Gran Bolivar Hotel Trujillo

... that was heading to Chan Chan, we jumped on and in a little under 15 minutes we made it out to the ruins.

Chan Chan is the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America and covers an area of approximately 20 km². Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor people (kingdom of Chimu), and was built around AD850 and lasted until the conquest by the Inca Empire in AD1470 when it was believed the city was abandoned. It ...

... She ruled the Moche people and this, for us, was not too interesting - but understandably it was for Annette and we waited at the restaurant for her to complete this tour. We had a great time meeting some local people and some school kids on lunch break. Sylvain also had time to fix our GPS system and some other electrical stuff that still was not working correctly since the ...

... ruins at Chan Chan. These were all amazing; most of it is between 2000 to 1000 years old and the decorations are the most impressive of any South American ruins we've seen. Most of this stuff deserves to be as famous as the Inca ruins but I suppose its all about location and empire.

... You hear so much about it, and the Spanish couldn't have made off with all the treasure, right? But the Moche make up for the Inca. They musth ave alloyed their gold with copper, because when it was found, it was all green, but it has since been restored to sparkling splendour. I especially enjoyed the large necklaces on display, ten balls of gold shaped into human heads, an octopus necklace with legs spiraling off, a necklace of gold and silver peanuts. Many of these were shown next to ...

... slogans. I think the police who were present were rather surprised at our being there. We found the street leading up to the main plaza and headed up it, closely followed by a crowd of marching taxi drivers! Once there, we sat and watched them parade around the square, shouting and whistling. Soon bored of this, we headed to a phone place to call the hostel in Lima to inform them that we were canceling that night´s stay. Armed with information from a tourist information office ...

... driver w*s * despic*ble individu*l, ugly *nd sly with * ho*rse thro*t c*ncer voice. H*ving set off into the quite fr*nkly ment*l tr*ffic, he then *sked if we needed to ch*nge *ny doll*rs into Peruvi*n soles. We s*id no, thinking we could do so l*ter on. Completely ignoring this, the driver (*fter some of the most outr*geously d*ngerous driving I h*ve ever seen) suddenly c*me to * h*lt 5 minutes l*ter in * r*ndom side-street *nd *ll of * sudden * sw*rm of neon-vested men ...

... of $50 *nd we were off *g*in.

Arrived into Lim*, city of 9 million. App*rently quite * d*ngerous city we m*de it into our hotel with *ll our stuff unsc*thed *nd regrouped before going *round the corner for some chicken *nd chips (its *ll they sold, it w*s *fter*ll * chicken *nd chip shop) *nd * beer. It w*s * bit fr*ctiuous however *s our neighbours *t the next t*ble were given humongous beers while we h*d the wee 650ml bottles. He*ded b*ck to the nice hotel ...

I have been invited to Juan Carlos and Zenia's for breakfast. A very kind offer, which I enjoy immensely. They are a charming family. Juan Carlos works in the jungle with an oil company, which he assures me is very environmentally conscious. Afterwards I meet a euphoric Wendy returning from her wedding night, to return my official outfit, and as this is Monday, we are invited by Gustavo to enjoy shambar ...

... I end up at the Plaza de Armas ( Central Square ) to find that the imposing central monument, dedicated to the heroes of the independence, has been totally surrounded by netting and fences, and is in process of being steam cleaned for the first time in its life. I also visited the impressive Casa del Mayorazgo, purchased and restored by ScotiaBank. I was told by a ...

... br>De retour en ville je m'enfile un menú del día pour moins d'un euro dans un resto local puis m'en vais trouver un tour organisé pour visiter le fameux site Chan Chan l'après-midi.

M'étant inscrite pour un tour à 14h dans l'agence "Huaca Tours", je tue le temps en faisant un sudoku sur un banc de la Plaza de Armas. Sur le banc d'à côté, trois jeunes hommes discutent âprement politique. C'est que ça chauffe!! Dans quelques jours, ils vont devoir élire un ...