Northern Peru

Hi everyone. Here is a little description of our trip to Northern Peru. It's kind of boring to read but more than anything I needed write it down as documentation. Rudi and I went to Northern Peru on January 5^th-January12th. We took a bus, the fanciest bus I have ever seen, about 8 hours up the coast along the Panamerican Highway. This is the Peruvian equivalent to our Highway 1. The bus had two levels, a bathroom, large cushioned seats, DVD players, temperature controls, speed controls (which were always beeping indicating that the driver was going over the speed limit), and lunch. We traveled along the coast to the town of Trujillo, one of the primary towns in Peru with a beer factory and many old colonial buildings from the time of the Spanish explorers. The northern coast of Peru is desert with intermittent green river valleys. In many ways it looks like parts California.

We spent two days in Trujillo, visiting ruins from Pre-Incan cultures thousands of years old. Peruvians have recently (last 15 years) begun professionally excavating these ruins which are just as impressive and important as those in Egypt, especially in explaing the history of the Americas. We saw the huacas (pyramids) of the sun and moon, and the labyrinth-like ruins of the ancient city of Chan Chan. It’s really not worth describing in words the impressive and magical structures of these ancient cultures and I will have to share with pictures when I return. Trujillo proper is also beautiful with an majestic plaza del armas surrounded by ornate colonial wooden buildings dating hundreds of years back. We also went to a local beach near Trujillo where there were many fisherman and good waves for surfing. Peru has some of the best surf spots in the world and their coast is wild, rugged, with few inhabitants.

After Trujillo, we headed about 4 hours north to the somewhat tacky, highly commercial town of Chiclayo. The primary reason to go to Chiclayo was the beach and a new museum outside of the town. The beach was full of local people and we saw their special straws boats that were used as primitive surfboards. (Peruvians think surfing evolved in Peru of course, which may be correct). The boats are called “caballos del mar”- horses of the seas. People continue to use these boats today alongside what we know are "surfboards".

The museum outside of Chiclayo, built in a stucture imitating the "huaca of Sipan", houses impressive ornaments, mummies, and history from a huaca that was recently excavated. In this huaca, the lord of Sipan, including previous rulers, were excavated. The rulers were buried with excessive amounts of gold, silver, copper, and stones. Through excavating this huaca, archeologists have been able to reconstruct the social system and culture of the Moche, a large culture that lived in northern Peru before the Incans. The Moche had numerous reasons for human sacrifice that was commonplace in their culture. One of their primary motifs and gods is a man carrying a human head and a sword.

I forgot to mention the Peruvian hairless dog, an ancient breed that is prized for strange look and lack of fleas.

A very interesting aspect within the city of Chiclayo is the marcardo de brujas. (whitches/shamans market). Here, the people sell every possible natural remedy, or what they think are remedies, including ground up frog, dead animals from the jungle, herbs, San Pedro cactus (which many gringos have been known to purchase), magic sticks, and trinkets of all sorts. It is quite amazing to see the huge variety of natural goods used in the “curing process”. It’s difficult to tell how effective these medicines really are….not many statistics here.

After Chiclayo, we drove about 4 hours north, in bus that was much cheaper and lower in quality than our previous bus, to the large town of Piura. We then immediately boarded an even cheaper and dirtier bus for a quick 45 minute trip through the desert to the town of Colan. The two most impressive sites on the way to Piura and Colan were the dry desolate conditions in which the few people lived (who were outside of major cities) and the amount of plastic bags that adorned the desert vegetation.

Colan is a sleepy beach town, primarily used by the people in Piura to escape the oppressive summer heat. Rudi and I stayed two nights in Colan, which is comprised of pretty little wooden houses from the 1940’s lining the beach, and only one dirt road through town connecting the various stores and restaurants. All of the small general stores had odd assortments of goods and the restaurants all served the same food. However, if you are going to eat fish, this is the place to do it. There was even a tiny, box-like pizza/empanada stand run by two older men. Rudi and I bought 2 slices of pizza one afternoon. After one man made the pizza he proceded to fall asleep on the pizza-making table and the other man, wearing large fake designer sunglasses, started to play sappy love songs in Spanish from the the 1950’s on his tape player. They were quite a combo. Not to mention, they were both smoking while preparing the pizza. Colan is also home to Peru’s oldest church, constructed in the 1500’s when the Incas were still around. We visited the church perched on a hill above the ocean and watched one of the most amazing sunsets ever.

We spent our last afternoon and night in Piura. First, we went to the small town of Catacaos, just outside of Piura, that is the center for arts and crafts of Northern Peru. It’s a small colonial town with one street full of vendors and their handicrafts. Peru has the most beautiful “artesanias” that I have ever seen, and the most diverse. Later in the evening we found a great café near one the Universities where it was safe to eat salads and sandwhiches and I was rejoicing with my lettuce.

We ended our trip with a quick flight back to Lima in order to see Rudi’s brother, wife and daughter before they flew back to German. Then a few days in Lima before heading to the jungle. Stay tuned.....