November 17, 2011
After my last blog entry on Wednesday I walked around the center of town in a 4 block radius on the look out for a suitable place to eat (judging on what they had on display) and was forced to go to "Amaretto's" cafe since I didn't find any suitable places. For a side dish I ordered "Cesar's salad" thinking it would be romaine lettuce, cheese, and egg etc... but it was regular lettuce, croutons, and ham pieces. Not what I had in mind.
On Thursday morning I head to Amaretto cafe at 8:40am (timing it so I wouldn't have to wait for them to set up chairs etc...) and see that they are still closed even though they are suppose to be open at 8:30am. I am a bit disappointed in them so walk a few blocks and find another good coffee place that opens at 7:30am each morning so I have switched my coffee loyalty over to this new place. I ask for "cafe con leche" and there seems to be confusion with the new guy and he now wants me to point at the right picture on the menu (I think he is confused with the "with milk" part) and so I point to the Americano cafe and say "Americano con leche" and he leaves and I hear him say 3 times in the back tell the other coffee maker "Americano con leche?". So they bring me out an Americano cafe with another full cup of leche (milk). I finish that one and ask the guy "otro Americano cafe por favor" and he seems confused again and gets the other guy to come out and ask me and the other guy nods his head and brings me what I want. I mean my spanish isn't perfect but I can say "otro Americano cafe por favor" with complete precision and accuracy in pronouncement.
I get a minivan bus to the Chan Chan ruins and they let me off at the side of the road and point to it and there is a dirt road that goes out to the ruins for another 2kms and an old taxi driver comes up to me to tell me it is still a far walk (obviously wanting my business) but I tell him I can walk it and as I am walking 5 steps away from him another taxi cab with 2 people in it stop and ask me if I want a ride and I jump in. The 2 people are a couple from Holland and when we get there we split the cost for a guide since I read it is pointless without one. Our guide is 65 year old "Jose" and he has been at the Chan Chan ruins since 1965 and was first a drawer for the archeologists and then a digger for the excavation and now a guide. The site is huge but only the palace is for tours and even it is 11 hectares big with a huge 11 meter high wall that is 5 meters thick surround it. It is made of adobe mud bricks with designs everywhere of Pelicans, fish, and fishing nets which represents "mama pacha" or mother nature.
They built Chan Chan palace around 1300AD and the Incas basically took them over 170 years later. Chan Chan is 2km from the Pacific ocean and you can hear the ocean but not see it from the site. We finish up the tour and the Dutch couple begin walking to the museum which I know is quite a ways away since I passed it coming to the site so I hire a cab for $1.75US and pick them up on my way there and go through the museum and then after the museum I wave down a regular bus and get dropped off at "Huaca Esmeralda" which is another adobe pyramid and walk around it and on top of it for about 20 minutes and then the guy calls me into his office to buy his souvenirs so I check them out and as I am leaving I see the Dutch couple touring around the pyramid and we leave together and I grab a minibus to an intersection where the last pyramid (Huaca Arco Iris) is located and grab a second mini bus going in that direction. I told the guy where I wanted to go and they are usually good about letting me know ahead of time where my stop is (since I am a gringo tourist) but the dufus doesn't say anything and I am cramped so go back to the seat near him and then he tells me to get out here so I get out and pay him 1 sole (33 cents) and I say "Donde esta Arco Iris??" and he points quickly back in the other direction not caring as he takes off and I ask 2 other people along the street and they tell me it is 2 km in the other direction. Great!
So I get another mini bus going the opposite direction to back track and find my stop and some young kid is working the side door this time and lets me out at the right stop. Some of these places are hard to find and I don't see any big signs advertising these places or the turn offs for them. So I go into Huaca Arco Iris pyramid and it has some interesting reliefs on the walls. I go up a narrow passage way and see scaffolding everywhere but continue to walk through it and find myself on the top of the wall and I am not 100% sure if I should be there but there is only 1 worker at this site and he is on the outside and unable to see me high up on the wall and I do get a good view of the higher reliefs on this narrow wall that is 7 meters tall with no railings as I walk around the inner perimeter of the wall and snap photos with new hordes of Peruvian tourists coming in and looking up at me probably wondering how the big gringo got up there and if he is allowed up there.
I leave that site and back track to Chan Chan site and continue going along that road to the beach town of "Huanchaco". There is an older guy on my minibus that got on at the same stop as me and he keeps talking to me in super fast spanish and I can make out a few words and somewhat of what he is talking about or inquiring about. He is a vender who sells stuff down at the beach but tells me Chiclayo and Cajamarca are nice places to visit and I tell him I am thinking of going to Chiclayo for Friday.
Huanchaco is a nice beach town with lots of surfers and people chilling out on the beach with street food and souvenir places all along the main street. I walked to the far end of the street until it ended and layed down for a 40 minute nap right on the sidewalk since there were no benches or anywhere to sit. I was originally planning to spend a day here on Friday but I know after a few hours on the beach I would get restless and bored and there didn't seem like a lot to do or see in this small beach town besides surfing, suntanning, and eating so I grabbed a regular bus back to Trujillo and decided I would just go to Chiclayo on Friday.
So I got dropped off and walked 8 blocks to the main plaza in Trujillo and a shoe shine guy calls me over and I know after 2 days of running around in the sand I desperately need a shoe shine and he sits me down and wants to take my shoe but before I give it to him I ask him "cuanto cuesta?" about 3 times as he just nods his head and finally I don't give him my shoe until I get a price since I don't like the "money games" some of them play and he agrees to 2 soles which is the going rate. He did a good job but then he tells me it is 6 soles and shows me the number on his shoe box and I tell him he is getting 2 soles as originally agreed and he won't take my money and 2 soles is all I have besides a 100 sole bill in my wallet that is usually a chore to change with any street vendors. Finally as I am walking away he takes it.
I cross the street from the main plaza and find a tourist company that sells bus tickets and I buy a bus ticket for the 3 hour journey north at 12:30pm on Friday for Chiclayo. It has a few places of interest and a beach so I will be spending the remainder of my days there and then get an over night bus back to Lima on Sunday so arriving in Lima on Monday morning.
After my last blog entry on Wednesday I walked around the center of town in a 4 block radius on the look out for a suitable place to eat (judging on what they had on display) and was forced to go to "Amaretto's" cafe since I didn't find any suitable places. For a side dish I ordered "Cesar's salad" thinking it would be romaine lettuce, cheese, and egg etc... but it was regular lettuce, croutons, and ham pieces. Not what I had in mind.
On Thursday morning I head to Amaretto cafe at 8:40am (timing it so I wouldn't have to wait for them to set up chairs etc...) and see that they are still closed even though they are suppose to be open at 8:30am. I am a bit disappointed in them so walk a few blocks and find another good coffee place that opens at 7:30am each morning so I have switched my coffee loyalty over to this new place. I ask for "cafe con leche" and there seems to be confusion with the new guy and he now wants me to point at the right picture on the menu (I think he is confused with the "with milk" part) and so I point to the Americano cafe and say "Americano con leche" and he leaves and I hear him say 3 times in the back tell the other coffee maker "Americano con leche?". So they bring me out an Americano cafe with another full cup of leche (milk). I finish that one and ask the guy "otro Americano cafe por favor" and he seems confused again and gets the other guy to come out and ask me and the other guy nods his head and brings me what I want. I mean my spanish isn't perfect but I can say "otro Americano cafe por favor" with complete precision and accuracy in pronouncement.
I get a minivan bus to the Chan Chan ruins and they let me off at the side of the road and point to it and there is a dirt road that goes out to the ruins for another 2kms and an old taxi driver comes up to me to tell me it is still a far walk (obviously wanting my business) but I tell him I can walk it and as I am walking 5 steps away from him another taxi cab with 2 people in it stop and ask me if I want a ride and I jump in. The 2 people are a couple from Holland and when we get there we split the cost for a guide since I read it is pointless without one. Our guide is 65 year old "Jose" and he has been at the Chan Chan ruins since 1965 and was first a drawer for the archeologists and then a digger for the excavation and now a guide. The site is huge but only the palace is for tours and even it is 11 hectares big with a huge 11 meter high wall that is 5 meters thick surround it. It is made of adobe mud bricks with designs everywhere of Pelicans, fish, and fishing nets which represents "mama pacha" or mother nature.
They built Chan Chan palace around 1300AD and the Incas basically took them over 170 years later. Chan Chan is 2km from the Pacific ocean and you can hear the ocean but not see it from the site. We finish up the tour and the Dutch couple begin walking to the museum which I know is quite a ways away since I passed it coming to the site so I hire a cab for $1.75US and pick them up on my way there and go through the museum and then after the museum I wave down a regular bus and get dropped off at "Huaca Esmeralda" which is another adobe pyramid and walk around it and on top of it for about 20 minutes and then the guy calls me into his office to buy his souvenirs so I check them out and as I am leaving I see the Dutch couple touring around the pyramid and we leave together and I grab a minibus to an intersection where the last pyramid (Huaca Arco Iris) is located and grab a second mini bus going in that direction. I told the guy where I wanted to go and they are usually good about letting me know ahead of time where my stop is (since I am a gringo tourist) but the dufus doesn't say anything and I am cramped so go back to the seat near him and then he tells me to get out here so I get out and pay him 1 sole (33 cents) and I say "Donde esta Arco Iris??" and he points quickly back in the other direction not caring as he takes off and I ask 2 other people along the street and they tell me it is 2 km in the other direction. Great!
So I get another mini bus going the opposite direction to back track and find my stop and some young kid is working the side door this time and lets me out at the right stop. Some of these places are hard to find and I don't see any big signs advertising these places or the turn offs for them. So I go into Huaca Arco Iris pyramid and it has some interesting reliefs on the walls. I go up a narrow passage way and see scaffolding everywhere but continue to walk through it and find myself on the top of the wall and I am not 100% sure if I should be there but there is only 1 worker at this site and he is on the outside and unable to see me high up on the wall and I do get a good view of the higher reliefs on this narrow wall that is 7 meters tall with no railings as I walk around the inner perimeter of the wall and snap photos with new hordes of Peruvian tourists coming in and looking up at me probably wondering how the big gringo got up there and if he is allowed up there.
I leave that site and back track to Chan Chan site and continue going along that road to the beach town of "Huanchaco". There is an older guy on my minibus that got on at the same stop as me and he keeps talking to me in super fast spanish and I can make out a few words and somewhat of what he is talking about or inquiring about. He is a vender who sells stuff down at the beach but tells me Chiclayo and Cajamarca are nice places to visit and I tell him I am thinking of going to Chiclayo for Friday.
Huanchaco is a nice beach town with lots of surfers and people chilling out on the beach with street food and souvenir places all along the main street. I walked to the far end of the street until it ended and layed down for a 40 minute nap right on the sidewalk since there were no benches or anywhere to sit. I was originally planning to spend a day here on Friday but I know after a few hours on the beach I would get restless and bored and there didn't seem like a lot to do or see in this small beach town besides surfing, suntanning, and eating so I grabbed a regular bus back to Trujillo and decided I would just go to Chiclayo on Friday.
So I got dropped off and walked 8 blocks to the main plaza in Trujillo and a shoe shine guy calls me over and I know after 2 days of running around in the sand I desperately need a shoe shine and he sits me down and wants to take my shoe but before I give it to him I ask him "cuanto cuesta?" about 3 times as he just nods his head and finally I don't give him my shoe until I get a price since I don't like the "money games" some of them play and he agrees to 2 soles which is the going rate. He did a good job but then he tells me it is 6 soles and shows me the number on his shoe box and I tell him he is getting 2 soles as originally agreed and he won't take my money and 2 soles is all I have besides a 100 sole bill in my wallet that is usually a chore to change with any street vendors. Finally as I am walking away he takes it.
I cross the street from the main plaza and find a tourist company that sells bus tickets and I buy a bus ticket for the 3 hour journey north at 12:30pm on Friday for Chiclayo. It has a few places of interest and a beach so I will be spending the remainder of my days there and then get an over night bus back to Lima on Sunday so arriving in Lima on Monday morning.
