August 16th-18th
Chiclayo is a crowded and noisy city about 12 hours north of Lima just slightly inland from the Pacific Ocean. The streets always seem crowded, the car horn make simultaneous symphonies all playing different pieces, and the inquisitive smiles of locals make up the tapestry of this place, and after just a few hours there I’m quite charmed by this under touristed city.
We arrive early in the morning on our night bus from Pedro Ruiz and get a taxi to the hotel we’ve booked online, Hotel Marbella. It’s a little ways out from the centre and we’re dismayed when it’s all sealed up with no sign of life inside. Luckily as we’re about to climb back into our taxi and look for another place to stay the owner comes out and shows us immediately to our triple room (75 soles total) where we crash until the late afternoon.
Waking up before Rob and Bethan I head out to the grocery store, wading through a mob of school kids returning from their lunch breaks to the various schools which seem to surround our hotel. any of them point at me and nervously practice their few words of english. A large part of Chiclayo’s charm is it’s people, who are eager to talk to outsiders, since they don’t seem to get as many as the rest of Peru.
Back at the hotel we feast on baguette cheese and butter before deciding to head to one of several nearby beaches, a dip in the ocean sounding ideal considering it’s been almost a month since Paracas. We hop into a taxi which takes us into the centre of town and to the combi stop (For those that don’t know combi’s are basically like local buses except they are minivans and zoom around the city packed to the brim with people.)
We quickly find a departing white van with the driver shouting Pimentel and climb aboard paying the 1.60 fare and settling in for the 45 minute ride to the coast.
We climb out and head down two more blocks to the beach, stoping for some delicious street churros. Man I love South America.
We head out onto the sand and I’m pleasantly surprised having read that the beach is crowded and often very dirty. The fact that it’s Peruvian coastal winter time but the beach is largely empty and only a few pieces of garbage can be seen.
After consulting the group we decide to go for a walk first, striking out along the smooth sand covered in tiny, almost imperceptible, baby crabs. To our right the somewhat substantial surf rolls in, filling our ears with that always welcome Ocean soundscape.
We make it further out to a few other sections of the beach, climbing over some rock cliffs and see a sad sight. A sea lion with clear defensive wounds from being hunted by humans lies on the beach, it’s head roughly hewn from it’s body. (supposedly for it’s tongue according to some locals). The sad sight is repeated just a few minutes later and also adds a new pungent scent to the air.
We move on quickly eventually reaching the point and deciding we’ve gone far enough, seeing a few police officers arriving to inspect the dead sea lions. At least it seems like they’re taking it seriously.
Most of the way back to beach strip in front of town we decide to stop and finally go for the swim we’ve come for as the sun begins to sink low in the sky.
The water is pleasantly cool and the waves just big enough to enjoy playing in as well as to do some low key body surfing. I watch from the beach with our stuff (the beach has been known to have thieves on it) While Bethan and Rob wade in ahead of me, but soon enough Rob’s come out and it’s my tern, enjoying the ocean again. I will say I’m excited to see what the South American Atlantic is like, as I feel like I know the pacific quite well now.
Eventually we finish with swimming and head up to one of the many coastal promenade restaurants where we enjoy some cards, frozen lemonade, calamari (for me) and the company of a self described “hopeless drunk” from Alaska, who has chosen to come live in Pimentel because of the relatively cheap beer. (4-5 Soles for a big 600 ml bottle) He’s quite hammered, but a lot of fun to talk to and his past as a commercial fisherman off the Alaskan coast is certainly fascinating, as well as his more distant past as a mormon missionary in South America is beyond that.
Oh, and how could I forget the most impressive part, the incredible sunset over the sea. Rather than ruin the moment with heavy hatted words, I’ll let my pictures do the talking.
With the sun gone from the sky we head back to the combi stop and frustratingly do not have enough time for churros as the combi pulls away so we climb aboard and head back to the hectic but strangely pleasant Chiclayo.
We spend the next few days retreading our steps through Pimentel and exploring the busy centre of Chiclayo including a sprawling central market.
Rob also manages to buy a hard back guitar case in order to bring his amazing guitar with him on the flights coming up on their trip to Panama, then onto Mexico, and eventually back to Wales. He has basically had a long series of fellow travellers draw all over the guitar so that he will have an amazing keepsake from his trip, and even though I can’t draw, he convinced me to contribute something.
I don’t know it yet, but as we eventually leave Chiclayo boarding a bus bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador’s southern coastal capital, our time together is almost at an end. But you’ll read more about that in the next entry. Hope you enjoyed Chiclayo.
