It's just some mud and bits of old pot....
Hello to you!
I hope you are well. We are doing wonderfully. We are currently having a little holiday within a holiday and living the beach life for a week. None of you are going to believe I've been to all these exotic places if I come back as white as I went away so some serious time on the beach was definately needed. Lynn also proved yesterday that it's not just the mosquitoes who find her more attractive than me but also the marine life. One injection, 3 courses of tablets and 30 quid worse off - we think she'll pull through and I can confidently say I won't have to carry on this trip alone. More of that later though, in the meantime we'd better nip back to Cusco in central Peru where the last epic installment of my Round-The-World adventure ended up....
We left Cusco nearly 3 weeks after we first arrived and ever since our first day there we'd been looking forward to eating at a restaurant that ultimately we decided to save until our last day. The restaurant is called 'Fallen Angel' and eating there is like eating in an art gallery that just happens to also serve amazing food. As you enter the courtyard you are greeted by a 3 metre tall silver angel that looms over you. Beautiful paintings adorn all the walls. The dining tables are glass-topped, old, iron bathtubs that contain a variety of fish that swim about under the plates whilst you eat. The food is also a work of art.... oh, just have a look at their website, it's much easier! The link is in the 'Links' section on the right.
So, we left Cusco on Thursday 13th July in a plane and just over an hour later found ourselves walking into Arrivals at Lima airport looking for Jose Antonio, the owner of the hotel we'd reserved a room at and who had offered to meet us from the airport. We found him easily enough - he was standing at the front and had a huge sign with our names on. It's a 20 minute car journey from the airport to Jose's hotel in the Miraflores neighbourhood of Lima and in this short time he managed to plan our entire 4-day stay in Lima. The amazing part is that he did it without once asking us what we ACTUALLY planned to do here. He said we were going surfing with his mates later. Para-gliding tomorrow with someone else he knew. Oh, there's a boat trip lined up for us on day 3. After that we'll have time to visit these museums, these churches and the main square for a bit of sightseeing.... We took him up on the surfing but I think he was rather disappointed when we expressed little interest in the rest of his action-packed itinerary. Before we arrived, our main plan in Lima was to visit the main museums, look for a new camera (as we decided Lima represented the last small hope I still had of replacing my stolen camera before we got to New Zealand) and then arrange our bus out of there.
The surfing I have to say, was excellent fun. We were both a little hesitant about going because Lima's coastline has been deemed unfit for bathing due to the extreme pollution pumped into the water from the city. This doesn't stop the hundreds of surfers who bob about each day though and in the end it didn't stop us either. Over the course of the afternoon we both swallowed huge great gulps of this contaminated ocean but thankfully none of the illnesses we envisaged getting materialised and we both emerged from the experience none the worse for wear. We also emerged from the experience none the better at surfing but it was still good fun! Most of the time I clung to the board battling bravely just to get into position for catching the next big wave. Occasionally I would manage to catch a wave and would suddenly find myself hurtling towards the shore whilst holding on for dear life. On even rarer occasions I managed to wobble unhesitantly to my feet, do some strange sort of dance in a vain bid to remain upright and then tumble off in a rather undignified manner much to the amusement of any nearby 'proper' surfers.
We didn't find any decent cameras so I am still cameraless. We did however find a camera BAG shop that had the most extensive selection of Lowepro Camera bags that I have ever seen and at prices that were marginally cheaper than in the UK too. After 2 days of debating, I decided to get a new camera bag here even though I shall be carrying it empty for the next 2 months. If I get to NZ and can't get the bag I want then I will only regret not getting it now. So, I have a fabuluous new camera bag but nothing to put in it! Atleast if this one gets stolen I won't be the only one cursing my bad luck!
We left Lima on Monday 18th July and headed 8 hours north to the city of Trujillo. We reserved a room before we left at a hotel called 'Casa de Clara', an establishment recommended in our guidebook and run by an English guy called Michael.
At this stage I need to point out to anyone that doesn't know me too well that I love football and my favourite football team is Aston Villa. You may wonder why I've suddenly got to mention this but all will become clear in a minute. Anyway, Aston Villa is the team I support and on this day, just before I left Lima I found out on the internet that my beloved football club is in turmoil. The players have apparently issued a statement criticising the lack of ambition of the chairman (rightly so) and the club; The manager is on the verge of being sacked; The whole club is in crisis and they are one of the leading contenders for relegation next season. To put it bluntly - today is not a good day to be a Villa fan.
Fast forward a few hours and Lynn and I arrive in Trujillo, arrive at 'Casa de Clara' and we're welcomed through the door of the hotel by it's owner, Michael.
"Come in" he says in his mildly Brummie accent.
Brummie accent? "Where about in England are you from, Michael?" I ask, despite kowing what he's going to say.
"Well, I haven't lived there for 17 years now" he says "but I'm originally from Birmingham. I lived on Coventry Road."
I wonder if he's a Villa fan?....
"Have you heard the latest news from Villa Park?" I enquire hesitantly.
A smile suddenly creeps onto his face "Yeah!!!" he cries "As a Blues fan, I think it's terrific!"
(Note: 'The Blues' are Birmingham City FC - The much detested local rivals of Aston Villa FC)
So, on the very day Aston Villa are in crisis, one of the (I assume) few Villa fans in South America (me) checks into a hotel owned by one of the (undoubtedly) fewer Birmingham City fans (him) on the said same continent. What are the chances of that? On the very day that I would least like to meet a Blues fan and Michael would most like to meet a Villa fan, the two of us meet because I book into his hotel. I'm sure Michael can't believe his good fortune in that he has his very own Villa fan for the next 4 days whom he can taunt and abuse with every new bit of bad news that leaks out of Villa Park. Well, enough of the football, it's not a subject I wish to linger on at the moment.
We spent 4 days in Trujillo and in this time we went on 4 day-trips to nearby historical and archaeological sites. Day 1: Chan Chan (big mud city in the desert); Day 2: Huaca De La Luna (Pyramid of the Moon - made of mud); Day 3: El Brujo (The Wizard - a pyramid in the desert and made of mud) and Day 4: Tucume (26 Pyramids in the desert. All made of mud). You'll be pleased to know that I'm not going to bore you with long explanations of what each place was like - there's countless internet sites dedicated to that! Basically, they are all very old, all made of mud, some of them have brightly painted bits that are quite nice and all of them contain alot of ancient artefacts, mainly pots though, that are very interesting on day 1, mildly interesting on day 2, make you yawn alot by day 3 and hold absolutely no point of interest by day 4. Once you've seen one muddy hill resembling a vaguely pyramidal shape you've seen them all. And the same can be said for old pots!
From Trujillo we went north to the town of Chiclayo where we spent 48 rather uneventful hours. Actually, there was one event - I lost my sunglasses but otherwise, diddly.
From Chiclayo we took the world's most uncomfortable bus journey north to Mancora. Mancora is a small resort town on the coast just before Peru becomes Ecuador - just below Tumbes if your atlases don't show it! We left Chiclayo at 23:30 and expected to arrive in Mancora at 06:30. We actually arrived at 05:00 and whether this is because I got the arrival time wrong or because the driver thought he was Stirling Moss I'm not sure but I believe it's the latter. My seat on the bus was a reclining one but was broken which mean't that you couldn't keep the backrest at any one angle. It yo-yo'ed backwards and forwards over each lump or crater in the road and I spent the entire journey alternating violently between looking at the floor and looking at the roof. I guess I became the first person ever to feel sea-sick on a bus journey and I can only imagine the bruises on the knees of the poor man sat behind me!
The hotel we wanted to stay at in Mancora was 20 US dollars a night according to our guidebook but 80 US dollars a night when we turned up at 05:00 and got the sleepy owner out of bed to ask if he had a room. Mancora is a resort town and most of the hotels are owned by rich Peruvians who live in Lima. This particular hotel had a Lima phone number and we tried to phone to make a reservation but there was never any answer. The other 2 hotels we had on our 3 hotel shortlist didn't even have phone numbers so in the end, despite not wanting to do so, we had no option but to turn up with no reservation and find a hotel. It's ok to do this in the daytime, but not such an easy task in the middle of night. Our tuk-tuk driver (common alternative to taxis in north Peru) said he knew of a nice, cheaper hotel on the beach.
"Ok" we said "Let's go there."
We spent 15 minutes travelling on the second most uncomfortable journey I've done recently as we meandered down a very bumpy dirt track that ended 5km from Mancora at a lovely little hotel. The journey was made worse by the fact that it was pitch black, we were tired, we didn't know where exactly we were heading and we had all our stuff with us which made us even more jittery.
Still, in the end our driver did us proud. We are staying at Hotel Costa Blanca and there is no way we'd have ever found this place on our own. The hotel is virtually on the beach. We have a beautiful ocean view from our glass-fronted room and can hear the waves crashing on the beach from our bed at night as the sea is literally only 20 metres away. There is no traffic as we are down a sandy track miles from the road so other than the sea there are no other sounds. The beach is pretty much deserted and pristine with beautiful white sand and flocks of pelicans bob about in the turquoise waves as we swim. There is a stables up the road and so horses and riders occasionally canter past in the surf. Just incase we decide it's too far to the beach though - the hotel also has a lovely swimming pool. We were only coming for 3 days but have decided to stay a week!
We've had a couple of encounters with the local wildlife though which I shall quickly tell you about before I finish. Two days ago, I went to sneak a sweet out of the private stash I'd got in the drawer of my bedside cabinet and to my horror some pesky mouse had got a sniff of them in the night, clambered in and chewed a huge great hole through the sealed plastic bag I'd put them in and helped himself. The drawer was full of chewed bits of wrapper and everything else in there was stuck together with sticky boiled sweets. My wallet was stuck to my glasses which were stuck to my book which was stuck to my diary which had stuck to my CD player! It was a nightmare trying to make everything unsticky again. Also, not content with eating my lovely sweets, he also decided to have a nibble at the wires of my headphones and now I've had to do a botch sticking job with huge pieces of industrial tape to mend them. Amazingly, they work.... for the time being! We've changed rooms now to one higher up which means we're less likely to get rodents in the night but now I have to walk 30 metres to get my feet wet in the sea rather than 20!
And then yesterday we were swimming in that lovely turquoise sea I just made you so envious with and Lynn suddenly feels she's been bitten or stung on her stomach. I look about but can't see anything and the water's pretty clear.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it really hurts. I've got to get out."
By the time we've got back onto the beach, Lynn has a bright red rash straight across her midriff and it's starting to come up in lumps like a stinging nettle rash. We take the sensible precaution of visiting the local doctor as we don't know what caused it (though we suspect it was probably a jellyfish or maybe loads of minute jellyfish, maybe). The doctor obviously doesn't want to take any risks. It's either that or he's decided he can make a few bob here as he cunningly also owns the pharmacy next door! He gave Lynn an injection in the arm and prescribed 3 courses of tablets to be taken several times a day over the next 3 days that came to a staggering total of over 30 quid. God knows what they are, one's an antihistamine but as for the other's we haven't got the foggiest. Still, she feels fine today which is the main thing.
Well, that's the end of this little chapter. Today is Friday 28th July (Peruvian Independence Day, by the way) and we are staying in Mancora until Monday 31st July. After that we shall be heading into Ecuador - country no. 6 and probably to the town of Loja. Ok, that's it.
Toodle-Pip!
Rich
I hope you are well. We are doing wonderfully. We are currently having a little holiday within a holiday and living the beach life for a week. None of you are going to believe I've been to all these exotic places if I come back as white as I went away so some serious time on the beach was definately needed. Lynn also proved yesterday that it's not just the mosquitoes who find her more attractive than me but also the marine life. One injection, 3 courses of tablets and 30 quid worse off - we think she'll pull through and I can confidently say I won't have to carry on this trip alone. More of that later though, in the meantime we'd better nip back to Cusco in central Peru where the last epic installment of my Round-The-World adventure ended up....
We left Cusco nearly 3 weeks after we first arrived and ever since our first day there we'd been looking forward to eating at a restaurant that ultimately we decided to save until our last day. The restaurant is called 'Fallen Angel' and eating there is like eating in an art gallery that just happens to also serve amazing food. As you enter the courtyard you are greeted by a 3 metre tall silver angel that looms over you. Beautiful paintings adorn all the walls. The dining tables are glass-topped, old, iron bathtubs that contain a variety of fish that swim about under the plates whilst you eat. The food is also a work of art.... oh, just have a look at their website, it's much easier! The link is in the 'Links' section on the right.
So, we left Cusco on Thursday 13th July in a plane and just over an hour later found ourselves walking into Arrivals at Lima airport looking for Jose Antonio, the owner of the hotel we'd reserved a room at and who had offered to meet us from the airport. We found him easily enough - he was standing at the front and had a huge sign with our names on. It's a 20 minute car journey from the airport to Jose's hotel in the Miraflores neighbourhood of Lima and in this short time he managed to plan our entire 4-day stay in Lima. The amazing part is that he did it without once asking us what we ACTUALLY planned to do here. He said we were going surfing with his mates later. Para-gliding tomorrow with someone else he knew. Oh, there's a boat trip lined up for us on day 3. After that we'll have time to visit these museums, these churches and the main square for a bit of sightseeing.... We took him up on the surfing but I think he was rather disappointed when we expressed little interest in the rest of his action-packed itinerary. Before we arrived, our main plan in Lima was to visit the main museums, look for a new camera (as we decided Lima represented the last small hope I still had of replacing my stolen camera before we got to New Zealand) and then arrange our bus out of there.
The surfing I have to say, was excellent fun. We were both a little hesitant about going because Lima's coastline has been deemed unfit for bathing due to the extreme pollution pumped into the water from the city. This doesn't stop the hundreds of surfers who bob about each day though and in the end it didn't stop us either. Over the course of the afternoon we both swallowed huge great gulps of this contaminated ocean but thankfully none of the illnesses we envisaged getting materialised and we both emerged from the experience none the worse for wear. We also emerged from the experience none the better at surfing but it was still good fun! Most of the time I clung to the board battling bravely just to get into position for catching the next big wave. Occasionally I would manage to catch a wave and would suddenly find myself hurtling towards the shore whilst holding on for dear life. On even rarer occasions I managed to wobble unhesitantly to my feet, do some strange sort of dance in a vain bid to remain upright and then tumble off in a rather undignified manner much to the amusement of any nearby 'proper' surfers.
We didn't find any decent cameras so I am still cameraless. We did however find a camera BAG shop that had the most extensive selection of Lowepro Camera bags that I have ever seen and at prices that were marginally cheaper than in the UK too. After 2 days of debating, I decided to get a new camera bag here even though I shall be carrying it empty for the next 2 months. If I get to NZ and can't get the bag I want then I will only regret not getting it now. So, I have a fabuluous new camera bag but nothing to put in it! Atleast if this one gets stolen I won't be the only one cursing my bad luck!
We left Lima on Monday 18th July and headed 8 hours north to the city of Trujillo. We reserved a room before we left at a hotel called 'Casa de Clara', an establishment recommended in our guidebook and run by an English guy called Michael.
At this stage I need to point out to anyone that doesn't know me too well that I love football and my favourite football team is Aston Villa. You may wonder why I've suddenly got to mention this but all will become clear in a minute. Anyway, Aston Villa is the team I support and on this day, just before I left Lima I found out on the internet that my beloved football club is in turmoil. The players have apparently issued a statement criticising the lack of ambition of the chairman (rightly so) and the club; The manager is on the verge of being sacked; The whole club is in crisis and they are one of the leading contenders for relegation next season. To put it bluntly - today is not a good day to be a Villa fan.
Fast forward a few hours and Lynn and I arrive in Trujillo, arrive at 'Casa de Clara' and we're welcomed through the door of the hotel by it's owner, Michael.
"Come in" he says in his mildly Brummie accent.
Brummie accent? "Where about in England are you from, Michael?" I ask, despite kowing what he's going to say.
"Well, I haven't lived there for 17 years now" he says "but I'm originally from Birmingham. I lived on Coventry Road."
I wonder if he's a Villa fan?....
"Have you heard the latest news from Villa Park?" I enquire hesitantly.
A smile suddenly creeps onto his face "Yeah!!!" he cries "As a Blues fan, I think it's terrific!"
(Note: 'The Blues' are Birmingham City FC - The much detested local rivals of Aston Villa FC)
So, on the very day Aston Villa are in crisis, one of the (I assume) few Villa fans in South America (me) checks into a hotel owned by one of the (undoubtedly) fewer Birmingham City fans (him) on the said same continent. What are the chances of that? On the very day that I would least like to meet a Blues fan and Michael would most like to meet a Villa fan, the two of us meet because I book into his hotel. I'm sure Michael can't believe his good fortune in that he has his very own Villa fan for the next 4 days whom he can taunt and abuse with every new bit of bad news that leaks out of Villa Park. Well, enough of the football, it's not a subject I wish to linger on at the moment.
We spent 4 days in Trujillo and in this time we went on 4 day-trips to nearby historical and archaeological sites. Day 1: Chan Chan (big mud city in the desert); Day 2: Huaca De La Luna (Pyramid of the Moon - made of mud); Day 3: El Brujo (The Wizard - a pyramid in the desert and made of mud) and Day 4: Tucume (26 Pyramids in the desert. All made of mud). You'll be pleased to know that I'm not going to bore you with long explanations of what each place was like - there's countless internet sites dedicated to that! Basically, they are all very old, all made of mud, some of them have brightly painted bits that are quite nice and all of them contain alot of ancient artefacts, mainly pots though, that are very interesting on day 1, mildly interesting on day 2, make you yawn alot by day 3 and hold absolutely no point of interest by day 4. Once you've seen one muddy hill resembling a vaguely pyramidal shape you've seen them all. And the same can be said for old pots!
From Trujillo we went north to the town of Chiclayo where we spent 48 rather uneventful hours. Actually, there was one event - I lost my sunglasses but otherwise, diddly.
From Chiclayo we took the world's most uncomfortable bus journey north to Mancora. Mancora is a small resort town on the coast just before Peru becomes Ecuador - just below Tumbes if your atlases don't show it! We left Chiclayo at 23:30 and expected to arrive in Mancora at 06:30. We actually arrived at 05:00 and whether this is because I got the arrival time wrong or because the driver thought he was Stirling Moss I'm not sure but I believe it's the latter. My seat on the bus was a reclining one but was broken which mean't that you couldn't keep the backrest at any one angle. It yo-yo'ed backwards and forwards over each lump or crater in the road and I spent the entire journey alternating violently between looking at the floor and looking at the roof. I guess I became the first person ever to feel sea-sick on a bus journey and I can only imagine the bruises on the knees of the poor man sat behind me!
The hotel we wanted to stay at in Mancora was 20 US dollars a night according to our guidebook but 80 US dollars a night when we turned up at 05:00 and got the sleepy owner out of bed to ask if he had a room. Mancora is a resort town and most of the hotels are owned by rich Peruvians who live in Lima. This particular hotel had a Lima phone number and we tried to phone to make a reservation but there was never any answer. The other 2 hotels we had on our 3 hotel shortlist didn't even have phone numbers so in the end, despite not wanting to do so, we had no option but to turn up with no reservation and find a hotel. It's ok to do this in the daytime, but not such an easy task in the middle of night. Our tuk-tuk driver (common alternative to taxis in north Peru) said he knew of a nice, cheaper hotel on the beach.
"Ok" we said "Let's go there."
We spent 15 minutes travelling on the second most uncomfortable journey I've done recently as we meandered down a very bumpy dirt track that ended 5km from Mancora at a lovely little hotel. The journey was made worse by the fact that it was pitch black, we were tired, we didn't know where exactly we were heading and we had all our stuff with us which made us even more jittery.
Still, in the end our driver did us proud. We are staying at Hotel Costa Blanca and there is no way we'd have ever found this place on our own. The hotel is virtually on the beach. We have a beautiful ocean view from our glass-fronted room and can hear the waves crashing on the beach from our bed at night as the sea is literally only 20 metres away. There is no traffic as we are down a sandy track miles from the road so other than the sea there are no other sounds. The beach is pretty much deserted and pristine with beautiful white sand and flocks of pelicans bob about in the turquoise waves as we swim. There is a stables up the road and so horses and riders occasionally canter past in the surf. Just incase we decide it's too far to the beach though - the hotel also has a lovely swimming pool. We were only coming for 3 days but have decided to stay a week!
We've had a couple of encounters with the local wildlife though which I shall quickly tell you about before I finish. Two days ago, I went to sneak a sweet out of the private stash I'd got in the drawer of my bedside cabinet and to my horror some pesky mouse had got a sniff of them in the night, clambered in and chewed a huge great hole through the sealed plastic bag I'd put them in and helped himself. The drawer was full of chewed bits of wrapper and everything else in there was stuck together with sticky boiled sweets. My wallet was stuck to my glasses which were stuck to my book which was stuck to my diary which had stuck to my CD player! It was a nightmare trying to make everything unsticky again. Also, not content with eating my lovely sweets, he also decided to have a nibble at the wires of my headphones and now I've had to do a botch sticking job with huge pieces of industrial tape to mend them. Amazingly, they work.... for the time being! We've changed rooms now to one higher up which means we're less likely to get rodents in the night but now I have to walk 30 metres to get my feet wet in the sea rather than 20!
And then yesterday we were swimming in that lovely turquoise sea I just made you so envious with and Lynn suddenly feels she's been bitten or stung on her stomach. I look about but can't see anything and the water's pretty clear.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it really hurts. I've got to get out."
By the time we've got back onto the beach, Lynn has a bright red rash straight across her midriff and it's starting to come up in lumps like a stinging nettle rash. We take the sensible precaution of visiting the local doctor as we don't know what caused it (though we suspect it was probably a jellyfish or maybe loads of minute jellyfish, maybe). The doctor obviously doesn't want to take any risks. It's either that or he's decided he can make a few bob here as he cunningly also owns the pharmacy next door! He gave Lynn an injection in the arm and prescribed 3 courses of tablets to be taken several times a day over the next 3 days that came to a staggering total of over 30 quid. God knows what they are, one's an antihistamine but as for the other's we haven't got the foggiest. Still, she feels fine today which is the main thing.
Well, that's the end of this little chapter. Today is Friday 28th July (Peruvian Independence Day, by the way) and we are staying in Mancora until Monday 31st July. After that we shall be heading into Ecuador - country no. 6 and probably to the town of Loja. Ok, that's it.
Toodle-Pip!
Rich
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