Going all ´Time Team´ in Northern Peru

Peru: It´s drier and flatter than I expected. So goes the first observation as I left the paradise of Vilcabamba and took the International bus from Loja over the border to Piura. With little to no border control, (get off bus, get a stamp, walk five metres, get another stamp, get back on bus) it was an easy journey, excepting the fact that I arrived in Peru with $2.50 and no idea where the nearest bank machine was. In the end I found one, had a quick plate of cheap and tasty fried rice to get change for my 100 soles and quickly found a bed, the Hotel Moon Night. After the sort of sleep that you only get in a very cheap and vaguely prison-like room, I took the advice of the helpful sign outside my door and left very early the next morning:


After spending less than twelve hours in Piura, I caught an early bus down the coast through the desert to Chiclayo for the first stop of what became something of an archaeological mini-tour.

Chiclayo
Chiclayo is a pretty standard town. Very busy and bustling due to national holidays and bringing in visitors due to the fact that it is the closest settlement to a number of important pre-Inca sites developed by the Moche people; Tucume, Sipan, Sican, Batan Grande to name the main players. The Mercado Modelo, what has to be the largest market, anywhere, ever was fun to get lost in. Apparantly you can buy San Pedro at the curandero stalls on the south-west side but I wouldn´t know anything about that. I spent a couple of days in Chiclayo treating myself to a private room in a little hotel with (shock) cable TV as it seems the idea of hostelling hasn´t quite taken off there as yet. My little routine went something like this: Get up, eat bread and jam, pack lunch of sarnies and fruit and take a taxi to the randomly scattered combi stops, walk around the sites and visit the obligatory museums, return to hotel, drink beer and watch films. It was definately interesting but after a couple of days you get a bit historied-out and one mud-brick pyramid begins to look much like the next:


Combis are mental however. They are tiny little white vans that act as the main bus servoice around most Peruvian towns and whilst dirt cheap, they cram as many people in as they can so you are literally squeezing your buttocks against those of your neighbour. It was mostly fun though as I chatted to some really nice Peruvians doing the same sightseeing trips as me. I had managed to arrive in Chiclayo for the main national holidays of the year in Peru and consequently loads of people were out taking in some national heritage. Tucume was first and its sprawling mounds of eroded adobe pyramids impress through sheer size alone, Huaca Larga claiming the much sought-after title of largest single adobe structure in the world:


In the afternoon I went to the Sican museum at nearby Ferranafe. I bet you didn´t know that the Sican dude was the founder of CND did you now? Way ahead of his time that guy.


The original maskz were rather impressive:



Afterwards I had a picture taken with this looney tune:


The next day I went to the site of the Sipan musuem and yes, another large series of adobe pyramids. It houses the well preserved remains of the Lord of Sipan, supposedly a great past leader of the Mochila people in that area. He had a pretty cool tomb:



On the combi there I got talking to a lady from Lima who was up there on holiday and we ended up wandering around the museum together (with me sporting some typically scatty spanish) attempting to converse about each others lives. It was a nice bit of cultural exchange even if some of it was lost in translation.

Huanchaco
Next stop down the coast was the little beach town of Huanchaco, famous for its reed boat fishermen who surf the waves back to shore after a hard day on the ocean and stack their boats up on the beach as the sun goes down:



Met a couple of really nice Kiwi brothers, Chris and Alex, and Will from the USA. We spent a few days hanging out at the really rather cool Hostel Naylamp, complete with two rather speedy Tortoises...


...although I managed to develop my first head cold of the trip and consequently didn´t feel like doing much apart from sniffing into tissues and drowning myself in Vitimin C and good old Lemsips. I was cheered up by the antics of one of the Artesania guys who I got talking to. His name was Winston and he told me my spanish was pretty good and then, much to my amusement, proceeded to energetically mime blow jobs with his penis-shaped ´back massagers´!


The next day Will and myself made it out to another famed site, the Huaca De La Luna just outside of Trujillo and this time I was actually suitably impressed. The friezes, original patterns and paint were all ridiculously well preserved from what must have been an utterly mindblowing temple in its day. This stuff is over 1500 years old!




After checking out the tastefully lit church that overlooks the town...


...we made it back for an evening with the Kiwi boys and woke up the next day feeling pretty rough so spent it just hanging out, nailing more health-boosting chemicals and eating as much fruit and vegetables as my body could handle. It seemed to work as by the next day I was beginning to feel better. A good job too as we had an eight hour bus ride up into the stunning Cordillera Blanca mountains to deal with! It was busy and cramped but I did chat to a lovely primary school teacher from Huaraz who´d spent the weekend visiting her friend in Chimbote. Nothing unusual about that you might think but hells bells michelle, its only a 14 HOUR round trip!

Things I Liked About Ecuador: A Brief Retrospective

I've been in Peru less than a week now and surprising myself by how much I am missing Ecuador. In honour of that country and my travels therin, I present a brief retrospective of the best things about the country for me. In no particular order:

• Meeting and having broken but understandable conversations with lots of friendly people


• The amazing variety of jaw-droppingly beautiful landscapes


• The abundance of weird, wonderful and totally tropical fruits


• Most dramatic bus journeys ever


• The fact that there is a street sign or shop in every town, city and village that says COLON in massive letters. Its the small things eh


• Cheap and tasty Rum (Ron), its 'Superior' and its four dollars a bottle.


• Cheap, reliable buses, despite the sometimes crazy drivers who like overtaking anywhere and everywhere


• Surprisingly, lots of good, cheap veggie restaurants


• Natural supplement shops selling products that look like they were made in the 1970s - my favourite featured a picture of Lindsey Lohan and went by the name 'Ultra Vaginal'!

Bizarre random memory:

The poor old man who got onto the bus and proceeded to take down his trousers to his ankles to reveal a cheap and very scabby-looking colostomy bag attached to his body. He then spent the next five minutes lecturing the passengers, squeezing his bag and making his point (whatever it was) and nobody batted an eyelid...

Colonnial Chic and Valley Heaven

My last week or so in Ecuador, sob sob... It´s been a fantastic time in this little country and I´ve really grown to love it for all its quirky, ramshackle charm and gorgeous natural beauty. I spent a few very pleasant days in the refined city of Cuenca, taking in its relaxed pace of life and slightly more cosmopolitan inhabitants, before heading south the the muy tranquilo town of Vilcabamba which turned out to be just the haven I was looking for. A place I could live I reckon, as a few other gringos have discovered over the past twenty years or so. Thankfully, this hasn´t taken away too much of the slow-paced charm, as the town remains pretty small and the local influence strong.

Cuenca
I really liked Cuenca. It has a sense of pride and style that seems seperate from the rest of the country. There is lots of great colonial architecture and its very nice and clean.





The Mercado 9 De Octobre was spotless and the produce of better quality than than most places back home! The city is also perfectly safe to wander around during the day (and I never had any problems at night either) and that was rather refreshing. It has a massive cathedral in the centre of town, the Neuve Catedral, which was built in the 1800s and manages to be pretty damn grand inside as well as out:



Across the way there is the Viejo Catedral, yes, thats the ´Old Cathedral´, build originally in the 1500´s and a little run down but fascinating inside. Unfortunately you can´t take pics. As I emerged from the Nueve Cathedral though, there was some sort of protest march going on, led by a full-on military marching band and consisting almost entirely of older locals, many in traditional Andean dress carrying placards and waving flags. I was really happy to see them out on the streets, demonstrating and taking issue with events. It struck me you wouldn´t see the old out marching in England, it takes alot to get more than the die-hards out on the streets these days, myself included. Most of us are happily tucked up in our houses in front of the TV moaning, sure, but actually getting out there and making a point? Doubtful. And that I find to be a rather sad state of affairs. Makes you think.


Some of these people here must be pushing 80 too (though obviously its hard to tell) and their passion for their cause was palpable. My favourites however were the old timer musicians playing in the back of a Jeep following the whole march. Complete and utter dudes, the lot of them:


There is supposedly a church for every week of the year in Cuenca and I went to a couple of the best ones, outside the Asunscion there is a very colourful flower market:


I also found a really fantastic exhibition by the Ecuadorian painter Jorge Chalco at a little Museum by the river. I´d not heard about him before and his stuff really is great, wild and fantastical with a real sense of place, kind of like if Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a painter if you know what I mean:



The Museo de Art Moderne was also worth a look with a good selection of exhibits, covering all sorts of different media:



I also went to Ecuador´s only Inca ruins, Ingapirca, which is certainly no Machu Picchu but was still worth a look:



With a great place to stay (La Cigale on Honorato Vasquez for those that might be interested.. Andrea ;) and a couple of cheap and tasty veggie rstaurants (coconut milkshakes made with soya milk, coconut bits and served WELL cold = blissssssss) I was set up perfectly for my last few days in the country, hiding away from it all amidst the drop-dead gorgeous scenery of Vilcabamba.



Vilcabamba
What can I say about this little place that would do it justice? I guess it just has to be experienced. Its probably one of my favourite spots I´ve been to on the trip so far, amazingly tranquil but with just enough going on to keep things interesting. From friendly locals and mind-blowing views to yes, another fantastic and cheap vegetarian restaurant, it was the perfect end to Ecuador. I even got a full body massage for the equivalent of a tenner that had me floating around for an afternoon feeling like a little fluffy cloud. And no, San Pedro was not involved. At least not that day.

A quick mention for what must be one of the most most bizarre rave scenes ever. Pretty much the whole town had gathered in front of the main church which had two sets of large speakers either side blasting, and I mean BLASTING, out a really really bad blend of reggaeton of hard house. Yep, that bad. Everyone just sat around the place silent and motionless, all apart from one little girl who took it upon herself to dance in the middle. It was really weird.


As if I don´t post enough, here´s a load more lovely photos to end on, including some hot Ladybird sex, some seriously good views and a sunset so beautiful... well:

Oh I do like to be...

...in a Cuencan Internet Cafe listening to Robbie Wiliams´ turgid pile of catsick ´Angels´ being blasted out of the speakers at me. To make matters worse it´s all in Spanish and creepily, it sounds exactly like him. Urghh.

Anyway, what I really meant to say was:

...besides the seaside. Seeing the sea again has reminded how much I´m missing its permanent prescence in my life. The good ol´ Sarf coast ain´t exactly the grand old lady of the Pacific but still, ´tones of home´, as Blind Melon once sang. Poor old Shannon Hoon.

Escaping Quito quick sharp once more, I made for the coast and an 8-hour ride over the mountains (stopping only for a paltry landslide!) and winding down through mile upon mile of tropical banana plantations and wetland shrimp farms until we finally reached the ocean. The Pacific to be precise. I was kept smiling on this trip by the bus drivers son, a sharp ten-year old named Daniel. He insisted on sitting next to me all the way and practising his English. He was fond of saying random phrases just to watch my reaction when I finally worked out what he meant. Examples included "Spaghotti met-bols", "Where does the Panda go in the night?" and various Dragonball-Z related stuff. Funny kid though, he gave me all the info I needed and he even knew what tropical music was when I played him some of the Ghana Soundz album I´ve been listening to death. Sound parenting that.

Canoa is a very small, very laid-back surf village where not alot goes on, but the beach is massive and clean and the water is lovely and warm. Perfect for a few days of lounging. The beaches are littered with timid little crabs, some of them completely translucent. The sunsets were rather impressive:



Suitably relaxed and ready for something a little more constructive, I skipped down to Puerto Lopez, centre of Ecuador´s Whale watching and the closest town to the Isla de la Plata (or the poor man´s Galapagos). It took four buses, a small boat and a man-powered bike-taxi to get there but it was defintely worth it. I really like Whales. Something about their magnificent, ancient intelligence really strikes a chord with me so I was really looking forward to getting out at sea to find the gentile Humpbacks who swim down from the Arctic for their summer holidays every year to hang out off the northern coasts of South America. The tour includes a walk around the Island, 37km out to sea, with its variety of interesting birds -



- that Frigate´s red frontage puffs up like a balloon, some of them got so big their little faces were almost obscured! I love that other guy´s bright blue feet too. After the walk, we even got to do a spot of snorkelling which was amazing, multicoloured fish everywhere you looked, surrounded by tiny little shoals. The town itself is in an area designated a National Park (this includes a large area of the Ocean). It´s a fishing village and you can watch the guys bringing their catch onto the beach each day:




The land-based area of Machalilla NP includes a beach often whispered as Ecuador´s best, Playa Los Frailes, reached by a 4km walk that takes in deserted beaches and dramatic cliff-top views. Love it. You just can´t beat a good bit of rugged coastline:




I even found this little guy hiding in his half-created house. I think I disturbed him mid-build:

And, for my grand finale here´s one of the boys (or girls, I have no idea how to tell) performing for my camera. It was nothing short of magnificent to behold and they came so close to the boat at one point I thought they were going to go right underneath us:


In a word, WOW.