Gran Hotel Santa Rosa Chiclayo

... songs... sound of silence, hotel california... reminded us of what we were missing. After a hot and uncomfortable 9 hour bus ride, we crossed the peruvian border at about midnight. hop off the bus, get a stamp, hop back on the bus. customs dont exist. the bus dropped us off in a town a few hours from where we wanted to go. we slept for a little while at the bus station, after being warned that ...

... on buying us a beer and attempting to have a conversation even though there was no common language other than beer (just your usual Saturday night then really), we did however learn ´Salut´ (cheers).<br><br>Eventually, a couple who had sat down at another table next to us came to our rescue as Mary was a tour guide who spoke excellent English, and her husband worked at the Sipan museum in Lambayeque. Although even ...

... because of the way there were many projects started, not finished and just a disorderly mess...<br><br>We decided to find a hotel in the city of Chiclayo, a city of about 500,000 people and Annette and I went for a walk through the city's enormous covered market that sells everything from the latest tennis shoes to electronic parts. You can buy all kinds of produce including some wild black corn, fresh meat and ...

... cop pulls up alongside, shakes hands and asks what we are doing. We want a hotel with parking for the bikes. Red flashing light on follow me. We follow closely, at a left turn (equivalent to right in UK) he stops the traffic to let us through and we make the turn laughing in our helmets! He pulls up outside the Hotel Central which has parking opposite and guards our bikes while we check in and unload.<br>Another handshake and he's off into the sun.

<br> I met up with Eric and Andy at the Transportes Linea bus station as soon as they picked me up we headed out to try sandboarding for the day. We decided to use one of the local tour agencies to do it and picked the same agency Andy had used from his city tours yesterday (they had worked out OK for him) and signed up. We opted for a slightly cheaper price of just having a driver and no instructor - we would, after all, surely have no problems sand boarding for the first time. We knew how ...

... with only between 4 and 8% of the original habitat remaining. The scenery here is very reminiscent of Arizona lowlands with cactus and hawthorn-like trees, and just like Arizona there´s a lot of Spanish spoken. <br><br> As we pulled into the reserve we were greeted by the resident (and endemic) Sechuran Fox and White-winged Guan. The latter is critically endangered (same status as the Spoon-billed Sandpiper) with a population of ...

... internet cafe (1Sol / 30 cents per hour) till my 8pm bus to Lima. I heard rumors that the way to Lima was also blocked, which I REALLY hope it isn`t I was going to stay in Chiclayo for a day or two, but I`m too scared to get stuck in Chiclayo and I really want to get home and be in my own bed at this point. I have about another hour till the bus leaves, so I`m really hoping everything goes well and I should be ...

So yeahh... I had my bus ticket changed yesterday to stay again today to go surfing haha... Not much to tell other than that... We went out in the morning and surfed from around 11am to 4.30pm, with our 5 soles "menu" at around 1. Aaaand I postponed my bus to Mancora again... hehe surfing again tomorrow! And I'll *probably* take off to Mancora tomorrow night.. ;)

From the highlands of Ecuador to the sandy desert-like stretches of coastal Peru is quite a change. The temperature is around 33 degrees Celsius-I am not complaining, just reporting. In Chiclayo there is nothing spectacular to do, so I try and get in 2 to 4 hours of walking a day. There are only so many plazas, churches and markets to see, so I at least stay in shape for my final Bruce Trail walks this year.

El Señor de Sipán ---------- Voilà, nous avons fini par nous trouver une auberge hier, qui plus est très sympa et à un prix très raisonnable. Et puis nous avons cherché aux alentours pour nous trouver une agence de voyage et faire le tour des ruines de la région. Une fois encore beaucoup de chance, puisque pour 90 Nuevos Soles (~30$US) nous avons un tour de Chiclayo, et demain un tour de Trujillo! Des tonnes de choses à voir, c'est chouette. :) Bien que le nord du Pérou ...