Huanchaco Huanchaco Huanchaco!

Having spent the day preparing for our first overnight bus trip-and recovering from the night before-we boarded the Peru bound bus in Loja on Saturday January 21st at midnight.  Although we truly enjoyed the beauty of Ecuador, salted corn street snacks and music playing garbage trucks (yes, they played music, jovial music, similar to that of an ice cream truck which was occasionally disappointing, but all in all entertaining), we thoroughly looked forward to our adventure in Peru.  Don´t ask me why, but up until this point all of our bus travels have included over the top violent, blood and guts type of movies.  It´s a strange South American bus thing I guess, so needless to say I was quite happy to be viewing The Zookeeper that night.  Absolutely ridiculous-yes, Over the top gory and violent-not so much, I´ll take it! The journey was nine hours to Piura, our first Peruvian city, with a boarding crossing at about 3:30 a.m.  Everything was very easy, except for finding a comfortable position to sleep and trying not to sweat to death with all that body heat and no air conditioning. At one point I think Mason actually had his head out the window.  Our most exciting aspect was waking up in the middle of the night to a family attempting to load the bus with boxes among boxes of what we assume was food and sitting next to a lady with a bag full of chickens.  That´s right.  Quite literally a bag full of live chickens.

In a cloud of dust and confusion we were kicked out of the bus on the side of the dirt road. Welcome to Piura!  Upon looking around we immediately decided that we should get the hell out of dodge-and quick! Not quite sure where we were going we started walking down the road in the direction of other backpack clad individuals.  After a long walk, and multiple unsuccessful ATM visits we finally found a bus company that had a daily bus departing for Trujillo at nine; we walked in at 8:50.  If there is one thing our travels down here have taught us it is patience.  Sometimes things just take a REALLY long time, and gettng worked up about it is not going to help.  So we waited, patiently in line watching the minutes tick away, but somehow managed to make the bus.

The scenery was not nearly has pleasant as the mysterious fog-ridden mountains of central Ecuador. The dry, desert climate, long straight roads and multiple garbage dumps we passed had us dreaming of reaching the ocean. After 6 hours, one (inevitable) gory movie, and seeing a few mirages that we swore were ocean waves, we arrived in Trujillo at 3:30 pm and were enjoying the last rays of the day, kicking back on the beach by 4:30 pm. Our hostel was set in a chilled out little beach town called Huanchaco, about 12 km north of the city of Trujillo where surfing was a way of live and daily hammock time was necessary.  The main drag, Ave La Rivera, followed the curve of the beach and was freckled with seafood joints, bars, hotels, hostels and surf shops.  After so many days battling rain and cold it was refreshing to relax on the beach, in the warm sun and take an occasional dip into the pacific ocean.

Traveling into the city was easy and cheap as little buses called combis drove the main avenue all day.  All you had to do was flag one down and hop on (very carefully as these too rarely stopped to load or unload passengers).  The fare was 1.50 Soles per person, which equals about 50 cents, and supported locals directly.  They usually filled up pretty quickly and were cause for standing room only.  One day while heading to Trujillo our combi took an unexpected turn and headed into the residential area of Huanchaco instead of straight for the city.  It was quite an eye opening experience to witness the real parts of town where locals reside and not the main area fancified for tourists and travelers.  The roads were dirt and filled with potholes and the houses were thrown together with whatever materials were around.  Suddenly our bus came jolting to a stop, breaking down on the side of the road. Confused we looked around wondering what was going on, but nobody else seemed to be too concerned.  The two drivers hopped out and began inspecting the engine (really just kicking it). Although it was somewhat difficult to see the reality of the town all I could hope was that the money we were spending there was benefitting the locals in some way.  While the drivers were fixing (kicking) the engine we did get to witness the locals in their real environment and not catering to tourists, which was refreshing.  There were playing children, happy exchanges and one women enjoying the day with her pet monkey-on a leash, drinking a juice box.  One of my favorite sites yet!

We coincided our trip with La Fiesta de la Marinera, a festival celebrating the national dance of Peru.  The Marinera is a graceful flirtation between two partners performed with handkerchiefs as props and gorgeous elaborate costumes.  The beautiful reenactment of a courtship represents a stunning blend of Spanish, African and Indigenous influences. Almost daily in Trujillo and Huanchaco we could catch dancers ranging from 6 to 60 years old gracing the streets with their elegant dance moves.  It was an awesome glance into one aspect of the deep culture native to Coastal Peru.  Our visit also happened to overlap with the World Cup Surfing Competition.  Overnight a large stage popped up on the beach as well as various sponsor tents, vendors and large inflated beer bottles decorating the area.  Although the waves were somewhat unimpressive it was fun to hang out and watch surfers, young and old, bobbing in the oceans and doing their best to carve her tide.

Although we did plenty of soaking in the sun (and both had the sunburns and weird tan lines to prove it), Trujillo is also rich in archaeological discoveries and we took some time to get out an explore the sites. Sitting slightly southest of the city lay two beautiful Moche temples dating back to 600 AD.  Although the Temple of the Sun is Peru´s largest pre-Colombian structure, it was ravaged for gold and silver by Spanish Conquistidors and left mostly destroyed.  The Temple of the Moon, however, has remained largely intact and is riddled with rooms containing large adobe brick walls with beautiful polychrome friezes.  This just blew us away! Each Moche priests that came into power covered the previous reigns designs with their own interpretation of the higher powers, so they are still continuing to peel away the layers of these extravagent murals.  The tour is operated by local students studying archaeology and anthropology and their focus is conservation not restoration, so all of the friezes are orginal!  It is amazing to think that only 20 years this site was merely a pile of dirt and they still have significant areas to excavate.  We also were lucky enough to catch site of a hairless Peruvian dog from the area.  These odd looking canines have abnormally high body temperatures and have been used for curing ailments such as stomach pain and asthma.



Walking around the temples and the city left us quite exhausted, but it was our last night in town and Mason saw a handmade flyer for some live music at a local bar so we decided to check it out.  The bar was called Mystika and definitely floated our vibe.  We were greeted by fire and sword juggling and a man selling vinyl records at the door.  It was tempting, but I resisted the urge to purchase Los Beatles! deciding it would be too difficult to carry around. The band consisted of four men playing a variety of instruments including three different drums, a flute, a charango-10 stringed Andean instrument made out of a armadillo shell, and some pan flutes.  Their entrancing notes of their traditional Peruvian music captivated us and our fatigue dissipated with the first song.  We danced in the middle of a crowded room full together with locals and tourists alike, spilling out into the streets and affecting the entire neighborhood with song.