Travel Diary: Peru – Dodgy borders, long haul buses & ancient ruins

Hola 12 May – Crossing the border into Peru So happy that that was our last night in the most uncomfortable bed in the world in this horrible city! The taxi picked us up at 6.15am and took us to the bus terminal. After checking in we went here there and everywhere trying to find the bus - turns out it was on the top floor of the shopping mall – we weren’t expecting that one! At 9.30am our bags were loading under our watch-full eyes, we were fingerprinted for some unknown reason and our bags were searched. We were shown our seats and settled in for what we knew was going to be one hell of a long day!! It took about 4 hours until we reached the Ecuadorian side of the border with Peru as unbeknown to us it was not a direct service as they pick up locals and drop them off the whole way and they stand in the middle isle of the bus. At the border the driver told us to leave our bags on the bus and go to immigration – I don’t think so somehow! The immigration office was not very official it was basically a building with a tiny window in the side so that left a bus load of people queuing out in the heat of midday. It went rather smoothly though and after about half an hour we jumped back on the bus which had been somewhere and come back. When we got back to our seats we saw the contents of Shaun’s wallet screwed up on his seat. How they got the wallet we don’t know, we can only assume it was the driver when he put our bag on the shelf or one of the people standing up had quickly unzipped the top pocket and lifted it out. Luckily I had all the money and cards in my money bag on me so there was nothing important in it. They had emptied all of his gym card, work cards, photos and screwed up his receipts and taken the English fiver and the old broken leather wallet and an old phone we weren’t using. When we asked the driver (well a traveller who spoke Spanish asked for us) he had a smile on his face and said he had no idea how that happened! Never mind it wasn’t important anyway it’s just frustrating that within 2 weeks of being in South America we have been robbed, we have to keep an eye on everything all the time and all this in a place we’re not really liking anyway. We finally arrived in Mancora at about 5pm, exhausted, sweaty (as there is no aircon on the bus) and with very sore bottoms! We paid a moto-taxi (their version of a tuk-tuk) 2 dollars to take us 2 minutes down the road to the hostel we had booked, Kokopelli Beachpackers. We had booked a 4 person dorm which cost us $24 a night. Thankfully they had comfy beds and the hostel looked clean and even had a pool and bar. After a well-needed shower we went for a walk down the strip and chose one of the many restaurants for dinner. Mancora is not how we imagined it at all. This is supposed to be Peru’s top beach destination and it’s horrible. Maybe we have just been spoilt as this cannot even compare with the beaches of South East Asia or Australia. I can imagine it’s like Thailand 20 years ago without the nice beach. The strip is lined with shacks for restaurants with brick walls and either bamboo or corrugated metal roofs, the hostels are pretty much the same! Perhaps we won’t be staying here a few days to relax! Not getting the best vibes from South America so far ... we may be home early! 13 May - Mancora Until about 7 this morning there was a party going on next door with the music sooooo loud all night. And with our chicken fence window the music sounded like it was coming from right outside, this also contributed to the mosquitoes and a ridiculously hot night with only one fan in the room. Our room mates crawled in at about 6 this morning and when they got up late in the afternoon they said it was a really good night and only a one off, the music doesn’t play every night so hopefully we will be able to get some sleep. Our room mates are a couple of Peruvians from Lima here for the weekend who are really nice and a bit wild! Today we headed to the beach, not very impressive and the sea is not warm as expected! After an hour or two on the beach we took a walk to the very end of the strip where there is still not a lot going on and you can see all the desert around us! We really are in the middle of nowhere! The rest of the day we chilled out by the pool at the hostel and got in some book time. I know you won’t believe me but we don’t get all that much time to sit down and read our books – we are either out exploring or travelling so it’s nice to chill out. In the evening we managed to find a nice restaurant serving fish which the lady informed us her husband had been out catching all day. The food was actually pretty good. Ecuadorian food had not really been anything special so far so this is a good sign for the Peruvian food to come. After a few beers at the hostel we got another early night as we don’t really feel like partying here even though our room mates had invited us to go to the beach party with them. 14 May – Mancora, Piura, Trujillo and Huanchaco After finding out that the only direct buses to Trujillo, our next destination, are all horrible we managed to get a mini van for 27 soles each to Piura to catch a decent bus from there to Trujillo. At 3.30 we got picked up by the min-van which unlike Asia we actually had decent seats in the front! It took 3 hours to get through the desert passing random houses in the middle of nowhere until we reached the random settlement of Piura in the middle of the desert. The drive was quite nice because as soon as we hit the Pan American highway the road was in pretty much in one piece with amazing scenery through the desert. Once in Piura we booked a Linea over night bus to Trujillo at 11pm for 40 soles each (£9). So now we had 4 and a half hours to kill in the middle of the desert ... We managed to find a chicken grill for tea but other than that we sat around and watched a very bizarre Saturday night Peruvian show where the host kept stripping off! 11 o’clock finally came and we were finger printed and got on the bus. To our complete shock the bus was like first class in a plane! The spacious comfy leather seats reclined to 160 degrees, they showed a film, gave us a goodie bag of food and 6 easy hours later we made it to Trujillo without getting robbed – woo hoo! 15 May - Huanchaco A 20 minute taxi journey and we arrived in Huanchaco (the beach village next to Trujillo). Our taxi driver eventually found Cocosbeach Hostel after driving around and around the block for ages after he told us he knew where it was. As it was 5.30 in the morning so we had to knock and wake the owner up to see if he had a room ... luckily they did! They gave us a double for 45 soles (£9) which is a bargain because it would have cost us 70 soles if we had booked on Hostel Bookers! Our room was not what it looked on the site. It was tiny and dirty with small bugs hiding in all the dark places. The shower was a trickle of luke warm water and the shower curtain was held up with string. Even though the room was terrible it wasn’t a problem - we’ve learnt to over look the rough parts and just take them as they come. We slept most of the day before we talk a walk to explore and get some lunch. Huanchaco is a small quiet coast town on the outskirts of Trujillo. The town consists of one main road with restaurants and small shops running down the seafront. A short hour walk and you’ve seen all that it has to offer, all in all it’s a nice place to relax and eat some sea food. We liked it better than Mancora as it’s more chilled out. In the evening we took another walk along the beach and found a nice restaurant where we ordered some pescado (fish) but as we don’t read or understand Spanish we had no idea how or what it came with! Turned out to be battered fish so our pick from the menu was pretty good! And of course we tried out the local Trujillo Pilsen beer which was pretty good! 16 May - Trujillo At midday we checked out of Cocosbeach and got a taxi into Trujillo city. We had booked a hostel call Residencial Muanywasi which is actually someone’s home where they have converted a few rooms into double and dorm rooms. It has a really nice feel to it as it’s actually a home and the owners couldn’t be nicer. Things seem to be looking up at last! We booked a full day tour of the Moche Temples and Chan Chan for tomorrow which cost us 35 soles each (£7). We took a walk into the city which is actually really nice – the best place we’ve been so far. It’s full of nice colonial buildings painted in every colour under the sun and cathedrals and monuments. It seems pretty safe here too so we are not so on edge. The restaurants are really nice too – proper restaurants with proper tables and chairs instead of plastic ones! We found a nice restaurant where Shaun had a mammoth set lunch for 14 soles (£3 for 3 courses plus a drink and coffee). The rest of the day we chilled out and caught up on the blog! 17 May – Moche and Chimu Ruins Tour This morning me, Shaun and Evelyn (a Swiss girl from our hostel) got picked up at 10.30 for our tour of Tour of the Moche and Chimu societies (pre-Incan societies). Firstly we went to the Moon and the Sun Temple museum which our ‘English’ guide told us to read the notes whilst she spoke to everyone else in Spanish! Then we went for a walk around Huaca de la Luna (The Moon Temple) which has been partly excavated. The pottery and the paintings in the temple are amazing considering these people lived from 100 to 800 AD! They were pretty barbaric times though with loads of burials found with mutilated bones and the drawings describe the times of sacrificial killings. The temple was built on top of an existing temple – well many previous temples as they have found 5 layers. Each has been completely filled in with mud bricks and a new one built on top. Through excavation and original looting by the Spanish the 5th most recent temple has almost been taken apart with huge sections of the temple taken apart brick by brick down to the first level. It is a huge shame that this amazing building will be left as nothing but a pile of bricks once it has all been excavated. Across from this temple is the Huaca del Sol (The Sun Temple). This one is still pretty intact as they have not started excavating yet but it has been heavily looted. At the moment they think this temple may have 11 layers all built on top of one another. After lunch we drove on to visit some ruins from the Chimu society. The Chimu people lived from around 850 AD right up until 1470 when the Incas conquered them. Firstly, we went to the Huaca Arco Iris (The Rainbow Temple). This temple has been fully excavated. All of these temples were recovered from under the sand dunes and untouched until the Spanish conquest. This temple is based in the middle of Trujillo city. And then it was time for Chan Chan!!! Chan Chan was built by the Chimu people as well and is the largest pre-Columbian city in South America. The complex is huge with various walls and stadiums all built with mud bricks. As they continue to excavate this site they are covering the walls in polystyrene then making a replica to sit on top. Unfortunately, our guide didn’t speak to us in English a lot so we didn’t really get any of the history just a basic description of what each area was used for. Would have been even better if you could see Chan Chan from an elevated view as you cannot get the full scope from the ground. Hanging around all of these temples is the Peruvian hairless dog which is one hell of a strange sight! Their bodies are black and dry and wrinkly and they have a white Mohawk on top of their heads! Not quite a cute cuddly dog although in the Moche and Chimu times they were used as body heaters for people with arthritis to cuddle because their bodies are a lot warmer than the average dog – we tested this one out and they are boiling!! Our tour ended in Huanchaco beach again where we sat on the wall and watched the massive 2-3 meter waves crash on the pier. The ruins themselves were pretty cool, just a shame we had to pay more for an ‘English’ guide when she hardly spoke to us!! Can’t wait to see the Inca society ruins in Machu Picchu now!! 18 May – Trujillo to Lima This morning we walked to Linea’s ticket office to get an overnight bus for this evening to Lima. Quite an expensive one at 80 soles each for semi-cama (160 degree recline). After this we went for a huge lunch once again and had a mammoth set menu. In the evening we sat around in the hostel with everyone else who was waiting for night buses and got some really great advice on where to visit next! The taxi picked us up at 9.30 for our bus at 10pm. The bus wasn’t as great as the last Linea one but it was still like first class on a plane. Now we had to settle in as it takes 8 hours to get to Lima. Thankfully things are now looking up from our first experience in Peru as it is a little nicer, hopefully things continue to get better! A la perchoine, Jodie & Shaun x