Lima and the North of Peru.

Lima is one remarkable city. We had heard lots of stories that it was just another big city with not a lot happening and that we shouldnt spend too much time there. People couldnt have been more wrong. We stayed in the up market barrio Miraflores which is where most of the backpackers congregate and it is easily the most Western district I have been in since Buenos Aires. It feels more like an American suburb than part of South America, it has designer shops, trendy bars, great restaurants including Astrid y Gaston, one of Michelin Star chef Gaston somethingorothers many restaurants in Peru, all the people are very nicely dressed (well all except me I suppose), nice parks and just an overall very Western feel about the place. The centre of the city too is awash with some wonderful colonial style buildings and churches and an impressive Plaza de Armas to boot. The city has over a dozen fountains that you can actually take a bus tour of culminating in the wonderful Parque de la Reserva which is home to a dozen more fountains and a laser, light, sound and water show on weekends. It is well worth taking a day just to wander the streets of centro soaking in the history and culture, though beware of preachers on the streets, if they get you in their sights it can take a while to rid yourself of them. As well as the modernity of Miraflores and Baranco and the colonialism of centro, there is also the history of two pre-Inca sights within the city limits. Huaca Pucllana is nicely situated in Miraflores and Pachacamac is just outside the city. Both were from the Lima civilization and though both are covered in sand and dirt, the ruins particularly at Pachacamac are pretty large and impressive. Yeah so overall I guess I was very impressed with Lima and we could probably have stayed a little longer had we not decided to take a mini beach holiday for a week before Banjo went home. After a bit of research, I had managed to find a beach norht of Lima which should be fairly quiet with not many tourists and not much to do either. It was a little fishing village called Huanchaco, just west of the city of Trujillo. It has the best surf in Peru apparently and I had the intention of doing a bit of spanish in the morning and surfing in the afternoon. There is a couple of pretty cool ruins near Trujillo which itself is another nice colonial city. The first we visited was the Huaca de la Luna and the Huaca del Sol, two massive pyramids built by the Moche culture. The museum there is excellent, and the site is entirely conserved, no reconstruction work and is pretty impressive. The other site we visited was Chan Chan, the largest pre-Hispanic city in all of the Americas. It was built by the Chimu civilization who some believe to have come from the Moche people and although we were only able to visit one of the 9 temples, you can get some idea of the vast scale of the place. The people were extremely clever as well, with great knowledge of the sea and the stars. Unfortunatley in Huacachina, I got a little sick and was unable to take my spanish lessons, or surf so it wasnt really the best week. At the end of the week, Banjo returned to Lima to fly home and I ventured further north to the beach town of Mancora. There is even less to do in Mancora than Huacachina, other than surf of kite surf which looked like good fun. The place to stay is the Loki Hostel which is more like a resort than a hostel, its pretty cool. I was only there for one night and then it was off to Ecuador, another country and more adventures await I hope...