Hotel Casa Blanca Cajamarca

... control, a civil war ensued. Involved in the civil war, the Inca&#8217;s didn&#8217;t pay too much attention the boats of foreigners that showed up. Atahualpa of the north eventually won the war and the kingdom. La Silla del Inca, or the seat of the Inca, is a bench-shaped stone on a hill that overlooks the valley in which Cajamarca sits. Legend has it that Atahualpa and his important men came up to that hill to watch his soldiers train below, or just to think. <br> The group of ...

The bus from Chiclayo to Cajamarca was supposed to be 6 hours, but ended up being over 10 hours due to the poor road conditions. I was a bit nervous arriving in town after midnight without knowing where I would stay, but it ended up being pretty easy to find a decent place on the Plaza de Armas (a central square that exists in nearly every town I´ve been to).<br><br>This is a stopover point on the way toward the northeast, but I took a few pics.

... here was amazing (see last entry) and now all of a sudden I am in a big city with all that entails and it's a bit overwhelming. I found a nice little hotel a few blocks from the plaza and settled in. Egnar,he tour company operator from Chachapoyas, along with his wife and young son, had accompanied us from Chachas and we agreed to meet at the plaza in the morning. I was looking forward to ...

... river. Totally different from the wet cloud forest we had some from!<br>At Balsas on the river, we had our lunch break. There is not much here but we managed to find a funky place that served lunch. I needed to use the bathroom which was in a narrow hallway next to the dining area. As I entered through he curtain, I was startled by a chicken - equally startled - tied up in there. Lunch? I had the pork.<br>From Balsas the road climbs once ...

I znow rano.. srodek nocy, szybkie sniadanie popijane mocna perowianska kawa i do autobusu. Niesamowite ile osob moze zmiescic maly busik. 4 rano ... droga wytrzesla z Juana resztki snu wiec on pelen energii ja nie az tak, czekamy na wschod slonca, i pana biletera...no i moze jeszcze jakies prawdziwe sniadanie, bo nie zobaczymy normalnego jedzenia przez ...

... the sauna at a set time and the pool also! hilarious..... we hang around for our sauna slot, and then have to practically bribe the guy to let us run across the site to get in for out pool slot, half way through our time. the sauna is lovely. they even put fresh grass and herbs on the heat grates so the air smells lovely. lukey and i sweat to our hearts content. however, the pool, although warm, is filthy. after sitting in it for a few minutes, lukey tells me to look at the water ...

... animals!! At last Yurimaguas! A small town with a port, where we caught the boat up the river Mariñon and then the Amazon to Iquitos. We got to the port and were told the boat would be leaving that evening. So we went and bought all our supplies including a hammock each. We returned to the boat and set ourselves up ready to go only to be told we wouldn't be leaving until the next day ...

... warthogs, and leopards ;not a traditional Peruvian animal. As always, it started to rain, and we made our way back home. On the bus Ewa got a lot of attention from the kids, and I gave one especially loud kid a lesson in Polish chat up lines. And the quiet kid too. I could see a poet in this one and he thumbed through Ewa Polish'Spanish dictionary, looking like he was working on a Casanova like one liner. I´m not sure ...

... Anyway bring Imodium is all I´m saying. So after a thankfully uneventful Sunday where we all had time to split up a bit, write home and consolidate ourselves after the last weeks events. We made our way downstairs to El Zarco, an amazing find by Wojtek last night, and a very pleasant a cheap café/restaurant. I fact we spent a lot of yesterday looking for a decent place to eat and all the time this place was right under our feet. Literally ...

... armed guards so haggling will get you shot, just take what your given (ok that´s slightly fictional but the guards do carry guns). Linea do a bus service four times a day to Cajamarca but if you want to take in the spectacular journey, go in the morning. I took a few hour to get into the mountains but after that it was all worth the wait. The first part of ascent is relatively gentle though bum-wobblingly bumpy and at the three ...