Second Peruvian stop was Huanchaco and so far it´s failed to impress. Almost every building on the way in looks as if it´s half built, despite the fact that the ground floor, be it a shop or a residence or even a garage has the appearance of having been in use for years. The whole place has almost got this resemblance of a war torn city being rebuilt. Maybe it´s the architectural fashion here but it´s not to my taste though. This together with a dull day, the tour group´s disintegration and an overnight bus has not led to overwhelming excitement about the place. Still I´m off to the historic centre, it exists according to my guidebook in Trujillo, 5 kms away and debatedly Peru´s second largest city.

First some chorses, and I´m trying to burn my photos onto cd´s. I wont bore you with my traumas so far, but lets just say I appear to have lost all my images from Colombia. Nothing being simple here, I´m waiting in the copy shop, overseeing the operation. There´s something to entertain me though, a guy is fixing up a passport photo with photoshop of a girl who´se just come in. He´s erased all the normal blemishes, put lights in her eyes, whitened her teeth and coloured in her eyebrows (so far, so standard) but then he started lowering her neckline, oh er, I thought what´s happening here. Turns out not to be a conversion of the staid passport like image into a sordid shot for whatever purpose, he´s merely photoshopping a suit with a v-neck shirt on to her. Well cheaper than buying a real one I guess.

Trujillo did indeed have a beautiful colourful colonial square. Apart from the sightseeing I took the opportunity to poke my nose in some clothes shops. I´m really not equipped for some of the cold climates I´m experiencing and come the Inca trail and the altiplano, by all accounts I´ll be needing thermals to em prevent certain bits freezing. Plus I´ll admit it vanity has got to me and 5 weeks in the same practical travelling clothes has taken it´s toll. Unfortunately Trujillo´s idea of fashion and mine didn´t quite meet...oh well roll on Lima!

So I solved the half built building mystery! Apparently it´s to avoid a hefty completion tax they have here. Crafty! Ugly but crafty.

As it was only little ol´me left on the tour I recieved a my own personal guide for the half day visit around the Chan Chan ruins and Huaco de la luna. Both very impressive but don´t ask me any details as I was suffering from nausea, a side effect of my latest pharmacy trip (I know I was bragging about my success in that department in my last blog, there we go, that jinxed me). As it was just me I´d chosen it to be in Spanish and the lovely lady gave me a very comprehensive, blow by blow description of the intricacies of the design and decoration, and rituals of the ancients. I was unfortunately more often than not concentrating on not throwing up and stumbling in a straight line, whilst discretely checking my watch. I did manage to fix a smile on my face, say ¨si,si¨ and ¨que interesante¨at pertinant pauses in her speeches, and take a couple of shots whenever she said ¨you make take a photo now¨ but to be honest, I was already taking to my bed and only grasped about half of what she said.

Now, a couple of days into my stay here, Huanchaco has won me over. It´s a very laid back surf town. Even the Fishermen use surflike boats, called Caballitos (little horses as it looks like they are riding in on the surf). Cabillitos have been used since about 300 AD, hey if it aint broke, why fix it.

There´s something for me about being by the ocean that gives me a sense of wellbeing calm and wonder. Seeing the sunset over the water, I think of it rising over Sydney´s beaches and then carrying on it´s journey to hopefully poke through the clouds in England and take the chill off the December days, and I feel linked to everyone in my 2 distant homes.