Hotel Libertador - Trujillo

... more thoroughly restored with more paintings, but this time, only hints of color. Huaca de la Luna actually went through several phases and remodelings during its use, meaning old paintings were plastered over, better enabling them to survive until today.

On the drive from Iris to Chan Chan, the three year-old on our tour decides she wants to sit with me and plops down and starts asking questions. First, she proudly declares "Vivo en Lima!" I live in Lima, and then starts with ...

... I understood him. He laughed and made some small talk about how there was a carnival here in the city tonight (which was not true). He then asked me if I could help him with this English as he had an exam the next day. I told him, “tengo que ir un poquito de prisa” (I am in a bit of a hurry). But he persisted and asked if he could just walk and talk to me, “by the way where are you going?” I told him I was off to the market and then had to buy bus ...

... t. The hair, the body, the clothes, the languid gait, the constant wearing of shades (even at night). I'm starting to feel a little self-conscious, out of place and very very English.

Having said that, Huanchaco is a great place to hang out for a couple of days. My time in Peru is almost up and I wanted to just laze around for a couple of days before going back to Lima for my flight. A few days by the Pacific, up to my ...

... A lot of imagination was needed to picture how the site must have looked. We were a it disappointed really, although the highlight was a cartoon-like statue of a Chimu bloke stood by the entrance to one of the big open squares; we named him Bob.

After getting ice creams in the car park we sourced another taxi driver to take us the short distance south-east to Huaca Esmerelda, a ceremonial pyramid. We wandered about inside for five minutes or ...

So it was time to bid farewell to Joan in Lima. Ended up spending two nights in Lima, we not too interested in spending too much time sharing a crazy city with 9 million other people...

Stayed in the Miraflores area which is the nicer part of the city, with a nice park and ...

... town the second largest in Peru, about 2 AM and still in one piece. Of course, prior to the bus trip we had made the return trip on the Road on top of the World--without incident, unlike the bus trip. And we had a great and busy day in Trujillo today. More about that later. WeŽll be flying to Cuzco in the morning. IŽll try to update from there. Oh, and Ben just finished his first cuy dinner tonight. (ThatŽs guinea pig, in Quecha...) Bye for now.

... a Christmas cake of epic proportions. Something none of us had any inkling of when we sat atop the dusty pile eating our sandwiches back then on lazy Sunday afternoons. Upon our return in Trujillo , I am met by Suzanne and Alexandra with her friends Juan Carlos and Zenia and their two children. We drive to a new restaurant called "Rustica". Inside is a vast hall surrounded by racks and ...

After staying in Lima two days and not knowing what to do for my last few days in Peru, last night I finally decided (that's not saying much, really) to break with the crowd and go north to Trujillo. Which meant it was time for another night bus. I shared a cab with Kushal and Hiyasmin to the Tepsa terminal on Javier Prado. They already had tickets to Arequipa, and my plan B was to tag ...