We arrived in a dusty, hot and bustling town called Piura - first stop in Peru, after a very long and sticky bus journey. It was lovely being back somewhere hot but we were missing the sea! We had to make do with ice creams in the town square, where the whole town seem to spend their Sunday evenings.
Next stop from the craziness of Piura was another dusty town called Chiclayo. Due to a poorly tummy we didn't explore as much of the area as we could have but we did make it to the local market. An absolutely huge sprawling place with a specialised witches section! Nothing to gruesome but some very interesting claims to find your true love, make you handsome or thin!
The main street in Chiclayo was divided by what you could buy on each section - there was the dollar section where every other person waved wodges of cash at you or the puppy section. Oh the heartbreak! I held a couple of three week old puppies...gave Gio my best puppy dog eyes but apparently not the most practical of souvenirs.
Contrary to our rather slow approach to Ecuador, day three bought the third stop in Peru; Huanchaco. First stop was a big town called Trujillo, where fresh off of the bus we inquired how to get to Huanchaco and were marched across the road by a very friendly gentleman and squeezed on to the local bus. Rickety, very crowded, but much more entertaining than an overpriced taxi. However 40 minutes later we could no longer feel our bottoms!
Due to feeling out of sorts my job on arrival was to guard the bags whilst Gio went hotel hunting. I managed to feel well enough to consume cake (it's a separate compartment):
..and Gio had great success after half an hour of walking up and down the sea front. Out of budget, but still coming in at a mere £30 a night - he found this place:
Huanchaco was gorgeous. Gorgeous beach, amazing sunsets...
Stretched out along the seafront with cute places to eat and plenty of sunshine, we managed to stumble in to a seafood restaurant (mainly drawn in by the BBQ outside) and have one of the best meals of the whole trip. Gio had BBQ'd seabass and I had something called 'Chupe de Cangrejo' which was like a crab stew/soup - with no less than three whole crabs in it! God it was soooooooooooo good! Needless to say with the combination of the ocean, food and Gio's hotel find we immediately decided we would extend our time in Huanchaco! If it hadn't been approaching easter weekend (and worries of overbooked buses and hotels) we would most likely still be there!
Local fishing boats in Huanchaco
Ten minutes bus ride down the road are the ruins of Chan Chan, the largest pre-columbian city in south america built in AD850 and home to about 30,000 people until it's conquest by the Inca Empire in AD1470. It made for a very interesting, but blooming boiling, visit:
After 5 short nights in Huanchaco we were booked on a night bus to Lima Sunday night. Sunday morning came and we realised we hadn't taken advantage of the waves on our doorstep! In our usual last minute style we packed in a great hurry and dashed out to hire body boards! We spent a couple of exhausting but fun hours trying to master the waves with limited success. Then quickly refueled on all of our favourite food before it was bus time (ice cream, cake and of course a final Chupe de Cangrejo).
Local surfers at sunset, Huanchaco beach - outside our hotel!
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