was stoked to be riding into Lima. Some people avoid major cities on their adv moto tours; not me, I head straight to them.

This was a cool ride, the usual Andes-to-coast harsh dry canyon ride you get in Peru. The road north of San Mateo is covered with railroad and mining tracks, many looking like they could fall over at any time. Lots of trucks on this road. Along the way I also saw a notorious sight Peru is famous for: a crashed tourist bus, its roof ripped off -- a blood-curdling scene.

The ride into Lima was surprisingly easy, as all my rides into other Latin America megalopolis' have been. I booked an Airbnb in Miraflores and the whole experience in that area of Lima was incredible; I ended up staying 2.5 weeks. I was blocks from the coast, in a posh area with world-class everything. And the price is amazing. Pray the digital nomads don't find out about this place and turn it int the next CDMX or Medellin (oooops....).

I stored my bike 1 hour out of Lima and flew back to Canada on June 1 for some much-needed RnR from riding and Latin America. Look for a post on the bike storage in the Logistics section of the blog.

Ride: 177 km / 5 hrw

Road: Good, paved