February 20-23rd 2015
We arrive in Trujillo from Cajamarca early in the morning, sometime around 5 am and hail a taxi to Huanchaco, a small coastal resort town maybe half an hour away from the bus station for 15 soles. (6 CAD). 30 minutes of friendly if tired chatter with the taxi driver later and we’re outside Casa Fresh, our hostel for the night, just across the main road from the beach, hidden from us by the darkness but very much audible over the din of occasional traffic.
We’re allowed in by a Peruvian man who lives in the apartment below and meet a very friendly, if very coked out British man on the terrace who chats with us before finally heading to bed. That’s one similarity between South America and South East Asia, lots of drugged out travellers no matter the time of day. At any rate, we wait on the open air terrace for reception to open chatting amongst ourselves and trying to stay awake. As the sun rises we take in the beach, which is dirty and rocky but still quite pretty with some sizeable surf rolling in. Of course we’re too tired to really appreciate it fully.
As the hostel starts to wake up we head out for breakfast at My Friend Restaurant and I enjoy some real bacon before we head back and watch more slings and Arrows in the breakfast room until our rooms are ready in the early afternoon, then we pass out for the rest of the day, which is exactly why I prefer Day buses to night buses.
We spend the next few days in huanchaco enjoying the crowded and rocky beach covered in interesting shells, sea urchins and starfish, not to mention the near endless supply of people. They make the beach more interesting though less relaxing for sure.
The second day in Huanchaco is undoubtedly the highlight, when after a breakfast at the excellent Chocolate Cafe we head out in a taxi to the Chan Chan ruins with a Danish girl met at Casa Fresh, as well as Olivia and Elin. The ruins are a cross between Gladiator and Star Wars, and perhaps their only let down is that so much of the sprawling desert metropolis built by the Chimor people around the same time as the Incan empire are reconstructed in modern times, making it hard to tell what’s actually made by them. Still the place has an otherworldly feel about it, and for 10 soles (5 for students) is well worth it and also includes admittance to three other sites nearby.
We spend somewhere between 1 and 2 hours wandering through these sand stone ruins and marvelling at the bizarre statues and vastness of the complex before heading back to Cajamarca and hitting the beach.
The waters chilly but welcoming, though the true awesomeness of the beach is all the people. Honestly, the colourful crowded nature of the beach reminds me of Mumbai. We sit and watch life go by as we chat on the beach, enjoying watching a few tourists trying to stand up and paddle the local reed boats and failing out on the water.
Eventually the sun starts descending and we find ourselves briefly heading back towards Casa Fresh to buy some ice cream before heading out onto the long pier (0.5 Soles) to watch lots of locals and tourists fishing, chatting and being amorous with each other. It also provides a great view of the town, but, idiot that I am I forgot my Camera. Luckily sunset when we get back is pretty damn spectacular.
We eventually make it back to Casa fresh and end up heading back to Chocolate Cafe for dinner, this time along side Dion, an Australian man I met first in Mindo Ecuador. Since then he’s been back to Vietnam where he runs a charity which you should definitely check out here, and now he’s heading through Peru again.
We enjoy the meal and search for signs of a Carnaval celebration we’ve been told is happening but we find nothing so we head back to Casa Fresh where we chill on the Patio playing Yanif, Dice games and other things until the American and Irish owners start a rap circle, in which I have to participate of course.
Then we’re headed off to enjoy a Carnaval parade, we thought it started at 8 pm but apparently here that means almost midnight. It’s very enjoyable and full of crazy costumes, huge parade floats and tons of energy. Definitely a great way to end the night, though the girls manage to stay out later than me.
The next morning-ish we enjoy another breakfast at Chocolate Cafe and then head up the street to buy our bus ticket to Lima for the coming night. Sadly escaping Huanchaco is not to be so easy. All the buses are sold out.
Olivia is exhausted and understandably throws in the towel and I offer to go alone but Elin is kind enough to accompany me into Trujillo (without my camera) in search of a bus. We ask some advice from some locals and then hop onto the right local bus on the main road of Huanchaco and head into the overfull metropolis. We pass by a near endless wall of impressive mosaic art before climbing off the bus at a terminal belonging to one company, it’s very fancy and we’re feeling confident and happy until we get to the ticket office and are told all their buses are sold out too.
We’re both baffled, I’ve never had this experience in South America, it’s not the weekend, it’s not a holiday in Lima, and yet there’s not a bus to be found.
Chatting with more friendly locals we manage to climb onto another mini bus headed for the rather confusingly named Terrapuerto (it just sounds too much like aeropuerto) When we walk in and see about twenty bus companies with offices open we again feel very confident, only to get told over and over again that every bus is full, except for one extreme luxury bus for about 140 Soles each. Out of the question.
Almost out of hope we head over to one last booth left to us with a line, where, with the cooperation of the locals in line we find out the company does have tickets left, they just have no system working to sell them.
We wait at least an hour in line for their system to return, but manage to keep each other entertained, until finally we walk away with three tickets for about 45 soles each, leaving later that night. Feeling triumphant we high five loudly and everyone in line enjoys looking at the crazy gringo’s who more or less dance their way out of the bus station.
There we decide we deserve a reward, and that we’re going to stop at the mall on the way back, and find the Chuck E. Cheese, because we’re just that awesome. A friendly local woman helps us climb on the right mini van doubling as a crowded bus and we take off through the packed streets of Trujillo, the friendly lady promising she’ll tell us when to get off. I manage to break the chair in front of me letting someone else out, and then Elin bursts into laughter s the next guy who needs to get out chooses instead to climb out the back window, a feat any contortionist would be proud of. I have to laugh to.
We climb off at the mall and enter a whole different side of Peru. The shopping center is as sprawling as Chan Chan, open air, very modern, and full of chain stores. We don’t actually end up finding the store Chuckie cheese, but we do end up finding the mouse human hybrid dancing for the kids near the food court. Elin also manages to find some awesome sunglasses which end up being on for half price when she tries to pay full price for them. We then enjoy a quick dinner lunch combo in the food court where I get a second burger for free for some unknown reason.
A quick wifi and donut stop in Dunkin Donuts to let Olivia know where we are later and we’re climbing back onto another significantly less crowded minibus back to huanchaco. We arrive back at Casa fresh in time to relax for about an hour, kick up our feet and soak in the view from Casa Fresh and buy snacks for the roughly 9 hour night bus to Lima.
Then it’s back to Trujillo this time in a taxi and off to Peru’s hectic but beautiful coastal capital!
