Latinos Hostal Chiclayo

... up. These are minibuses that cram in as many people as they can but are a lot cheaper. They say they are going to Chiclayo so Al barters for a good price. 2 soles the guys asks for, no 10 soles Al says not quite getting the point of haggling. The guy looks baffeled as to why we would want to pay 5 times the amount but lets us in anyway. Phew we all sigh, out of a little predicament, and we head off. We pick up more passengers along the way and soon ...

... small town in which the museum is located: Lambayeque. It's not a particularly attractive town; it's quite run down but we managed to unearth a few gems. The old historical centre needs a lot of work. This is just beginning and some of the colonial houses have been restored and converted into hotels and restaurants. They're incredibly beautiful buildings with open courtyards behind high walls with large wooden doors at the entrance. The insides are all high ceilings ...

... They were left by the pre-Inca Chimu culture. Built with adobe bricks and weathered by hundreds of years of sun, wind, and sand, they really looked more like a funny scattering of rather large sand dunes than they did ancient pyramids. Only when you climb upon a hill that overlooks the ruins can you really see the overall structure and shape of both the pyramids and the complex. The surrounding area is more fertile and green which makes the sandy pyramidal ...

... same spot and National Geographic covered the unearthing of the tombs and the treasures inside. Just two years ago, they found more and these are still being excavated. Although being mudbrick there´s little actual structure to see, we watched the excavators digging and uncovering underground mudbrick rooms under the mounds, and saw some of the buried treasure (arr! haaar!) in the museum next door.

... see the ruins we wanted to see, and get out of there again as quickly as possible. <br>So we managed to book ourselves a tour for the following day, and a bus leaving that evening. Two days was more than enough time in a place like this. <br>Again we opted for the organised tour (and with many places for havingmuch signage in english in museums and at the sites themselves you were usually more likely to get a guide ...

Ok, so I`m almost back home... I had a great evening last night with a few of the Guayaquil CSers, as well as Ivette (my Peruvian friend who`s working in Quito). We made some super yummy causa (a type of cold potato caserole with tuna and mayo in the middle) and hung out for a few hours. I said goodbye to Elizabeth, which was really sad, and around 10.30pm I left for the bus terminal to catch my 11pm bus to ...

... pool. The 3rd one had the blackest of mud.. We decided to pack it on and go back to the hostel covered in it. Thank goodness we were in the back of the trucks. Got a few looks from the locals though. Paraded ourselves around to show everyone what they missed out on then had a swim in the ocean to wash it all off. The ater was beautiful. Just the perfect temperature and there were a schoal of fish which were jumping out of the water ...

... lonely. Chiclayo is roughly at sea level so quite hot and humid and lots of mosquitoes, but seems a friendly sort of place. There is not a lot to see in the city but it is surrounded by Sican and Chimu archaeological sites. Today, having spoken to Barclays a second time and managing to get my card unblocked thank goodness, i went on a tour of two ...

... of bamboo and mud or mud bricks. There are stunted trees and very few crops. The appearance of the locals is a little rougher, their faces seem more sunken, their clothes older and not nearly as clean. However the rough way of life doesn't seem to discourage them. All day as we are driving towards the city of Piura people are waving at us, giving us thumbs up. Children are ...

... a crowd around the bike meant it´s time to go, but there people were interested and good-humored, and did not seem threatening at all. So we chatted a bit and then moved on, both a little surprised. But this is the way Peruvians are, the nicest, most outgoing people we have met yet. Then came the next surprise, sort of. We were waved over by 2 cops. So we pulled over and girded ourselves for a confrontation. But as it turns out, these guys were about ...