November 19, 2011
On Friday night when I got back to my hotel, the hotel woman said she needed to put some "clog remover" liquid down my sink since it was plugged and I said no problem but it was around 9pm and I was tired and she said she would need to come back in an hour or two and do it again and I told her to "forget it" for tonight since I am going to sleep and she should have done it when there were no guests in the room. The next day I wake up and there is no power since the lights won't come on so that means a cold shower for me. I needed to shave and I filled the sink up with water and shaving cream since the sink is still clogged. I reminded myself that it is only $6US a night so it doesn't bother me.
On Saturday morning I head out to find a "real" coffee place but have no luck. When I ask "Tienes una macina de cafe aqui?" and if they even hesitate with their answer about it I know immediately they don't have it. I went to find where the combis leave Chiclayo for Lambayeque. My LP guidebook says the combi pickup is a many blocks away and as I am walking and looking at my map and gentleman asks me where I am going and I tell him and he kindly takes me across the road to where the combis load and I thank him since I would have walked a few more blocks according to my guidebook. Combis are cheap transportation where 15 people cram into a minivan and pay 30 cents each for a 20 minute drive. I begin to doze off to sleep and as I open my eyes I see we have arrived in Lambayeque which is north of Chiclayo and the people on the combi tell me how to get to the Sipan Museum.
Although my guidebook says that the Sipan Museum is a MUST SEE I am a little disappointed since you are not allowed a camera inside and they ensure you can't take pictures by making you check-in your bag, cell phones, and cameras at the entry place and then a guy with a wand like at the airports scans your body. As I walk in there is a huge group of peruvian kids I guess on a field trip with their school and they all seem fascinated to see some big blonde gringo as they ask me questions like "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" and "What country are you from?" and they keep repeating these same questions over and over as I wait in line.
After I dropped off my bag I wanted to get ahead of all 30 kids since I didn't want them to hold me up waiting to see the displays. All the signs are in spanish only so that kind of sucked. It displays all the findings of the Royal tombs of Sipan including the Lord of Sipan himself. It showed a replica of his tomb since the museum is 20 minutes north of Chiclayo and the actual site itself is 30km south east of Chiclayo. His tomb had him in the center with a couple women (his concubines?) around him and a dog at one side of him and a llama at the other side of him. I thought that was a bit strange but oh well. He had a guard that was a little higher than him that was just a skeleton with a shield. Many of the metal objects were corroded due to oxygen over the years but they fix them up as best they could since they show the pictures of them when they were discovered in the tombs. It seems all the ancient royalties like the Egyptians believed in the after life where they could take all their possessions including human servants into the next world with them.
I leave the museum and walk back to the same place I was dropped off and just cross the road to the other side and another combi arrives and fills up quickly so I don't have much of a waiting time. I go back to my hotel and meet a guy from France who I briefly said hi to the previous night. He asks me if there is power on in the city streets since the hotel has not had any power since this morning and he says there is no hotel clerk around all day since he only has one key for his room and can't chance leaving and not getting back into the hotel since he takes the bus to Tarapoto today so had to stay in most of the day. He tells me he is a mathmatician from France and has been in Peru for 3 years and learned spanish here and wants to set up a school in Tarapoto.
I headed out to drop off my laundry but the guy quoted me $14US for my laundry and I said forget it and that I would do it in Lima. I headed back to the hotel and the French guy was laughing and telling me that some dog just ran into the lobby and pee'd over the area they were sitting at and then left. It sounded like a "piss and run" incident. There was a big pool of water in the sitting area. Very charming place! The hotel clerk finally showed up after being gone most of the day according to the French guy and she started flipping breakers but the panel had no main breaker in it so she went downstairs and flipped it on so the French guy could recharge his phone before his bus left.
Afterwards I head out for some street food and go back to the tourist booth and there is someone there that gives me directions for taking a combi to Sipan on Sunday. As I come out of the booth 4 young girls are giggling and I know they want to say something to me but I continue moving on and 10 steps later stop at an ice cream parlor and get a chocolate cone for 33 cents and as I turn around the girls ask me if they can interview me for their school project and I say sure. As they are interviewing me some guy comes over and he looks like the spanish version of the Marx brothers with the glasses and mustache and just the way he walks back and forth towards me makes me laugh but he wants to sell me a rechargeable flashlight and I am thinking it is cool but I am not into spending a lot of money and then he tells me it is 4 soles ($1.33US) and I instantly buy it. I might buy more of them tomorrow if I am out on the street. It doesn't need batteries or bulbs but just shake it. Then a second girl interviews me and asks me all the same questions again from their notepad. Afterwards I ask them where the "Mercado de los Brujos" (Witches market) is and they don't know but I tell them according to my guidebook it is close to the "Mercado Modelo" which they are familar with so all 5 of us head down the street and we get more than our share of looks from the people as they see some big 6'3 white guy leading 4 Peruvian teenage girls down the street as if we are all pals.
We get to the Mercado Modelo and one of the girls asks a policeman where the "Mercado de los Brujos" is and he tells them and as we are walking the girls tell me it is too dangerous for them to walk in this area but point to where it is and I head over there. I spot San Pedro cactus's immediately and know I am in the right place as I check out all their strange concoctions. I go into one stall and he shows me all the San Pedro bottles that don't have labels on them (Is it illegal here?) so I buy one that is good for 2 doses and I figure I have only 3 more days in South America so I may as well give it another shot but in a liquid form (and not powdered form which I tried in Cuzco). I ask them about any other hallucingenic plants and one of the guys mentions "7 macas" or 7 potatoes and I ask him if it is a potatoe that is a hallucingen and they both say yes but I decide to pass on it and just leave with my San Pedro.
I walk around the huge market which goes on for blocks and I am getting more attention than I want as people say "Hey gringo, como estas?" or "Pais?" (Country?). I seem to be the main attraction but being 6'3 with blond hair wearing shorts and a muscle shirt will do that down here. Afterwards I walk by a pastry shop and see a cake that looks good but after I bite into it it is hard in the middle (I honestly thought it was card board in the middle) and doesn't taste as good as it looked. I have had this experience quite a bit thinking I am getting one thing but end of getting something not even close to what I expected.
Tomorrow I plan to go out to the site of Sipan which is 30km south east of Chiclayo and then get the 7:30pm bus back to Lima.
On Friday night when I got back to my hotel, the hotel woman said she needed to put some "clog remover" liquid down my sink since it was plugged and I said no problem but it was around 9pm and I was tired and she said she would need to come back in an hour or two and do it again and I told her to "forget it" for tonight since I am going to sleep and she should have done it when there were no guests in the room. The next day I wake up and there is no power since the lights won't come on so that means a cold shower for me. I needed to shave and I filled the sink up with water and shaving cream since the sink is still clogged. I reminded myself that it is only $6US a night so it doesn't bother me.
On Saturday morning I head out to find a "real" coffee place but have no luck. When I ask "Tienes una macina de cafe aqui?" and if they even hesitate with their answer about it I know immediately they don't have it. I went to find where the combis leave Chiclayo for Lambayeque. My LP guidebook says the combi pickup is a many blocks away and as I am walking and looking at my map and gentleman asks me where I am going and I tell him and he kindly takes me across the road to where the combis load and I thank him since I would have walked a few more blocks according to my guidebook. Combis are cheap transportation where 15 people cram into a minivan and pay 30 cents each for a 20 minute drive. I begin to doze off to sleep and as I open my eyes I see we have arrived in Lambayeque which is north of Chiclayo and the people on the combi tell me how to get to the Sipan Museum.
Although my guidebook says that the Sipan Museum is a MUST SEE I am a little disappointed since you are not allowed a camera inside and they ensure you can't take pictures by making you check-in your bag, cell phones, and cameras at the entry place and then a guy with a wand like at the airports scans your body. As I walk in there is a huge group of peruvian kids I guess on a field trip with their school and they all seem fascinated to see some big blonde gringo as they ask me questions like "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" and "What country are you from?" and they keep repeating these same questions over and over as I wait in line.
After I dropped off my bag I wanted to get ahead of all 30 kids since I didn't want them to hold me up waiting to see the displays. All the signs are in spanish only so that kind of sucked. It displays all the findings of the Royal tombs of Sipan including the Lord of Sipan himself. It showed a replica of his tomb since the museum is 20 minutes north of Chiclayo and the actual site itself is 30km south east of Chiclayo. His tomb had him in the center with a couple women (his concubines?) around him and a dog at one side of him and a llama at the other side of him. I thought that was a bit strange but oh well. He had a guard that was a little higher than him that was just a skeleton with a shield. Many of the metal objects were corroded due to oxygen over the years but they fix them up as best they could since they show the pictures of them when they were discovered in the tombs. It seems all the ancient royalties like the Egyptians believed in the after life where they could take all their possessions including human servants into the next world with them.
I leave the museum and walk back to the same place I was dropped off and just cross the road to the other side and another combi arrives and fills up quickly so I don't have much of a waiting time. I go back to my hotel and meet a guy from France who I briefly said hi to the previous night. He asks me if there is power on in the city streets since the hotel has not had any power since this morning and he says there is no hotel clerk around all day since he only has one key for his room and can't chance leaving and not getting back into the hotel since he takes the bus to Tarapoto today so had to stay in most of the day. He tells me he is a mathmatician from France and has been in Peru for 3 years and learned spanish here and wants to set up a school in Tarapoto.
I headed out to drop off my laundry but the guy quoted me $14US for my laundry and I said forget it and that I would do it in Lima. I headed back to the hotel and the French guy was laughing and telling me that some dog just ran into the lobby and pee'd over the area they were sitting at and then left. It sounded like a "piss and run" incident. There was a big pool of water in the sitting area. Very charming place! The hotel clerk finally showed up after being gone most of the day according to the French guy and she started flipping breakers but the panel had no main breaker in it so she went downstairs and flipped it on so the French guy could recharge his phone before his bus left.
Afterwards I head out for some street food and go back to the tourist booth and there is someone there that gives me directions for taking a combi to Sipan on Sunday. As I come out of the booth 4 young girls are giggling and I know they want to say something to me but I continue moving on and 10 steps later stop at an ice cream parlor and get a chocolate cone for 33 cents and as I turn around the girls ask me if they can interview me for their school project and I say sure. As they are interviewing me some guy comes over and he looks like the spanish version of the Marx brothers with the glasses and mustache and just the way he walks back and forth towards me makes me laugh but he wants to sell me a rechargeable flashlight and I am thinking it is cool but I am not into spending a lot of money and then he tells me it is 4 soles ($1.33US) and I instantly buy it. I might buy more of them tomorrow if I am out on the street. It doesn't need batteries or bulbs but just shake it. Then a second girl interviews me and asks me all the same questions again from their notepad. Afterwards I ask them where the "Mercado de los Brujos" (Witches market) is and they don't know but I tell them according to my guidebook it is close to the "Mercado Modelo" which they are familar with so all 5 of us head down the street and we get more than our share of looks from the people as they see some big 6'3 white guy leading 4 Peruvian teenage girls down the street as if we are all pals.
We get to the Mercado Modelo and one of the girls asks a policeman where the "Mercado de los Brujos" is and he tells them and as we are walking the girls tell me it is too dangerous for them to walk in this area but point to where it is and I head over there. I spot San Pedro cactus's immediately and know I am in the right place as I check out all their strange concoctions. I go into one stall and he shows me all the San Pedro bottles that don't have labels on them (Is it illegal here?) so I buy one that is good for 2 doses and I figure I have only 3 more days in South America so I may as well give it another shot but in a liquid form (and not powdered form which I tried in Cuzco). I ask them about any other hallucingenic plants and one of the guys mentions "7 macas" or 7 potatoes and I ask him if it is a potatoe that is a hallucingen and they both say yes but I decide to pass on it and just leave with my San Pedro.
I walk around the huge market which goes on for blocks and I am getting more attention than I want as people say "Hey gringo, como estas?" or "Pais?" (Country?). I seem to be the main attraction but being 6'3 with blond hair wearing shorts and a muscle shirt will do that down here. Afterwards I walk by a pastry shop and see a cake that looks good but after I bite into it it is hard in the middle (I honestly thought it was card board in the middle) and doesn't taste as good as it looked. I have had this experience quite a bit thinking I am getting one thing but end of getting something not even close to what I expected.
Tomorrow I plan to go out to the site of Sipan which is 30km south east of Chiclayo and then get the 7:30pm bus back to Lima.
