La Alameda del Peregrino Trujillo

... the temple come from the friezes on the walls, some of which are in the shape of rainbows and another which is thought to be a dragon. It is really amazing how well preserved the carvings are.

Our taxi driver took us back into town where we had lunch and prepared for our (hopefully last) overnight bus ride to Chachapoyas, the last town in Peru before hitting Ecuador!

Till next time xxx

... work done, revealing centuries-old paintings that used to adorn the temple. Figures of Moche gods as well as various sea creatures are carved into the walls and painted in bold colors. There's something about old paintings that impresses me (Egyptian tombs had a similar effect two years ago when I discovered they had been painted) and I can easily imagine how imposing the temple must have looked thirteen-hundred years ago.

In the afternoon, we visit Huaca Iris, a smaller temple ...

... to share their table. We talked a little bit and then they took me around to see a couple of museums. The museums were OK, but having a guide of the city was nice, especially because I had all day to kill anyway. After that I went to check out the city market. On my way there a guy behind me says, ‘Hay demasiados gringos aqui”. Besically saying, ‘there are too many white people here.’ I looked over my shoulder to see a guy who appeared ...

... it looked pretty cool.

In some of the sites yesterday there wetre Peruvian hairless dogs, the ugliest dogs I ve ever seen! They are really ugly but have such a high body temperature that they were used as body warmers for people with arthritis at some point.

Enough of the history lesson... Tonight we are making our way back to Lima via the mountain town of Huaraz..

It is said by those who know these things that the northern coast of Peru is home to the longest left-hand point breaks in the world. I don't actually know what this means but its something to do with surfing and really big waves. Cowabunga, dude (I'm so down with the kids). I'm in Huanchaco, a very laid-back surfing town on the northern coast where the waves are very big. Sometimes, when I look out at the Pacific, it really looks ...

... in the afternoon, and meeting a couple of Peruvian guys (not the first guy i´ve met named Jesus) who we planned to meet up with the following night.
Day two in town and we opted for the organised tourist tour of the ruin sites, purely for the ease of not knowing exactly which of the public buses to catch and taxi prices working out to be more expensive. Turns out the english couple were on the same tour, so we were able to ...

... who knew???????

A foggy morning *ll round met me the next d*y, some dirty stop outs h*d not got b*ck til 5*m *nd h*d been g*mbling *nd everything. CNN s*ys 19 *nd cle*r but *pp*rently blue skies t*ke off on holid*y from *round *pril in lim*. Comforted myself with * visit to McD´s for p*nc*kes where i h*d to *rgue for 10 mins for milk in my coffee. there *re more concerned with their ll*m*´s here th*n d*iry cows. While i w*s there i spotted the origin*l ...

... leeway before plunging to our deaths. We made it out of the mountains on a road that USED to be paved. There are so many landslides, deluvial rains and earthquakes that this road had turned into the worse road in the universe... Think of the worst road you have ever been on in your life, like the road down to the scout camp at Pico Blanco, or consider the vibrations of running over train tracks. Then pretend you are on this road in a bus with ...

... walk backwards while informing us about what we are seeing. She is also a most thorough guide, and her group always ends up the very last to get back. The previous time I was a Huaca de la Luna was 40 years ago when it was just a pile of adobe blocks across from the much more impressive Huaca del Sol. We used to walk there through the Moche countryside for Sunday picnics, and to scrape ...

... partir de maintenant je vais m'appeler Ana pour le restant de la journée! Je crois que j'ai rougi chaque fois qu'on m'a dit "Ana"...
Nous allons d'abord visiter la Huaca Arco Iris, aussi nommée Huaca El Dragón, temple Chimú datant de +/- 800 PCN. Entièrement construit en adobe, le temple bas de forme trapézoïdale doit son nom aux reliefs représentant des arcs-en-ciel. Il y a aussi des hippocampes (symboles de fertilité) et des chiens sans poils. C'est une ...