Peru

We spent one night in the beachside hotel, that evening we just chilled out, had a very nice dinner and then sat by a bonfire on the beach before heading to bed, The one down side was the beds were absolutely rock hard, it was horrible. They also believed in working with nature so they don´t like to waste water, so the tap water is cold and if you go to the toilet you can´t flush, instead you wash you hands in the sink which pours down into a bucket and then you pour that bucket into the toilet and eventually it drains away, It was quite unpleasant. The next day we skipped all the optional activities and just opted for relaxing by the beach. We left there at 2.30 and took a bus to some place i don´t know the name of. The problem is that we kept moving on so quickly that i´m struggling to keep up with where we are going. The bus ride was cool though, Anthea and i managed to get seats in the front row and because the driver was on the first floor and we were on the second we just had a massive window in front of us, which made us feel like we were in the driver`s seat. It had its pros and cons, we got an awesome view, but we also got very hot in the sun and we could see the near misses from our driver. The views were amazing, it was a strange mix of very dry desert and mountains and then lush paddocks and palm trees that looked like an oasis.

After 7 hours we were pretty over the bad driving and were relieved to get off to our new beds, which were a definate improvement on the night befores beds but still hard. It was 10pm and i was still drowsy from the bus so i went straight to bed. The next morning we went to a museum that showed the tombs of some ancient people. (i´ll be honest with you, i woke up with a sore neck and a sore back so i spent most of the time in that museum just wishing for a seat so i may have missed the finer details, like the name of of the musuem. Also the guide´s english was tricky to understand at times, and yes i am aware i am making alot of excuses) Nonetheless it was interesting to see all the jewellery clothing weapons and burial rituals of these people: we saw the real bones of some of the lords and guardians as well as many replicas of the bones. Anthea now tells me it was the Tomb of Sipan.

That afternoon we bussed to our new hotel, a beachside hotel outside the town of Trujillo. That evening we walked down the the beach to watch the sunset then had dinner at the hotel. We also indulged in a swim around 9pm just because we wanted to make the most of the first place we`ve stayed with a pool.

The next day we went for a tour of the ancient city of Chan Chan. The entire city is massive with 9 palaces but they have only restored one of them so far and haven`t even finished it. The stuff they haven`t restored just look like dirt hills in a sandy desert because all the walls were made of clay and they have worn away over hundreds of years. We went into the restored palace and it was very impressive. the walls were all patterned with either animals or diamond shapes, the courtyards were huge and the well looks so strange- a lake with green reeds and plants surrounding it in a place that is otherwise just clay and sand, it looked quite out of place. The walls of the palace 10metres high in someplaces and 2 metres thick with a boulder foundation1 metre under the surface. the only annoying thing was all the barriers and scaffolding which took away from the ancient feel of the place.

After Chan Chan we went back to the hotel swam in the pool and spent some time on the free internet. we also went out on a mission to find chocolate, i found a snickers bar and dam was it good!! just cos decent chocolate is rare in peru so its exciting to find it, makes it taste soo much sweeter. That evening we went for dinner at a beachside restaurant, the food was good but the service was less than average and it was pricey.

the next day we had a massive day of travelling, we left the hotel at 7.30 and arrived in Lima at 6.30. We were told it would be 6-7 hour bus ride so we were going crazy by the end of it. The views out the winsow were cool, massive dry deserts, mountains, beaches and cliffs, plus we had movies on the bus and 2 meals but we were still exhausted by the end. Our hotel is the fanciest one we`ve stayed in yet. We`re not really a fan of these hotels, although luxury can be nice we had hoped to be in hostels where we can meet people and have more fun. The hotels make us feel out of place. As a standard we will get a twin bedroon with ensuite, a tv, airconditioning, towels and breakfast. We don`t want to know what we are paying for these rooms. Last night we just had dinner at a fast food restaurant called Bembos. Went to the supermarket on a search for more chocolate and then to bed.

This morning we went to the San Fransisco Cathedral, underneath the church was the catacombs and it was fascinating to see all the tombs of bones. They had been sorted by the type of bones, pit of skulls, pits of leg bones, pits for assorted pelvic bones and ribs. Then we took a bus to Miraflores which is a nicer area of Lima, we had lunch a a little sandwich ship and i was very impressed with my sandwich seeing it was quite cheap. And I got a freshly made frozen lemonade made with real lemons. We also tried the churros from another restaurant and it was delicious and later Anthea and i got a cookie each. I was also going to get an icecream from this fancy helados shop but i decided i had had enough treats. We went to the Miraflores shopping mall and it was very nice, its built on a cliff overlooking the ocean and all the levels have no roofs so it was very sunny which equaled very hot. We wandered around for an hour or so but then we were exhausted so caught a taxi back to the hotel.

Tonight we are hoping to go to Chabuca Grande Park to experience some tradtional peruvian music and dance.