The Puruvian Coast

We were due to be collected on the Peruvian side of the border and this bus was to bring us to our new destination. Being the only white people and the fact that we were all carrying massive rucksacks and were looking around like proper tourists the driver spotted us straight away. We loaded our bags onto the roof and got into the bus as he tied them down. We drove through the no mans land city on the Peruvian side of the river and stopped at immigration to get our passports stamped and fill in the immigarion slips. With all the paperwork sorted we headed on again towards Punta Sal, just outside the surfers paradise of Mancora, which is to be our destination for the next two nights. We made a short stop along the way to go to an ATM to get some Peruvian currency - Soles - and then settled in for the remaining hours to Punta Sal.

We checked in when we arrived and went to get some food. We got our first experience of Peruvian service when we went to a restaurant on the beach and were told that they aren't open for another hour or so. Our tour leader told us that it was because they didn't want to work. We ate in our hotel and had a couple of drinks while playing an assortment of games like pool/table football/cards before heading to bed for the night. The following day we had planned to have surf lessons but the weather was not playing it's part (there were no waves) so we just took it easy for the day. We went down to the beach, threw the disc, went for a stroll and pretty much just had a lazy afternoon. There was another group staying by the beach doing the same trip the other way so we got chatting to them and played some beach volleyball after lunch. During this time we saw some Humpback Whales breaching on the horizon which was nice.

Ruth, one of the girls in our group, was celebrating her birthday so we all met poolside in the afternoon and had some beers and banter. We had reservations at a steak restaurant in Mancora at 8 that evening but our taxi didn't show up for ages and we ended up being an hour and a half late. This kind of thing seems to be normal in Peru and the restaurant didn't bat an eyelid when we eventually did turn up. I had a 16 oz. steak which was absolutely massive and I only barely managed to finish. It was absolutely delicious though. Afterwards we went to a couple of bars and a beach niteclub and had a great old night. Peru is full of modified motorbikes which are used as taxis: a 125 with a covered seat welded on the back - very similar to a tuc-tuc. The remaining ones of us took a couple of these back to Punta Sal which took about an hour and was quite an experience. We stopped for petrol on the way out of Mancora but not at a petrol station - we pulled into some subarbs and the drivers gor a coke bottle of petrol each from some chap. After this we hit the road again and settled in for the long journey home. While going through a police checkpoint the chain on our "tuc-tuc" broke so the other driver brought the girls back and then came back for the rest of us and brought us home. When paying the price of the journey went up due to his taxi breaking and I refused to pay. There was a bit of a disagreement and I paid what was agreed back in Mancora and headed off to bed.

Funnily enough nobody got up for breakfast - it turned out we didn't get in until 6am after all the tuc-tuc shenanigans. We were due to meet Robbie back in Mancora at 12.30 to go for our postponed surf lesson. Naturally we were a bit late as people took a while to surface but eventually we got some more tuc-tuc and redlined them the whole way into Mancora. The night watchman told us that last nights drivers weren't happy with me and to watch out so I was a little worried but nearly all of that was erased once we arrived in Mancora. Even though we had agreed a price of 20 soles in Punta Sal the driver tried to charge us 30. They are all a pack of chancers!!! We met Robbie, got our gear for the day and loaded them onto the minibus that was bringing us to our beach. We thought we were good to go but the driver had to lift up his seat and hotwire the bus to get it started which was unexpected. After a few tries the engine roared (or spluttered) into life and we headed off to the beach.

When we got to the beach we headed down to the waters edge and went through a few things with Robbie and practiced getting onto the board on land. Robbie then brought us out on a longboard one at a time and helped us get up on a wave each so we could stand and enjoy it and then we were on our own. There were a few locals there who were very aggressive getting onto the few good waves so we all really struggled to get up and surf. We got up on a couple and tried to stand but our balance wasn't holding up it's end of the bargain so after getting thrown around a few times we got out and dried. We hopped back into the minibus and headed back to Mancora. We made a deal with the driver to bring us back to our hotel in Punta Sal so we didn't have to endure another tuc-tuc journey. During our volleyball game yesterday we made plans with the other group to have a BBQ on the beach but that never happened so we relaxed in our hotel for the evening and I watched the World Cup qualifier between Argentina and Brazil. Robbie turned up during the game and we chatted about stuff - including his time as a pro surfer when he lived in California. We were all feeling tired after the surfing and the previous nights excursions so an early night was had by pretty much all.

We had another optional excursion the following day which was to be our last in Mancora - fishing. I had never done it before so was quite excited about it. We got up early for breakfast which took ages to come - so much so that the captain for the day came up to find us and went to wait on the beach for us. After eating we went down to the beach and met up with our captain and took a rowboat out to our vessel for the day. None of us envisaged the boat or the tools we would be using but it turned out to be much more fun. The 7 of us were all on a small boat with a Yamaha outboard motor at the back and our "rods" were a block of ply with fishing line wrapped around it and a bit of reinforcemnet steel tied on as the weight. He drove us out to our fishing location for the day and after taking his bearings from a couple of landmarks on land he dropped the anchor and started preparing bait for us. As he did some Pelicans saw what was going on and came to join us. With bait ready he put them on our lines and we started fishing.

The first 15 or 20 minutes went quite slowly as nothing seemed to be happening and then one of the girls got really excited as she thought she had caught something. Our captain had only a few words of English and one of them was used to quell her excitement - rock. Her hook was snagged on a rock so we headed back to work. Pretty soon after we caught our first bit of lunch after many false hopes and then everyone got involved pretty soon after. Sometimes people thought they had something when they didn't but we got more used to the feeling as the morning went on. the water got a bit more choppy and we all started to feel the effects with a couple of the group getting sick. With about 20 fish caught (and some seabirds as they tried to rob the catch) we decided to head back to terra firma and out of the rocking. Back on land the captain took the catches and went to prepare them for us to eat for lunch. We went back to the hotel to pack and relax for the afternoon and the chef BBQ'd the fish for us (and some chicken for the non fish folk) and prepared a buffet style lunch for us. We all ate our fill and then some people went for lunch but we stayed and relaxed poolside for the afternoon. I headed down to the beach for the sunset to take some photos and then we all came back and had dinner before taking a taxi into Mancora to catch our nightbus to our next destination in this amazing continent - Huanchaco.

The journey didn't lend itself to a good nights sleep. Although the seats recline they were a little too short for me so I was a little cramped and the person right behind me snored like a pig the whole way which kept waking us up. Upon arrival at the bus terminal we got our bags and hopped into taxis to our hostel where our rooms were ready and we were able to check in straight away. We left in our bags and went down for breakfast which was really good. Afterwards we went for a stroll down the town which was right on the beach. This town is famous for the reed boats still used by the fisherman to go out for the day. We passed these lined up along the wall seperating the footpath from the road and continued down to the pier. Here we went our seperate ways and I went to enquire about surfing lessons before we headed back and relaxed for the rest of the morning after the poor nights sleep on the bus. We headed for lunch to a small little place we had noticed during our walk earlier. It was run by a couple and we had burgers which were quite good. We got chatting to the man and he was telling us all about the history of Peru on the pictures he had on the wall and after Emer had some Apple Pie we headed down to the beach to relax for the afternoon. Emer headed back to chat to people on Skype while I had a short snooze and took some photos there and on the way back. Emer was still chatting when I got back so I headed down to the beach with some others to watch the sunset. We relaxed and chatted on our terrace with some drinks for the evening and headed out to a BBQ place for dinner which was quite nice. I paid for it all with my card to get cash and the waitress did a little dance when she got the tip which was nice to see. We were all knackered after the night bus so headed back to bed.

The next day was a trip to a site we were both looking forward to after booking the trip - Chan Chan Mud City. As we had another night bus we had to pack our stuff and move all our bags into one room which we had for another night. After doing that we had breakfast and met our guide for the day as we took our Hiace taxi to the mud city. The city itself, in it's height, was about 20km2 and contained 9 citadels. We visited one of the citadels which is part original, part restored as El Nino comes and damages it every time the weather storm comes to town. The part we visited gave us a real feel for the place and we saw the main square, a reservoir, a cemetary and loads of walkways with really ornate wall decorations built out of, or etched into, mud walls. We were told that the city wasn't used for living but only celebrations and sacrifices which was mad due to the size of the place and the amount of work that went into it - all the people lived just outside each of the citadels. It was built and used between 800 and 1460 AD before the Inca's, and then the Spanish, came and looted the place. After seeing the sections open to the public and taking lots of photos we headed back to our taxi and headed onto the next location for the day - The Temple of the Moon just outside the town of Trujillo. Another mud structure, this one was built and used between 100 and 1200 AD and was only properly discovered in 1980.

Inside the temple we saw various colourful depictions of the Moon God built into the mud walls. As each leader changed the various sections were buried and a new structures and depictions built to signify the changing and the starting of a new chapter. Various walls were excavated and on display and were quite nice to see. We walked around and were quite impressed with the various sections but nothing prepared us for the north facing wall when we walked outside. Still being worked on by archaeologists, it is 7 stories high and had various graphical depictions on each level - dancers, warriors, monsters, snakes and various other things important to the people. All were built around the same time and would have been visible to all who came to celebrate there. There was a big ramp to one side and an altar at the top on level 7 and our guide told us that human sacrifices were made and their blood drunk. After standing in awe and taking some photos we headed back down to the waiting taxi where there was a small market. Some people bought stuff and then we headed off.

We had the option of being dropped into Trujillo on the way back which myself and Emer took. We walked around the Plaza de Armas which was surrounded by really colourful buildings and had a nice main square. We took some photos and then headed to go and get the bus - along the way we started to get a bit annoyed by all the taxi drivers beeping at us to see if we wanted them. We made it to the corner to get the bus and waited for the one with Huanchaco blazed on the front window. It was a crazy "bus" - another Hiace van with a load of seats welded in the back. At one stage we had 18 passengers, the driver and the conductor and it was nice and cozy at that stage. It emptied out a little as we left Trujillo and took it all the way to just outside our hostel. We chilled out for the afternoon, had dinner at the hostal and then got a taxi back into Trujillo with all our stuff where we boarded our nightbus to Huaraz.