Inti Hotel Chiclayo

... as many people as possible. In chief's relief and hurry to get on when enquiring as to cost, mishead the guys saying one sole each (about 25p) and offers him 10 for the four of us. As we can see chief bartering skills are coming on leeps and bounds, either that or his maths is shocking. Anyway out of that and back for more cocktails in town. That was pretty much it, a little whip around the market in the morning and onto Huanchaco....

... stomach laughing his head off! We all stand there slightly baffled and unsure what is so funny. It transpires that Al looks nothing like a doctor and although the guard wrote down his age, he clearly looks too young...as the guard wrote down that he was a student. I also get student by my name, he does not even ask me my profession. When it comes to Phil and Alex, he believes that they are professional and can pass for doctors, despite being the ...

... and replacing my passport is going to cost over 100 quids... not a happy bunny.<br><br>As if all this wasn't enough then what's happened since has been an even bigger faff. Steve doesn't have a back-up card for cash and figuring out a way for him to get money has taken days. And it's still not been resolved. In the meantime I, feeling semi-responsible, am his only source of cash so we've been stuck together trying to figure something out. The complete inefficiency of ...

... us everywhere we went. <br> After sand boarding we stopped at a ceviche (the best way to prepare fish) restaurant, grabbed our bags, grabbed a bus, and headed on the 4 hour journey to Chiclayo. We found the hostel that we stayed at before, a small place a couple blocks away from the Plaza de Armas. For a double room with a private bathroom and hot water, we paid 35 soles total ($11.60) for the night. The only complaint is that it had a probably poached jaguar hide hanging on the entry wall.

... surrounding area via day trips. We hopped onto a combi (a van) to take us to the ocean-side town of San Jose. I thought we were going to walk along the beach to the towns of Pimentel and Santa Rosa, but a jogger quickly warned us that this route was unsafe, especially for tourists. Even he was running with a knife strapped to his belt and a lab at his side. That wasn't particularily surprising, so we weren't disappointed to follow the ...

Aujourd'hui, nous restons nous reposer a Chiclayo. Le matin nous marchons vers le Mercado Modelo, le plus grand marche de la région. Cette ville est vraiment peu agréable, les trottoirs sont bondes, les gens se bousculent, les rues sont sans cesse embouteillées de taxis klaxonnant a tout va et pour finir il y a même des vautours sur les feux tricolore ou les b ...

... looking teeth which would show they were just like everyone else. One last stop in Chiclayo was the beach at Pimental. As hot as it was in Chiclayo, here it was just a bit too cool and windy for swimming. And the water was bien frio as well but it was nice to be at the ocean and eat ceviche and watch the fishermen bring in their catches in their very unusual caballitos.

... ride.e I was finally able to get in touch with Jose Ricardo (my Couchsurfing host), after not having been able to during the past few days, I coordinated how to meet, and here I am. I didn't do much the rest of the afternoon other than loafing around, since it was a bit too late to visit the museums in Chiclayo. So today I've gotten up early to go visit them ...

... We sit as close to the door as possible in case some machismo male decides he is a bigger man than another. We order some food and eat quickly. Considering how shady the bar is the food isn't half bad. We retire back to our room after buying a couple of beers from the hotel clerk. Monday December 8th After a very poor night of sleep trying to fight my fever and cold I awaken ...

... We´re talking flat, and not a lot living besides some scrubby brush. And overall, the people were barely living as well. Along the highway were basically shantytowns of one and 2 room hut made out of adobe, not the smooth peachy adobe of Santa Fe, but basically bricks of grayish brown mud fastened with more of the same mud. And these were the nice settlements! Others had shacks made of scrap **** of one sort or another. Along the side of the road ...