Day 38 - Cusco to Lima

When booking our rout from Cusco to Lima we considered taking the bus for about 30 seconds and then when weighing up the options of a 17-22hr bus ride through the Andes Vs a 1hr 20min flight to Lima, we chose the flight very easily. The flight was easy enough and we were greeted at the airport by a man with our names on a sign. That was a nice start. Lima was a big city, with overcast weather, smog and a metropolitan beach that was not the nicest looking place we have seen. We arrived at our hostel, grabbed a map and started walking the streets of Miraflores. It took all of 2 minutes to again agree that big cities were not our thing. We walked down to the beach where you hit the American area. Shopping malls, restaurants and cafe's exactly what you can find in the USA. TGI Friday's, Chillies, sports bars, ice-cream shops, clothing stores. This was not South America, we could have been anywhere in the world, or anywhere in the USA. The area was swarmed by tourists and this was a pretty good sign for us to get out of there.

After a short walk along the Americanised boardwalk, we checked out the surf, watched a few people brave the murky coloured water and then headed back to the hostel for some dinner.

We only had a day and a half in Lima but that was enough, we were keen to get back into the smaller towns and to experience some more of Peru. We spent our last day in Lima wandering the streets looking for a few tourist archeological sights that both ended up being closed on Tuesdays, today. We found alittle baker where we tried a fantastic Papas de relleno (stuffed potato) as well as a coconut version of the alfajores. Both highlights of Lima.

That night we stayed around the hostel, relaxing and chatting with a very lively bunch of Isreali's travelling together and determined to make as much noise as possible while cooking their dinner for 3 hrs. We left them to their dinner and took our overnight bus to Trujillo. Before we left the hostel the owner helped us organise a place to stay in Trujillo. Her aunty had a very large house where she rents rooms out to travellers and uni student. We decided to take her up on the offer and booked in for a night.

Day 40-41 - Trujillo

After our first Cama Suite bus ride (the top class) we arrived into Trujillo semi refreshed and ready for a day of exploring. We caught a taxi to the address we were given and was greeted by an 86 year old beautiful lady called Aurea. She welcomed us into her classical old nanna house, showed us our room, the bathroom and gave us a key to the house. She spoke little English, was as blind as a bat but had a smile of gold. We soon met her daughter, the hostel workers aunty who came in and introduced herself. Rosa was fantastic. We explained that we would like to go and see the pre Incan sights around town as well as the beach near by. She told us that she would come back and pick us up at 10am to organise a tour for us. With a few hours to kill we started reading our books but fell asleep very quickly. 10am came and Rosa had some back, 'Vamos' she said and we were out the door. Within minutes we were in the main square with our own personal agent, bargaining the best price for a full day tour. We jumped on a bus 30mins later and the day tour started. We were off to discover how and where the Moche people lived, in pre Incan times. We went to Huaca del Sol and Huaca de La Luna, two sites that had only just started to be excavated in 1991. These places were new to the world and the enthusiasm for the history could be seen in our guides face. The temples were still being excavated with new levels and rooms still being found beneath the thousands of mud bricks and sand. It was a pretty cool place to see and to hear about how there is still so much more to discover. Next we went to Chan Chan, an enormous site where kings and other royals as well as some commoners lived, mainly beautiful women. We walked through areas where they completed ceremony's, human sacrifices and much more. We walked around these mud brick and stone walls, half restored buildings and structures and again was amazed at the enormous history that lay only a few kilometres from town.

We headed back into town for some lunch where Brendan tried his luck at a local burger place before we got back on the bus for the afternoon tour to Huanchaco, the beach. Note that the burger may get a mention again later.

Huanchaco was a cool little town, known for the fishermen who take their reed boats out, get their catch of the day and then surf them back in with alot of skill. The beach was alot nicer than Lima plus is had a very long left handed break which enthused Brendan more than cheap street food. We walked along the jetty, checked out the fisherman and surfers and just chilled out as the sun went down.We had seen everything in Trujillo we wanted to and we still had another full day left. Lucky we had that day up our sleeve.

So that night and the next day Brendan got sick with the friendly South American gastro. He finally had to say the words 'no more street food for a while'. Luckily we had Rosa to the rescue. She came in the morning to say hello and see how the tour was. In my limited Spanish I explained that he was sick and that we might just rest in the house today before our bus ride that night. Within seconds she was out the door and back again with some bright pink electrolyte drink and instructions for him to drink one litre now and one tomorrow. I thanked her and presented the bright pink substance to Brendan with strict orders from Rosa. So the day was pretty much spent lying in bed, resting, sleeping and Brendan drinking the 'pink drink'. Rosa appeared again at lunch time with some home-made chicken soup and told us both to eat it. She was so lovely and asked for nothing in return. Of course when Brendan eats a dodgy burger he gets to sleep and gets 'Rosa' but I just have to drag myself up the top of a mountain and hope for the best. No hard feelings at all, might just remember that one though.

The day we left Trujillo was the celebration of Corpus Christi, a large religious festival celebrated all over the country and many other places in South America. The main square had been decorated with large archways covered with fresh flowers, a huge central stage where singing and dancing was to happen and then surrounding the square on the ground there were beautiful colourful murals made using coloured sand and petals. The whole place looked amazing but we were off to catch an overnight bus so no dancing for us this time.