PART 2: Chiclayo, Peru to Lima, Peru
At about 6 pm we got into Trujillo and we took a quick taxi ride to our next couchsurfing place, located just a few blocks outside of the old town center. We moved into our “new apartment” and talked with our super neat host Juan Carlos, who lives part-time in Cusco and part-time in Trujillo, the two contenders for third largest city in Peru. He also lived in Vermont for a while, so we had lots of fun stories to share and it was great to practice our Spanish with him!
On the morning of the 17th we grabbed a quick breakfast and then took the bus and walked to Chan Chan, a famous ruins site right outside of Trujillo. We walked through the massive walled-in village with an Italian girl and afterwards continued walking back towards town, passing an archeological museum on the way. We stopped for a traditional Peruvian lunch in a hole-in-the-wall café and then checked out the Huaca Esmeralda (Emerald Temple), which the city of Trujillo has grown up around. We grabbed another bus and completed the tourist circuit that our ticket covered by checking out the Huaca Arco Iris (Rainbow Temple), which was actually my favorite of the 4 sites visited that day. At night Katrina and I delighted ourselves with the street food and sweet treats found in the old town and then we returned to the apartment to sleep.
Inside Chan Chan!
The best rice pudding in Peru started off the next day and then we cruised around the old town center, checking out the gorgeous architecture and the plethora of churches. The sun was shining overhead once again, so around noon we took the 30 minute bus ride out to Huanchaco, a surfer beach town. Unfortunately it was a little foggy and cold at the coast, so we couldn’t do much swimming, but we met up with Juan Carlos, some of his good friends from childhood and a crazy German couchsurfing girl who was in the middle of an around-the-world tour. We spent a fun afternoon at the beach, ate amazing ceviche and fried rice with octopus and I really enjoyed watching the fishermen surfing on the waves in their traditional reed rafts. Later on we returned to Trujillo to have dinner and at night we played games with Juan Carlos’ hilarious 10 year old nephew, who also showed us his sweet Michael Jackson moves!
"Holding up" the reed plant fish boat/surfboards at Huanchacho with our awesome host Juan Carlos
On the 19th we were planning on leaving Trujillo on a night bus to Huaraz, a mountain town surrounded by a National Park, but since it was Sunday we couldn’t find any space on a bus and we ended up having a mildly frustrating day in Trujillo trying to figure out transportation issues. In the afternoon we did get to go to Huaca del Sol y La Luna (Sun and Moon Temples). The tour through the Moon Temple was completely in Spanish and I understood all of it, which was fascinating! The Moche Civilization built a completely new level of their temple every 100 years and once they built a new floor they completely filled in an old one. They have now excavated it to where they can see 7 floors and the beautiful designs on each. Afterwards we chatted and walked with our tour guide for a while to get to the bus stop and found some dinner and ice cream in Trujillo. We had been planning on taking the night bus that night, but instead we slept at Juan Carlos’ once more and it actually turned out alright because I got to go with his family to the main plaza to see the annual lighting of the Christmas trees.
Temple of the Moon with 7 floors of impressive paintings
The nearby Temple of the Sun (soon to be excavated as well)
We were finally able to find a bus on the morning of December 20th to get to Huaraz and it ended up being very nice to ride the bus during the day because the views in the mountains were impressive! We left the desert and climbed into the Andes, traveling though agricultural areas where bananas and apples were growing side by side! Once we arrived in Huaraz at night I had a small headache from the altitude, but I quickly got used to it. We easily met up with our next CS host, Edwin, and he took us to the two-room apartment that his friend and her daughter share. It was a small place, but the family was so inviting and accommodating that we felt right at home! After being on the bus all day, we were quite hungry, so we found a tiny Chinese place and got some delicious fried rice! We also ran into a double language barrier and some Peruvian anti-Chinese racism, so it turned out to be a very interesting cultural experience.
Riding the bus up into the mountains!
As the sign says, this bus is also for sale...
After a good nights sleep I spent some of the morning searching for an airplane ticket from Lima to Cusco, but after no success I gave up and we ate some delicious soup and cheese for lunch, both of which were way better than what we could get in Ecuador! In the afternoon we went on about a 5 hour hike to the Wilkahuain ruins up on the hill overlooking Huaraz. We got to crawl around a bit inside the old cave-like building and on the decent down we passed many more Indigenous communities and got soaked in the rain. Unfortunately the rainy season is just beginning in the Peruvian Sierra, and it seems like most days for the next few months might be pretty wet! I had some tasty pizza for dinner and then we went to bed early in the cozy bed of our tiny apartment.
We embarked on a bigger hike the next day because that is what the area around Huaraz is famous for! Most tourists come for weeklong treks into the high country, but we decided to do a day trip on our own with some maps from the most helpful tourist information lady in Peru! We bussed a ways, then hiked through Quechua pueblos to the one-house town Pitec, where we could already see some gorgeous snow-capped peaks coming out of the clouds. From there Katrina decided to rest, but I continued on for another 4 hours round trip to Laguna Churup at 4450 meters! I ate lunch at the lake all by myself and hiked back down to catch the bus in the afternoon before the daily rains started. In the evening I met up with Katrina again for more delicious soup and ice cream.
The views as I hiked up to Laguna Churup
At the lake, elevation 4450 meters...that's about 14,600 ft!
On the 23rd we found a great breakfast place, Katrina bought some knee-high cozy wool socks (one of the many amazing souvenirs she found, while I continued to be too indecisive to buy anything!) and we boarded the 8 hour bus headed to Lima. By the time we got there it was about 7:30 pm and the two of us had to go our separate ways. She headed to Lima Centro to find a hostel for the night and then she was going to catch a flight back to Ecuador to meet up with her mom for Christmas and New Years. We had spent two awesome weeks traveling together and had lots of incredible experiences! Thanks Katrina!
Llama Lady, Llama and Katrina in the plaza of Huaraz
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