Northern Peru - Chiclayo, Trujillo & Huaraz

Hi all and we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!
It's been a while since our last blog, but then again we've both suffered from the effects of too much of the local water or food inhabitants. So although we spent a further week or so heading south through Ecuador and some really interesting towns and beautiful places such as Vilcabamba, we simply never took out the camera or did any activities unless we could remain within a minute´s hobble of a toilet. :-)

In Cuenca, however, we did see more of the many parades and celebrations that seemingly every town is throwing at this time of the year. Luckily they passed under our hostal window so we could still fulfill the above baño requirements. They really love their marching bands down here, whether it is cute kids holding drums bigger than themselves, massive shiny military outfits, or just 3 guys in street clothes and playing what must be the most dilapidated and appropriately sounding wind instruments. They also really love their xylophones and the tunes are surprisingly catchy!



We hopped on an 8-hour bus that went from Ecuador to Peru via Macara that very conveniently included all the border crossing formalities. We also met up with a friendly English guy, Jonathan, on that bus, and decided to check out northern Peru together.

Chiclayo - Tucume and Sipan
We spent a day checking out the vast remains at Tucume which were built over 1000 years ago. Upon first sight, the structures look like random piles of eroding dirt, but upon closer inspection you easily see the shapes of the adobe pyramids, platform mounds, and walls of the ancient citadels. Not only numerous (there were 26 at this one site), they are also big with one measuring over 700m long, 280m wide and over 30 meters high (see the little guy in the foreground for scale). They were kind of eerie looming out of the surrounding desert plain, and it is astounding to think how much work went into making them. We also visited a world class museum (Tumbes Reales de Sipan) which housed the amazing artifacts (pottery and jewelry) from the Moche Culture, from the royal tombs located within a similar crumbling pyramid - well worth a visit if you get the chance.



Trujillo
This turned out to be really pleasant city, full of friendly people and great colourful colonial architecture. We visited a few of the old 'Casas' which have these grand entrances onto the streets (enormous doors) and beautiful internal courtyards. There was also no shortage of cathedrals, or taxis (which is also the case for every town in Peru!) Sometimes it really borders on ridiculous as the streets are literally jammed with empty yellow or white taxis as they inch their way forward with no people on board. The taxis also LOVE to honk: they honk to get your attention as they drive past hoping for a fare, will usually honk at girls, honk at each other to say hi, and that doesn't even count the pissed off honking when things are not moving fast enough, so you can imagine it's kind of always there in the background!



The other nice part about Trujillo was that in the evening they closed down many central streets which brought out all the street performers (and helped bring some relief from the taxi symphony). The central plaza ended up being the place to be, as it was full of locals out strolling, listening to carols (visiting Mormons who were in town), taking photos with fake windmills (yeah we have no idea either?) and just enjoying the Christmas decorations and lights that they throw over every building and tree in sight - and who knew they had an "Australian" Christmas tree all the way over here in Peru (¡Feliz Navidad!)!



Chan Chan
Another site sporting adobe ruins, this one had a different look, consisting mainly of walls in various states of disrepair. This was the largest adobe city in the world with the walls and structures spreading over an area of 28 square kms! Built for nine successive Chimu kings, and with walls as high as 9 meters it was definitely impressive. The areas that they have excavated have revealed many interesting and really well preserved molded decorations of fish and other animals. Situated in the middle of a dry, barren coastal desert, you really have to appreciate the irrigation skills they must have wielded to grow crops and keep their water aquifers full even until today.



Also in the vicinity of Chan Chan were the really ornate ruins of Huaca Arco Iris and the coastal town of Huanchaco. We got some great ceviche (raw fish and squid marinated in lemon juice, herbs and onions etc - tasty!) and also checked out the local fishing "boats". They are made out of Tortora reeds and can apparently be ridden through the waves like a surfboard. Although they really need to be dried out after each use, as we learned from another traveller who rode one that was still damp and it handled as you'd expect a bunch of soggy reeds too i.e. no stability at all (but then again being a 5ft nothing Peruvian guy probably helps as well!). The other point of interest was the up close and personal encounter with the famous Peruvian hairless dogs. They are weird to say the least and as Ben said "it feels like patting an dusty old man´s head or an elephant" .



Huaraz - Christmas in the mountains
Saying goodbye to Johnathan we took a night bus to Huaraz and finally caught up with the wet season that is to be expected for this time of year in the mountains (it hadn't really started yet in Ecuador). This town is the trekking Mecca of Peru and there are some seriously massive and beautiful, snow covered mountains about (the largest Huascaran is 6768m\22200ft). Or at least that is what the postcards made it look like, as with the clouds and clockwork afternoon rain we really only caught brief glances - but when we did they were beautiful!

Although feeling "under the weather" for the entire Christmas period, we stayed at a fantastic mountain lodge up at ~3800m (www.thewayinn.com) run by an English couple. It was a great time with a really friendly bunch of people. A nice touch was that we got to share a tasty turkey Christmas dinner, even if we couldn't eat that much. :-)



We are now currently in Lima, and will pick up Ben's dad Norm from the airport tonight. He´s joining us for the next few weeks as we check out Southern Peru and Bolivia. Have a really happy new years where ever this finds you and hope to catch up or hear from you all soon,
Love Karen and Ben

The "B" Blog (Quito, Mindo, Baños, and Riobamba)

Quito - Bullfights (WARNING - pictures and text may be gory)
After returning from the Galapagos, we stuck around in Quito for a few days enjoying the general festivities of the Feria de Quito (the city was founded on the 6th of December, and they start celebrating more than a week in advance...lots of party buses). Our main reason for staying was that we bought tickets to one of the bullfights (there were nine in total). We had never been to a bullfight before (and probably don´t need to go again...it was a tad gruesome), but we found ourselves at times getting caught up in the emotion of it all. There were three bullfighters (white, pink, and red), and each fought two bulls. There was a basic formula to the fights: bring out the bull, some quick passes, padded horses are brought out which the bull attacks while he is stabbed between the shoulders by the horseman, then some crazy guys taunt the bull so he charges them and they stab him in the back with some colorful sticks, and finally, the bullfighter himself takes the bull through some amazing passes (the crowd yells "¡Ole!" each time), and once the bull is tired, the bullfighter stabs him between the shoulders with his sword (may take multiple tries). It´s best if this kills the bull; if not, the bullfighter must use another sword to stab the bull behind his head to sever the bull´s spinal cord (this also may take multiple tries).



One bullfighter (in red, from Spain) stood out as the by far the best of the day. He was able to convey the emotion of the fight to the crowd, he did the riskiest passes (on his knees, behind the back, etc), actually kill the bull quickly when it was time, plus he also continued to fight the bull after he was knocked to the ground and attacked by it. He was awarded three bull ears (two for his first fight, one for his second), which we understand to be really good. The crowd loved him, throwing roses, their hats, wine bladders, and even shoes to him while he took his victory lap. This guy really showcased the skill of the bullfighter while making it exciting, gory as it may be (even we were cheering at times).



Mindo - Beer, Orchids, Birds, and Butterflies
We traveled to the cloud forest north of Quito, staying in a small town, Mindo. Our first stop was lunch, and we´d like to take this opportunity to highlight what has become our constant companion at mealtimes - the local pilsener (it´s safter than drinking the water!). Next, we headed to a local orchid garden - this area boasts something like 200 species of orchids. Most look nothing like the orchids we were used to: many grew from the sides of trees, some grew from the tops of broad leaves, and others were so small we needed a magnifying glass to see them.



We next learned that this area is quite a famous location for birdwatchers, as it is consistently ranked as one of the top sites in the world for bird diversity (> 450 species!), many of which seem to be hummingbirds. Our hostal owner and excellent guide took us out on a 6am birdwatching trip. It was fantastic - we saw a ridiculous number of birds. Marcelo was amazing at locating birds, and as he had a telescope, we could see each one as though it was sitting right next to us. Ben managed to snap some decent pictures with our new telephoto lens and Marcelo´s tripod. Marcelo´s favorites are the small, yet amazingly colored tanagers. Our favorites were the big birds - the humorous squirrel cuckoo (named for its color and habit of jumping from branch to branch), the colorful motmot, the golden-crested quetzal (red chest), and, of course, the toucans.



Our final day in Mindo, we visited a butterfly garden where they breed 25 out of the roughly 250 species in the area. Immediately, we were struck by the number, color, and size of the butterflies swirling around us. We were able to feed them extremely ripe banana mush by hand, and if you sat still long enough, they were happy to use you to sun themselves. As part of the breeding, they collect all the cocoons, and we were there when they started to hatch that day - an amazing sight to see as they burst out of such small, dry cocoons, and to then watch thier wings go from crumpled and wet to full size in a matter of minutes.



Baños - Bike riding, Back-of-Horse Riding, and Big Bangs
Baños (named for its hot baths) is a small town at the bottom of Tungurahua volcano (still smoking after its last eruption in 1999). We took the advice of friends Matt and Tash and spent one day bike riding down to Rio Verde to see all the beautiful waterfalls, and the next day went on a 6-hour horseback ride to check out the hills around the town. This activity combination resulted in some spectacularly sore bums. Fortunately, the week-long celebration of the town´s anniversary had just begun, so we distracted ourselves from the pain by watching some fun fireworks (part of the entertainment was dodging the sparks - safety standards are a little different here) and local dancing.





RioBamba
This town is situated next to the impressive Chimborazo volcano (the tallest in Ecuador). The main reason this town is on the gringo trail is that you can travel one of the few remaining sections of the spectacular Ecuadorian railway, opened in 1908, that used to run from the coast to the Andes. This section is one of the most technically impressive as it traverses El Nariz del Diablo (the Devil´s Nose), however, it is completely a tourist attraction - there are three freight carriages where tourists sit on top, and one passenger carriage (in case you want to sit inside). You rent cushions to sit on as the roof is mostly corregated metal (not so comfy). The train ride takes about 6 hours (we got our seats at 6am!), passing beautiful mountain scenery complete with native people farming, then rapidly descending the Nose: a series of switchbacks (during which the train has to travel backwards) to drop 1000 feet. It was a little disconcerting to look down on the track to see just how well the railway is being maintained. One of the best parts of the ride was all of the children that flocked to the railway to wave at the tourists and hope for a handout of candy. So cute!