We left Montanita around 10 am on Monday, Travelled all day on various buses, crossed the Peruvian-Ecuadorian boarder around 6:30 and arrived in Tumbes Peru around 9:30 at night. We taxied the rest of the trip into Mancora, and unfortunately got ripped off by the taxi driver. He got us into the car by telling us the trip was going to be 35 soles, but then stopped on the side of the dark and deserted road about half way through our trip and insisted that we misunderstood him, the trip was actually $35 per person. Liar. Asshole. We ended up only paying 50 tho. So, we got there ripped off, but unscathed.
We´re staying in a backpacker´s hostel called Loki del Mar. Its this resort-turned-hostel that has been taken over by some aussies and Americans to be the ultimate young person beach resort. This compound has beautiful White painted, wave inspired buildings which are mostly bare inside. Not much time is spend inside, however. There´s not a lot to do outside of the compound, so we´ve been spending most our time walking, talking and drinking.
On the third day we found out that buses to Trujillo only leave at night, so we had to hang out all day in the shit weather waiting for our bus. Couldn´t sunbath, couldn´t go to the beach. Just had to sit around and drink with the other gringos. The buses with Cama seats are pretty nice (except for the cell phone behind me blaring ¨Jenny From the Block¨. We woke up at around 8am to find that we had traveled time and space and were magically in Trujillo. We immediately took a taxi to the smaller beach town of Huanchaco and found a hostel for only 10 soles a night (that's about 3 US dollars people!). It eventually turned out to be NOT such a great bargain, as the ¨Electric Shower¨ (however THAT´S supposed to work, i dunno) delivered two lightening bolts to Theo´s dome. He woke up two hours later naked and hypodermic. Also, red painted floor + wet feet = red feet. And the relentless soundtrack to such discoveries: Legends and the theme song from Cops.
We spent the day visiting the amazingly well preserved ruins of Chan Chan. They had excavated one of the 10-20 palaces in the 20-square km area of the former city. The preservation of the baseboard-like designs of squirrels, fish pelicans, etc. were really amazing. I particularly liked the decorative lake that was also used as a reservoir. We also visited Huaca del Sol y Luna which were equally stunning. 13 colors of mineral plaster still coat the walls in intricate patters and paintings, mostly portraying their omnipotent, shape shifting god, battles and their daily activities. Its amazing the amount of natural preservation that has taken place thanks to the arid climate.
On to LIMA!
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