Around the World in as long as it takes.

Arequipa

We caught the night bus from Nasca and ended up in Arequipa at 8am the following morning. We got a taxi to the hostel and since it was early we hung around the hostel for a while and had some breakfast.

Arequipa itself was hot and the sun was shining. This was a nice and straight away we bumped into 2 Canadians that we´dmet in the Hostel in Quito.

We spent the rest of the day wondering around Arequipa as it was a lovely city and perfect for idylling the hours away on a hot afternoon.

We popped into one of the museums to see one of Arequipa´s claims to fame.... the Ice Maiden Juanita.

Her grave was found in 1995 at the top of Ampato Volcano at a height of 6,380 metres.

She was only 12 to 14 years old at the time of her death and she´d been sacrificed some 500 years earlier.

Since she was at the top of a mountain and the ice had covered most of her body, she is one of the best preserved mummies in the world.

The visit itself consisted of a short film where we got to see the actual moment she was discovered (which was cool) and then we got a guided tour around the museum looking at some of the artefacts also found at the top of the mountain. The cloth was particularly interesting as it looked almost new and like one of the shops outside had just popped one of their blankets etc. into the museum for the hell of it! However, this stuff was actually over 500 year old !

At the end of the museum tur we got to meet the lady herself.... face to face so to speak!

She was tiny !

That was perhaps the most striking thing you found about her when you saw her encased in her new Glass Box (as opposed to her ice box the previous 500 years!)

After we popped out with Geoff and Ainsley (the Canadians) for a Chifa (Chinese food.... which I loved!) It´s both cheap and good for you and, although Steph wasn´t overly impressed, they cooked it in the wok at the front of the restaurant... which is always a good sign!

We then popped for a few beers with a few other backpackers and having played pool in the token Irish bar in town hit our sacks!

Today was Monestaria Catalina day!

45 Soles (about 8 pounds!!!!!) just to get in to the place!!!

What..... ????

That´s perhaps the most we´ve had to spend whilst in Peru to get into a site! And this was a working Monestary.... not too sure where all the money was going !

Anyway, having been co-erced into paying to go (reluctantly I have to add) by Steph we wondered in.

There wasn´t an English speaking guide available for about a hour (it was lunch time) so Steph and I popped to the lovely little restaurant at the centre of the Monestary and then returned to the entrance to see if there was a guide available.

We met our guide (who was nice and spoke good English) and then we started our tour.

We started at the Locuturios (where the Nuns could communicate with the outside world and themselves... god forbid!) Since there was about 200 nuns with about 300 servents in the place at it´s peak.... this could be a busy place!

We learnt a lot about the way of life of the nuns and how they were pretty much self sufficient. Also how the rich and influential Arequipenians (people from Arequipa) would pay to get their daughters signed up to be a nun as they would be well educated up to the age of 15... where they could decided whether or not to continue with their cloistered lives ??? Easy choice I reckon.... however... each to their own !

The place was made for Photgraphy!

Honestly.... the light... the colours.... the shapes.... the buildings etc. etc. all added up to two hours of clicking around the place!

The colours you can see in the pictures are not the original colours as it was originally all white. However, later on the colours were spruced up a bit and we´re left with a collection of vivid blues, whites, oranges etc. etc.

We tipped our guide (well as she was good and only got paid from her tips!) and then headed off to catch up with Aisnley and Geoff over a few beers...... again!

On our way out we wandered into the Art museum in the monestary. I found this place very interesting as (for a change) not all the work was of a similar ilk and based on the Classical Religious paintings from Europe and in fact some had adapted themselves to form a new style of painting called Arequipenian (similar to the Cusco school of artists) where the painters qould combine classical paintings or religious imagery and blend in older native themes based on the Inca or Ayamara faiths and beliefs.

I found this painting particularly interesting anyway.

But not a late night tonight.... oh no..... Tommorrow was going to be a day of adventure !!!!!

Torre Muerto

We got up about 7 and headed off the bus station for about 9am.

As we arrived we luckily were just in time to catch the bus to Corire...... the only 3 gringo´s on the bus we jumped on and it immediately sped off into the desert.

After 2 hours and watching the film "The Labyrinth" (with David Bowie.... sainging in Spanish though... very strange !!!) we arrive Corire.

It was a tiny little town... literally in the middle of nowhere and so since it was about lunch time we settled into an Almuerzo (lunch menu of the day) at the corner restaurant.

It was perhaps the best Almuerzo we´d had in a long time.... as it was a Sunday and it was only 5 soles each ! The Lamb in the Stew actually had meat in it which made a big difference and since we were all once again.... the only 3 gringos inthe whole town and most of the town was in the same restaurant as us eating Almuerzo... we decided it was a good choice

We then got a taxi to the start of the walking trak up to the site of Torre Muerto.

With Hindsight... we should have got a taxi to the top of the site, however, it was a nice walk and so we started to walk in the hot sun! and how hot !!!

Remember.... Torre Muerto literally translates to Death Valley..... and it was a desert !!! Mad dogs and Englishwomen and all that

Anyway, we walked to the Entrance gate to the site and no one was in to let us pay our 3 soles entrance fee !

We headed up the hill having glanced briefly at the ancient map inside the entrance building to have a clue as to where we were supposed to be heading.

On the way we passed a small restaurant (come shack) and we had to take a picture of the washing line outside !!! Makes a change from Socks and pants anyway we thought

about 45 minutes later and minus about 3 pints of sweat... we finally made it to the first of 3 viewing areas.

We all got excited as we scoured the white rocks sitting in the sand on the hillside....

This ones´got an etching... we all ran over to look....

And this one....

And this one.....

etc. etc. etc......

In fact... there´s over 3000 seperate etchings and engravings scattered all over the site.

And what made it better... since there was no guide... no gringos.... in fact...no other people at all at the entire site.... it felt rather special to us all !!! As if we were discovering these things for the first time ever !!!

The engravings got better and better as we wondered through the site.

Humans.... LLamas.... Shapes... patterns.... snakes.... parrots..... Aliens ??? Yep Aliens...... this place was fascinating indeed !

indeed.. the whole area is world renowned for it´s high UFO sighting ratio !!!

Interesting indeed...... ,)

The engravings were on the White Volcanic Rocks... spewed out from a nearby (well relatively.... some 500 miles away) volcano some 300 years ago.

The Engravings themselves are thought to come from numerous races and times ranging from 3000 to 100 years ago and from races such as the Wari... to the Ayamaras.

After spending about 3 hours investigating only a fraction of the entire site... the sun had gotten the better of us and we decided to head back into town and catch our bus back to Arequipa.

We arrived early and the bus was full until the 5:30 pm bus... so we got some juices and sat in the central square until it was time to leave.

As we leaft we had a great sunset and arrived in Arequipa some three hours later.

It had been a great and unexpected day and a day that since we´d tried to get and organised trip out to see the site (and failed as they don´t run them!) a sweet success as we´d managed to visit the oplace all on our own.... which is always the sweeter.... well I reckon so anyway !

We spent the next day just chilling in Arequipa in the lovely hot weather and bought a few christmas presents and the like... including some pottery work with a special pattern on it.....

you guessed it...... Some of the patterns from Torre Muerto !!

We spent a whole 2 hours in Lima.... sat in the bus station as we´d left our bus from horrible Huaraz and waited our next bus down to Nascar.

It wasn't a long route and we decided to take the front seats on the upper floor so we could watch the desert skip by as we were travelling during the day (for a change!)

As we sat in the bus station in Lima we saw on the news that a bus had crashed the previous evening on the Lima to Nascar route and that a backpacker had gone missing at Colca Canyon !!! All in the same News !!! Were we in a hot part of the world or what ??!!!

As we left Lima we were stopped pretty soon on the road and a top ranking Police official and his accompanying TV and newspaper reporters all boarded the bus. We were then warned about the dangers of not wearing seatbelts in the front 8 seats (apparently a new law had recently been passed in Peru about wearting seat belts in the front 8 seats of the bus... and it was nothing to do with the crash on the very route the previous evening!..... but of course !!!)

We were checked to see if we were wearing our seatbelts, which we were of course having seen the news earlier, and we were once again on our way!!!!

Some 5 hours later, at midday, we arrived in Nascar.... sorry Nazca.... sorry.... Nasca ! (There's no Z in the Nasca Alphabet and it's not about racing cars! This is a common problem we found in Peru with people using the Z for places like Nazca and Cuzco..... however there´s no Z in the older languages!!!)

We scooted past the hoards of hawkers outside the bus station offering everything from Hot water in their hostel to hot ladies in the their hostel and headed to the Walk On Inn (which had good ratings on Hostelworld and hostelbookers.... the two web sites we use to find hostels.... much better and up to date than the guide books!)

It wasn't the best hostel we've stayed at, however, the owner seemed nice, eager, chatty and so we booked in for 2 nights.

The Hostel did however offer to arrange flights over the lines for a reasonable price and also we arranged an afternoon trip the following day to the Chauchilla Cemetary with a English Speaking Guide.

We were told to check out the options in terms of cost and having asked around a few agencies we found the hostels to be more than reasonable (if not the cheapest it would be accountable in some ways as we booked it through the hostel) and so we booked the following days excursions.

The town of Nasca was nice enough and having walked around during the afternoon it was easy to navigate around and seemed friendly enough without being "overly" touristy.... it was still touristy though !!!

After a nice evening meal we headed to bed early.... it was an 8am pickup for the lines the following day and Steph and I couldn't wait.... Me more so I reckon as the Nerd in me was a bit more excited than Steph..... I have to say !!!

I'd heard so much and read so much about the lines I was both excilarated to finally be going, whilst also a bit apprehensive in case they didn't live up to the hype.... most importantly of all.... my Hype !!!

We headed out at 8am after a quick breakfast at the hostel (who allowed us to have a more substantial breakfast also on our return which was nice!)

We arrived at the airport and sat down. It was sunny and clear (thank the makers!) and so we finally were called forward to the plane.

It was a small 6 seater cessna and stupidly (I thought) we boarded first. This meant we were at the back of the plane.... the seats were low and the windows looked small.... however..... once we got settled in we realised it was perhaps the best place to sit as we could see straight out of the window as opposed to seeing half the roof as the people in front of us could, and also between the two of us we could see both sides easily (And unlike the others our windows weren´t scratched either).... maybe not such a bad decision after all !!!! Thanks Steph X X

I got prepared with my camera and filters etc. as the Engine stuttered and we trundled down the runway. I wasn't going to miss anything on this 35 minute (we'd been promised) flight that was for sure!

It was a nice takeoff and the pilot had a pre allocated route around the nasca plains and above the mystical lines!

I was excited as we headed to our first set and left the Aerodroma Maria Reiche behind (a Famous German Scientist who spent her entire life... near enough... studying the lines!)

Our first image in the sands below was to be "The Whale".

At first it was hard to see however, the pilot banked the plane hard over so that we were literally looking directly down onto the site which was great and from there on.... the manic camera clicking began!!! I was like a man possessed and clicked frantically with my full memory stick loading up with image after image.

The pilot was a fair guy and so having banked on the port side, he then turned around and banked on the starboard side to let the other side of the plane have a view. This was great for Steph and I as we both got to hang over the other one admiring the images below (And taking more pictures ... but of course!)

The Whale was a good start, however, for me, the next few sites were to provide to be the most fascinating both in terms of their sheer size, but more importantly their accuracy and their purpose !!!!

The Trapeziods and Pyramidal shapes that loomed up next in the distance seemed at first... unreal... surely these things weren't real???

The ran for literally miles into the distance and the accuracy with which the Angles and their points and most impressivly the straightness of their lines was breathtaking!

I know.... I'm going all nerdy here... however... honestly these things were truely amazing! I still think they were brilliant now as I'm typing this and I also have a smile on my face as I recall the images... at first.... seemingly innocuous and archaic... however with a good second look ..... beautiful and carved into the sand of the massive Nasca plateau for a purpose???

but of course....

there had to be a purpose to these lines !!!! Didn´t there ???

We then passed over the astronaught..... ??? a somewhat strange shape on the side of a hill that seemed to differ from those other lines on the plains below..... not regular and not uniform.... more rounded and modern.... I wondered about this one !!! You can make your own mind up... however... this is the one some people use to link the lines to UFO´s etc.....hmmmmmmm .... I´m not convinced??? I reckon the Trapezoids are a much better indication... however... we digress

We then moved onto the Monkey with it's spiralling Tail. Also noticable was the number of digits it had on each hand... interesting ??

Then it was the turn of the Dog.....

Then the Condor...... Notice the detail with it's talons clearly visible in the sand. However..... I've yet to see a condor with a head that is that shape ? Again another anomoly that I couldn't explain... and come to that, neither could Mrs Reiche!!!

There are a few formations on the desert floor that still baffled Mrs Reiche up to her deathbed... and to be honest.... that's perhaps the main beauty of this place.... much like a painting.... It was up to the common observer to see in the lines what he or she wanted... and I loved this !!! These was no Correct or Incorrect answer.... only suppositions !!!

Things that are still unexplainable still exist on this planet you know !!!

We've not got all the answers yet! Not even a know it all like me

Anyway, Next came the Spider....

and interesting one on accounts of it's elongated Hind leg... notice that the lines run off to the right in the pícture. Interestingly enough, there is a tarantula in the inner South American jungle some 600 miles away that actually has it's reproductive organs on it's Hind right leg!!!

Is this a drawing of this particular spider... and if so... why and more importantly.... how the heck did these "primative" people know about the damn thing ???

Next we banked over the hummingbird. Clearly visible and one of the most beautiful sculptures in the sand below.

As we flew around the Nascar plains I noticed many other lines and marks in the sand. You had to look carefully though to spot them... intermingled with all the other lines and car tracks on the desert floor below.

Although these two sculptures were not pointed out to us.... I clicked and got pictures of them anyway.... The Pyramid.... which is not on any of the tourist maps etc. of the site... the accurancy of the image is what makes it so interesting... and the angles of the corners etc. while I´m still curious why it´s not on any of the maps of the site ???

then came the concentric circles.... the Ying and Yang.... the Male and Female Union... the sun and moon..... (a theme which would reoccur again and again on our trip in South Amerrica) and you can see clearly where the middle of the two concentric circles intertwine and join in the middle... much like the Ying and Yang of Chinese symbology.....

Only one problem here though......

Nothing else in this whole region is similar.... at all !!!!!

Only the chinese (a few thousand miles over the water) have anything similar at all !!!! Maybe just coincidence ???

Alcatraz was next, on our seemingly ever shortening tour, which to me seemed very strange indeed. The back of the image was clearly of a bird, however, it was more like a flamingo than anything else....since it's neck was long and twisted.

I pondered over why not a flamingo.. however... the nearest flamingoes were on Lake titikaka... some 2 thousand miles away !!! Hmmmmm...... Unless of course it was closer or larger or even the coast was closer some years in the past?

Alcatraz it was then.... ???? Stupid name I thought !

The Parrot was another interesting site. The reason was that at first glance... yep, it looks like a parrots head.... however..... on closer inspection of the picture... you can clearly see two rings for the parrots Eyes..... So it's not a side on view of a parrot and to me looks more like a beetle or something similar...

We then rolled around the observation platform.

Now this place was interesting as you could see from the plane how the main road had been laid by the peruvian engineers.... directly over the site !!!

Great or what !!!

Luckily enough.... (I wouldn´t be surprised if this was totally by luck also) only a few metres away from the "Tree of life" and the "Hands" images.

The Tree was nice, but the Hands were very interesting as they seemed to be far more abstract than any of the other sites on the plain and I pondered once again as to their meaning and what they actually were a picture of? Waving goodbye... hello.... waving at all.... and what form are they set on ???

Suddenly, before I knew it.... we were touching down..... 25 minutes after we took off !!! Now the flight was only $50 and to be honest I loved every second of it..... however..... if anyone is going agaian... I can recommend only one thing......

Go Longer !!!!

Spend a little bit more money and spend a little longer flying over the site...

It truely is one of the best things I've seen and something that has lived up to the hype entirely and really made me question some of the reasoning and existance of places like this!

Don't worry..... I don't now believe in UFO's or anything.... however..... it does open up the questions..... Why, How, by who and for what ???

I loved the place !

Arriving in a big city early in the morning, with all your worldly belongings on your back, is always a little daunting... and here we were 6am trying to find a hostal that didn´t exist anymore! The taxi driver was good though and we ended up at a nice hostal called Jo´s Place, owned by an english guy and his peruvian wife!

After settling in to the hostal with breakfast and even an english paper (although all the best girly sections like horoscopes had been taken out) we wandered into the big smoke of Huaraz.

Many Peruanos called us gringo´s as we walked past........ thank you Peru, we almost forgot our pilly pally skin!!!! So first impressions of Huaraz were a little hostile. Welcome to the Gringo trail, Ecuadorians would never be so inpolite!

Later on we arranged a tour to visit the ruins of Chavin de Huantar for the next day and then headed for some food! The food was very nice!

The tour started at 9am, stopping only an hour into the journey at a small village for some ¨throwing your money away¨opportunity! We did buy some coca sweets, essential ofcourse ha ha!

The minibus, which was full of Peruvians and a very quick spanish speaking guide, stopped at a very pretty lake with spectacular mountains behind. We also managed to get a great picture of a local woman in traditional dress!

It was a very beautifull ride but long ride to the village of Chavin, with sheer drops over the mountains.... yikes!!! It had now started to cloud over a little which irritated us slightly and to put the cherry on the cake they ushered us into a touristica restuarant.... well ofcourse food first, whats more important.... the reason you are taking the trip or food!!??

All chicken and riced up we eventually made it to the temple site of Chavin de Huantar, built around 800 to 400 BC. The actual site was very impressive with a massive ceremonial plaza, llamas grazing all over. The most exciting part though was the hidden passageways, although any engravings on the walls were very worn! Alan and myself wondered what the hidden pasageways were used for......... maybe they kept ferrocious pumas there or maybe they were an escape route!!!! Puma home sounds cool!

The temple was cool but having our particular tour guide was a complete waste of time!!!! Speaking in spanish would be fine if she had taken a little time for us but she was very fast and very rude!!! We were made to feel stupid as we didn´t speak fluent spanish (at an incredibly fast pace) in the two months we had been in South America!!!!!

The minibus took half the time to return to Huaraz (even though the driver had his 5 year old son sitting next to him... without a seatbelt). They also dropped us off in the centre, miles from our hostal, late at night without saying a word SO the temple was cool but the company was SHITE!

End of rant for now!

The next day we met some south africans (Anna, Mike and Nicola) that we had met in Huanchaco and decided to walk the Santa Cruz trek together. We decided it would be much better if we did the whole trek by ourselves which meant without donkeys or guides........ we didn´t need any of these!

Mark, an ozzie guy we had also met in Huanchaco, had decided to take a tour with a couple of other people he had met. The transport was the only thing we had to organise with a company and at the office we met marks fellow trekkers!!

The rest of the day was filled with buying food for the trek........ looking around the market, amongst the pigs and gunnea pigs that were strewn up to tempt us mmmmm!!

In the evening we all met up and decided to go to INKA PUB, a nasty restuarant where I decided farmed FRESH trout would be tasty. How stupid was I? I was seeing the remains of the fish all night long, come the morning I was very tired and still unwell.

Even though I still felt rough I decided what the hell and got on the minibus for the trek with Alan and our fellow trekkers!

It was, again, a very long, beautifull yet bumpy ride (not the best when feeling like crap) to the entrance of Huascaran National Park (The Cordillera Blanca) where the entry fee was 65 soles! Then it was another one and a half hours, with narrow passages and sheer drops, to the start of the trek!

It was a fairly easy trek to our first camp although I felt bad and poor Alan had to carry my bag aswell as his own!!! The camp was next to a refugio where Alan asked about camping and a young male peruvian told him it was 5 soles to camp.... Anna and Nicola then went and he told them it was free hmmmm!

After setting up the tents we found out it was the wrong campsite.... I think I had got so excited about a short walk and the other guys felt sorry for me SO we decided to stay and accept that tomorrow was going to be a long day!

Surrounded by donkeys I had a siesta while Alan and the others played football with the locals! I woke up, threw up and managed to eat 2 beans and a mouthfull of mashed potato before leaving the others to talk about politics, religion and the meaning of life!!

It was a very early start, the tents were packed and we were on our way at 6am. With a little more energy we walked for 2 hours before having a rest and a bit of breakfast. I couldn´t really eat much again and felt ill, after debating with myself (and Alan) whether to carry on or turn back I carried on........ stubborn or stupid!!!!

The path to the start of the real climb was a hard slog, Mike kindly took my bag while Alan got the short straw of staying with the girls and encouraging us. I had a little paddy fit but with Alans CAREFUL words of encouragement ha ha I carried on regardless!!!!

It was an even steeper slog to the laguna where we managed to blag the help of a donkey for the girls rucksacks for only 20 soles, unfortunately for Alan he still had his!

The final climb was very very hard, we had a little system going where we counted 100 steps and stopped for 1 minute, every ten stops we had a 2 minute break!!

Just as I was taking my last break with Alan we were very lucky to see a Chinchilla......... sunbathing in the sun......... that was my reward.

The best reward though was the spectacular view at Punta Union, at 4780m, of the Mountain Taulliraju! It was clear, we were lucky with no rain!!!

Alan managed to get his "Flag Shot" to celebrate our conquering of the pass and then we headed on down!

After a cup of soup at the top it was a steep descent (a lot easier) to the camp that was at the end of the never ending valley!

Marks group were already there and Mark brought us some popcorn over as we set up our tents... sweet!

That night we had pasta and sauce (a staple campers diet ha ha) and for the first time I wolfed it down yummo!

The next morning was a nice relaxed start as we had a nice, easy, mostly down hill 18kms. We left at 9am! The first 2 hours were relatively easy although we did have the wind against us. We stopped briefly to watch two local farmers trying to capture a cow and her calf with two unruly dogs.... it took them a while but they managed in the end. We followed them onwards, down into the valley!

We arrived at the campsite in good time so we decided to carry on and try and make it to the very end. The walk was all downhill, the sun was shining and the views were great. There was also a tarantula on the path... yikes!!

Cashapampa (the end of the trek) came into view at around 4pm and we found Marks group setting up camp in the village! Apparently yesterday they saw a dead donkey so one of guys (an english actor) carried all his gear in respect for the donkeys...... bless!

We caught a taxi to Caraz where we caught a collectivo (a local bus the size of a minibus that stops every minute and fits about 50 people into a 14 seater). It was quite a expereience but we made it all in one piece back to Huaraz!!!

The next day we were very tired and (due to being ill on the trek) I spent most of the day in bed!!!!! For a couple of days we didn´t do much at all and just recovered! We put some clothes in for washing, the following day they returned the washing minus two of my tops and a bra....... three bloody items........ typical huaraz! I did everything I could to get them back but they were gone! I am a backpacker and three items of clothing is half my backpack ha ha!!!

So huaraz was an experience, gringo calling, food poisoning and lost clothes........... Peru and the gringo trail could only get better!!!!!!!

The bus down to Trujillo was easy and uneventful and we soon arrived in the city, jumped in a cab, and headed straight back out again, towards the coast and towards the fishing village of Huanchaco.

The hostel we´d wanted to stay at was full, so we ended up having to pay for a hotel for the night (which wasn´t cheap) The Village looked pleasent enough though, so we walked around town and headed to the beach, where we had a cheeky cerveza at a beach front bar.

We watched the surfers doing their thing on the great waves, backed up by the odd fisherman on his reed boat in the distance (which was something a little bit different to say the least!)

The Fishermen went out in the morning on their "hand made" reed boats to fish and then in the evening, they surfed the waves back to the beach with their catch and then they´d sell it to the local restaurants.

This we gleaned having chatted to a local restaurant owner, who´d bought his fish an hour or two earlier. Sure enough, a half an hour later Steph and I were eating said fish... which turned out to be some of the best fish we´ve had in a long time (having also watched it being barbequed on the parilla by our friendly asadoro come restaurant owner!!)

We were going to enjoy this place... we could tell !!!

The Fish was called Corvina and it rivals Kingclip (from South Africa) as far as we´re concerned as some of the best fish we´ve eaten on our travels ..... so far of course !!!!

The next day we decided to check out another hostel nearby and whilst stmbling around town we happened upon a friend from Banos on the way around town.

Ross (an Aussie) was staying at the Casa De Suiza Hostel, so having met the other guys he´d been travelling with, we decided to check into the hostel for a night (it was cheaper but not necessarily better that was for sure!)

It wasn´t the cleanest hostel we´d stayed at and Steph wasn´t too impressed, however, it was cheap and we decided to stay there for the night.

We managed to drop off our washing also and then having chatted to the rest of the guys at the hostel, I managed to wangle a guided tour of the Chan Chan archaelogical sites nearby (with an English speaking Guide) for 30 Soles Each..... not bad going ... even if I say so myself.

We grabbed a bit of breakfast in the cafe next door.... nice place called the Chill Out Cafe..... the bus picked us up and we headed off to Trujillo.

Our first stop was the Moche site called Huaca De la Luna.

We walked up the mound of Adobe bricks and then were confronted by some incredible Painted friezes. The paint work was all original, as were the colours, and consisted of numerous animals, faces and symbolical images vibrantly painted and looking as if they were only a few years old!

To say they were about 1500 years old... their condition was immaculate and a credit to the Archaeoligists who´d painstakingly uncovered them!

At the site we also found out that they had discovered about 42 skeletons that had been sacrificed within a short time period. The archaologists reckoned this was as a result of the El Nino effect that caused the locals to panic and sacrifice more than the usual amount of people and had caused the sudden movement of the people from here to the Coast and Chan Chan.

We unfortunately couldn´t visit the Huaca DEl Sol as the site was being excavated at that very moment and since it is the largest Huaca in the region we´re sure it´ll surely turn up some fantastic finds since it also has been relatively untouched by the grave robbers!

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A great start to the tour......

As per usual for the Peruvian tours... we were dumped at a tourist restaurant for our lunch... however then we headed off to La Huaca Arco Iris.

For this leg of the journey we were joined by a few other tourists and funnily enough Emi (the Brazilian Lady from Cuenca and the Nariz Del Diablo) was sitting on the bus. Small world or what !

The Rainbow Dragon Temple (or La Huaca Arco Iris) belonged to the Chan Chan Complex and was Built by the Chimu Empire some 2000 years ago.

It was however one of the best remaining examples of Chimu Architecture and had some of the most intricate and most complete wall friezes in all of South America.

The temple is called the Dragon Temple due to the dragons that surround it´s main central platform, on top of which it was hypothesised that sacrifices and other religious ceremonies took place.

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From the top we could look over to the East towards the city of Trujillo (not too appealing) or to the West the ruins of the massive complex of Chan Chan.

This was to be our next stop and so having filled up on pictures of the architecture and masonary work, we headed back in the bus to head off to Chan Chan.

The Massive Chan Chan complex runs from the sea to the main road from Trujillo to Huanchaco (they even managed to build the road directly over some of the ruins !!!!

Anyway, what remained of this massive citidel is mostly now crumbling away and had to distinguish against the desert sands. However, nearer the sea, the complex remains pretty much as it did some 2000 years earlier.

Because of the size of the complex, we only toured around a single temple as this had been restored and remained fairly much intact.... there are another 8 similar temples on the site however in differing states of deterioration!!!!

The single temple was huge however and more reminiscent of walking through a maze or Labyrinth than through a ruined temple.

Having been given the rundown of the Chan Chan Temple and once again heard how grave robbers had desicrated nearly all of the sites at the comples and that as a result very little was left for the archaeologists, we headed off back to Huanchaco.

It was a good day out, however by the end of the it... we were all ready for a cerveza or two by the beach.

We hit the village of Huanchaco that night and all got royally pissed !

It was a great night and HuanChaco was great value as it was the quiet period so we had the run of the bars (all 4 of them )

The following day we decided to go for some much needed breakfast at the Chill out cafe next door to the hostel.

Whilst nursing my cofee, I noticed that there was a deal going on at the chill out where we´d get a room and all (Yep... ALL) our meals for.... now wait for this............

25 Soles !!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep..............

25 SOLES !!!!!!!!!!!!

Now think about this for a moment............

25 soles is................

4 pounds Sterling !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A BED

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

ALL for 25 SOLES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This had to be the deal of the century as we´d already been eating there and knew the food was great... so we asked to see the rooms.

5 minutes later all 6 of us grabbed our rucksacks from the Case De Suiza and shot next door to the Chill Out !!!

There were only 2 rooms so Steph and I shared with Siana (an American) whilst Ross, Kingsley (English) and Lynon (American) crashed in the other room !!!

We all couldn´t believe our luck...

We all soon decided to stay in Huanchaco for a few more nights and hit the beach bar soon after to admire the surfers doing their thing on the great waves over anothe cheeky cerveza or two !!!

That night, Kingsley, Ross and Siana decided to hit the big metropolis of Trujillo (at about 1am in the morning!)

Steph and I had purchased a bottle of "Bubble gum wine" which was 8 soles (1.50 for a litre) and tasted like bubble gum.... however we were tired so we left the other three to head into the city.

The following morning we heard the results !

Ross and Siana had got a taxi back home about 5 in the morning from a night club where they were the only Gringos. Kingsley on the other hand had been destracted by some beautiful ladies and had suddenly realised, at about 7 in the morning, that he was in someone else´s house.... somewhere near Trujillo..... with no money...... and no idea where he was staying..... he couldn´t even remember the name of the village we were at, never mind the name of the hostel ,)

The man clearly has some good Karma going for him as he turned up an hour later outside the hostel.... having had the taxi payed for him by a local guy at the party, told the taxi driver that he wanted to go to " Cha Cha Cha " ??? Wherever that was supposed to be!!!! Luckily the taxi driver was a good one and dropped him off in the centre of Huanchaco.. right next to the Chill out Hostel !!!

How lucky was that!!!

So sometimes it´s good to remember that not all the locals here are robbers and mggers and the good stories are often forgotten amongst all the bad ones !!

Two nights later and having dragged ourselves away from the Chill out.... We did however manage to leave Ross, Kingsley and Lynon still there as Lynon had met a local guy and the Lads had decided to stay at the Chill out for another week.... or two.... and learn some Spanish !

They found a Spanish school and I couldn´t recommend a better place to chill, Surf, drink, eat and basically be merry !

Huanchaco was definately the highlight of my Peruvian journey so far and if it carried on like this.... I was going to love the place !!

Having arrived in Chiclayo (we arrived in Piura and decided to skip on through) late the previous night and spent half an hour running around the hotels trying to find a good and cheap one (since the hostel listed in the Lonely planet shoe string guide literally no longer existed) we had ended up in the Hotel Sipan. It was relatively cheap and we also got a TV and breakfast so we decided to stay there.

The Manager at the hotel was a really nice guy and having served us our breakfast (bread, jam juice and nescafe instant cofee) in his 70´s suit we headed off into town to see how we could go and visit the numerous archaelogical sites around the city.

First stop was the tourist info office and then we called at a few tour agencies (not that there are many in Chiclayo) and organised a tour for the following day. The Company we settled on was Moche Tours who were fine and at least we´d get an english speaking guide (although this did cost a little bit more)

That night we wondered around town and found a great little bar / restaurant down a back alley. It was called Sol Y Mar and it served great, and we mean great, ceviche (raw fish soaked in lime and lemon juice which sort of cooks it... well sort of !) Anyway, it was absolutely brilliant and the large dish, which was more than enough for two, was only 10 soles (that´s 1 pound 60 pence!)

We were by the coast anyway and the local speciality lived up to our expectations (e´ve learnt only to eat fish near the sea!!!)

The bar was great and we had a few more beers in there (being that we were the only gringo´s in the bar.... come to mention it... Chiclayo as a whole had very very few gringos so we really liked the whole atmosphere there!)

We arrived at the tour office the following day at 10am.... since Steph decided the tour left at 10.... it turned out to be at 10:30am .... he..he.... so after getting Steph to admit she was wrong (doesn´t happen often) we had a quick coffee and then headed off on our tour of the local sites.

There were only five of us on the trip so it was nice and cosy. A guy from Lima and an Italian couple and us made for some interesting conversations en route to our first site...Ferrenafe.

The Museo De Sican was a basic little museum but it provided us with a great introduction to the local culture and especially the Lord of Sipan and his burial.

He was buried upside down in the feotal position, however, he´d been decapitated and although his body was facing East, his head had been turned around to face the West (towards the sea).

His tomb, fortunately for us, was found in good condition as the grave robbers hadn´t found it so we were able to see which way he´d been buried etc. He was surrounded by ceramics, was wearing a golden burial mask and had lots of gold, silver and copper offerings buried with him.

The best thing about the museum was that we were allowed to take photos of the items recovered (which was something we´d find out, in peru, they don´t often let you do.... which infuriated me!!!)

Perhaps the best item was the fantastic burial mask made of gold, silver, copper and assorted precious stones etc.!

After the museum we headed to the Piramides De Tucume.

The Pyramids (or Huacas as they´re known here) had unfortunately been subjected to the elements, therefore at first glance, they don´t look particularly pyramidal!

However, with a good guide and a good imagination you could image how they must have looked.

The site was recently discovered and therefore a lot of the site was still being excavated.

As a result, we were only allowed to visit one of the pyramids and then walk up to the mirador to view the other surrounding pyramids. This was a bit dissapointing, however, I´m sure in future the site will be absolutely brilliant!

As we walked around the site we were visited by a few Peruvian Hairless dogs! Great little animals, however, not the prettiest that´s for sure. I couldn´t help but think how similar they were to the hairless (and also BLUE) dogs that the ancient Egyptians had.... coincidence..... a theme we´d happen upon quite a few times in our journey around the sites in Peru!

We headed to Lambayeque for lunch (at the obligatory Touristico Restaurant... which we hate.. although the restaurant wasn´t too bad!) and then it was on to the Gem of the Chiclayo Area........ the Museo Tumbas De Sipan.

This place was full of all the artifacts and items recovered from the Lord of Sipans tomb... which combined with those we´d already seen were absolutely fantastic !!!

What´s more... all the items were the real thing ! No replicas here !

Talk about Gold.... There was loads of the stuff... Gold Staffs, Masks, Bracelets, Idols, Offerings etc. etc. The place was absolutely fantastic and was by far one of the best museums we´ve ever visited !

It would have been nice to have spent all day at the place... inspecting the various artifacts and idols, however, we were on a tour so after an hour or so... it was time to head off back to Chiclayo for a shared large Ceviche and to our beds.

Tomorrow we head South again and have some more archeological sites to visit.....