Week 20: Up On The Roof

On the pier

To say that the bus journey from Chachapoyas to Trujillo was uncomfortable would be an uderstatement. I was already feeling sick from forcing apple pie down my pie hole in the afternoon, and to add to my discomfort the air conditioning was turned off during the night. I fell asleep almost immediately as we left Chachapoyas, but woke up after a couple of hours, sweating profusely. At about 0600 we arrived in Chiclayo (which will henceforth be known as Chlamidya, it's probably just as pleasent). Joe, Matt and Gemma had all seen Chiclayo before and I was assured it wasn't worth a look. We changed bus to head to Trujillo, about 4 hours further down the coast. We were very lucky to watch a Jackie Chan film, which we could barely hear, and even luckier to see the DVD loop another 127 or so times. ("Dios mio" *everyone wince if you know what's coming* "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"). The very kind bus lady eventually switched it off about half an hour after I asked her to. So far the day had not been fantastic, (although somehow I had managed to find a store selling genuine Diet Coke in Chachapoyas, and remembered I had it in my bag - after 5 months of Coke Zero it was like the elixir of life).Our day was about to take a serious turn for the better.

One of many beautiful sunsets at the beach

Splashing out on lunch

After arriving in Trujillo, we took a taxi to Huanchaco, the nearby beach town, where we checked into a hostel. We practically had a balcony all to ourselves, however we felt let down as we thought there was a roof terrace - it turned out to just be a roof. We refreshed ourselves with an assortment of frozen lemonade and beer before heading out to lunch. Words cannot even describe how welcome this food was. The Lonely Planet website lists "Big Ben Restaurant" as the number 1 thing to do in Huanchaco - this is definitely for a reason. We spent 60 soles each on lunch (about 13 pounds) but had 4 dishes between us and a bottle of wine. It is probably some of the freshest and most delicious seafood I have ever had: a mix of ceviche, a Peruvian speciality, BBQed seafood and other varieties. We headed to the beach to let our food go down, or not, as Matt, Gemma and I all got in the sea almost immediately. It was refreshing but rocky, and there was a strong undercurrent. This was naturally followed by a few more drinks - I indulged in a Pisco Sour, the national drink of both Peru and Chile, although it is still widely desputed where it came from. The spirit Pisco comes from grapes, and then the other ingredients are lime and egg white. It may not sound very nice but can be pretty enjoyable on a hot day.

Enjoying a few beverages at Bily's Bar

Do not be fooled by how cool this cocktail looks

It was getting close to sunset and we thought about getting dinner - but even the idea of chewing cardboard was preferable to chicken and rice - and we couldn't really justify splashing out again. We watched the sunset from the beach, I could hardly believe how quickly it seemed to go down getting so close to the equator. We had a few more cocktails at "Bily's Bar" (after much discussion amongst ourselves somebody else interjected and told us that it was in fact pronounced "Billy") and went for a walk along the pier. At Bily's, Joe decided to have a "Machu Picchu" cocktail. The only way I can describe it is as a layered cocktail of Orange Juice and Mouthwash (it was actually Creme de Menthe). It was absolutely foul. We returned to the hostel to buy a few beers so we could go and sit by ourselves on the beach. (I won't mention who but one of us managed to walk out without our beer...) We sat for a while on the beach listening to the sea and just enjoying each others company. Joe and I (stupidly) both left our shoes by a signpost, and it later turned out they were to become a sacrifice tp the Fun Gods (best trade of my trip so far) as when we returned they were nowhere to be seen. Matt and Gemma headed to bed, and then some hippies came and sat about 10 feet away from us and started a drumming circle, so we moved further along the beach. (It's okay, it wasn't like they had miles and miles more of beach to choose from, and nobody likes a drumming circle). After about an hour more of sitting and chatting, I finally convinced Joe to go in the sea, as he hadn't earlier in the day and probably wouldn't otherwise. It was flipping freezing to say the least, so we headed back to the hostel to sit on the balcony, although Mr Fun Sponge at the front desk told us we were being too noisy (BS) so we snuck up onto the roof for a bit, before calling it a day and both heading to bed. We also came to a conclusion about the life cycle in South America (having noted that the main things about South America are dogs and litter - also hills but that's irrelevant for now): Human throws rubbish, dog eats rubbish, dogs reproduce, human throws rubbish, dog eats rubbish, dogs reproduce... A bit depressing really.

The following day nobody felt that great, but it had totally been worth it. After much needed showers and food we headed back to the beach for a dip in the sea (also very much needed). Joe was flying back from Lima the following morning so needed to make a marathon journey back, as he hadn't originally intended to come to Huanchaco - you can't blame him, who could resist our excellent company?!

A long-awaited full English

I spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading after the previous night's antics. Although I had told myself I wouldn't read any books on this trip that I have previously read, I gave in and smashed my way through Wide Sargasso Sea in a day. A short but intense book about the character better known as Bertha Rochester from Jane Eyre.

I think the look on Matt's face says it all

The next day I woke up to a nasty surprise. I had changed dorms the previous night and while I slept I had once again been mauled by bed bugs. It was pretty gross and if you know me well enough I already sent you a picture, if you don't know me well enough you probably don't want to see it anyway. Thankfuly they chucked everyone out the room and spent two days fumigating it, and did my washing for free. To make up for it we basically had a whole day of gorging ourselves on delicious food as a relief from months and months of chicken and rice. Accordingly, almost 50% of photos from this week are of food. We kicked off the day with a (almost) full English breakfast of tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, fried eggs and bread. I upgraded to a hot chocolate which was above average for South America, and we managed to wangle a juice with no papaya in it. We had a short break on the beach and a swim in the sea before returning to Big Ben's for lunch. I hadn't thought it possible but we pushed the boat out even further than before, and ended up paying 100 soles each (just over 20 pounds) for the best seafood lunch I have ever had. We had 5 dishes between us and 2 bottles of wine. Although it seemed a little excessive at the time, we didn't have too much of a problem rationalising it to ourselves. We spent the rest of the afternoon back on the beach, then had a walk along the pier and I had a carbonara in the evening. (More real bacon!)

Stuffing my face with delicious carbonara

Colour still on the walls from centuries ago

It was time to get back to doing cultural stuff the next day so we took a trip to a few pre-Inca sites. I could hardly believe how well preserved some of the ceramics from the sites were. We went to Chan Chan and the Huacas de la Luna y del Sol (Temples of the moon and the sun). These ruins were in some ways more impressive than Machu Picchu, although they had less grandeur as a whole, they had been so well excavated and many of the walls still preserved original paintings and colours. The temples had been rebuilt on one another to that extent that it is impossible to continue excavating without ruining the later buildings.

Mind-blowing paintings

Picnic times

We wised up and brought lunch with us. Continuing our theme of excellent food we had a picnic of sandwiches (with real butter!), crisps, cucumber and fresh fruit. Man cannot live on chicken and rice alone, regardless of what any South American will tell you.

Impressive carvings

We returned to Huanchaco in the evening before our bus. I treated myself to another carbonara (no knowing when we would have any more bacon) and in the evening we took a local bus to Trujillo to connect to our overnight bus to Huaraz, ready for some trekking.

All in all the previous days have been some of the best of my trip. It was a bit like a much-needed and well-deserved package holiday to the beach after so many weeks and months in the Andes.

Another colourful sunset on the pier in Huanchaco