11. Greetings from over here!

---

Stop working for a bit and make yourself a brew...
It's time to join me for a story or two...

Chachapoyas
Not a great place in my opinion, the town had lots of potential, being mainly white washed red-roofed buildings but sadly lacking upkeep and vibrancy. Very good Chinese restaurant here though! Booked up for the trip to Kuelap...supposedly a site to rival Machu Picchu...

Kuelap tour
Day one was spent mostly in a taxi driving Chachpoyas. We stopped briefly for a walk to see some 2600 year old sarcophaguses high on a mountain ledge. Amazing that these bamboo and mud figures have still remained, a small collection of bones are collected at the bottom from a couple of tombs that had fallen off. We had a Dutch archaeologist with us and he didn’t seem to be disputing the age. We said goodbye to the car at an impassable landslide and walked down the Valle de Belen, the perfectly flat valley with a crazily snaking river running through it and Friesian cows. I felt like Heidi skipping along to an adobe hut that would be our home for the night. After a short burst of rain the sun came out and blazed briefly before night quickly fell revealing the most astonishing blanket of stars in the perfectly clear night sky. The moon had not yet risen yet the light from the stars was enough to see by and every twinkling diamond of the northern and southern hemisphere could be seen. Mars flashed green, blue and red like a disco light and the Milky Way arched above the barn, a falling star fell and I closed my eyes and wished.

Day two. A basic breakfast of boiled eggs, boiled platano, avocado and stale bread was the start to a days walking across the valley and through the mountains. The guide had forgotten that 3 pairs of wellies was not enough for 4 people and Anka, the smallest had to be piggy backed across the criss-crossing river. We stopped for a miserable lunch of cold plain rice, avocado, tomato and cucumber on a cow pat field. The archaeological sites of the day was a fascinating collection of old walls.
Bed for the night was in the mud floored and walled family home of a campesino family. Despite being made of mud, she at least made and effort to keep it clean and the sheets and blankets all smelt clean. As darkness
fell, we bought a warm beer (the village has no electricity) and watched the chickens climb the trees to roost. The three Dutch bravely agreed to a supper of guinea pig, served with one potato and a big pile of rice. The
thigh and ribs were hardly one mouthful of meat so the guide grossly chewed the bones up as well! I tucked into my tasty platano..again. After another egg, platano and avocado breakfast we mounted our transport for the day..lovley mules. Very clever mules as well for being able to negotiate the suicidal non-path we took up and up the mountains. I nicknamed my mule che guevara as he was the leader of the revolution, he was very thoughtful and stood to contemplate the view as we ascended the final pinnacle. Really, they were amazing; leaping up rocky steps and loose rubble paths, treading carefully down immensely steep muddy slopes as we clung onto our saddles almost vertical, wading through rivers and plodging through giant troughs of mud formed from many mules taking this path in the wet season.
We stopped for lunch in a tiny isolated hovel, expecting some unimpressive fodder. In fact we were pleasantly surprised..the smiley lady had decorated her shack with orchids from the cloud forest growing from huge chunks of
earth, she’d also hung some tourist posters on the wall and strung postcards together with beads. There was a bowl with soap where we could wash our hands. At the table (with cloth) she served handmade cheese, fresh humitas and a delicious pasta, bean and vegetable soup. Afterwards we tried a glass of Chicha, a speciality of the Andes. This slightly alcoholic fermented maize drink is made locally. The slightly disgusting thought is that the
fermentation process is begun by someone physically chewing the maize grains first! The end result is a cloudy beer tasting drink, somewhat like Hoegaarden. Oh, and we saw some more ancient walls.
A 2 hour taxi ride brought us to Maria, a small village near Kuelap. What luxury, a night in a real bed in a real hostel, how typical..they have no water! Fortunately, only half the village were out of water and we could take a HOT shower down the road and were treated (not) to a bottle of licor de leche between us. You know when milk separates and half is yellow and cloudy...well this was licor de leche; sweet but sicky and tasted alcoholic
but had no effect (apart from bowel loosening for 3 days afterwards).

Day three. Final day...we were persuaded to get up at 4.30 am to see the sunrise over Kuelap. We arrived in the dark, cold and hungry to find a cloudy sky blocking our view. Many people have raved about this site; it’s twice as old as Macchu Picchu but hardly a postcard worth printing. Unlike the Ciudad Perdida, which really is a pristine lost city, this was somewhat marred by the scaffolding... they are busy rebuilding the walls! The fortress was an effective barrier against invasion. Enemy troops would try to storm the wide tunnels without realising they actually narrowed at the neck...at this point hey could be easily killed one by one. Though the cunning Spanish took advantage of the ancient tribe’s caring nature and used to send diseased men to ask for help. The naive took them in and soon fell sick themselves...thus evil conquered once more. The house foundations were still standing and you could see funerary pits and room dividers, where the guinea pigs were kept.
After the worst breakfast ever of stale bread, meat tamales and one egg (ended up buying crackers from the shop to eat), the guide left Anka and I at Tingo whilst the other two continued for an extra day down to Leymebamba. Half an hour he said, before a car comes to pick you up. A taxi we thought, but after 1 hour this was evidently not arriving and we started trying to flag down passing vehicles, well all three of them, all full. After 2 hours waiting and begging, finally a collectivo driver let us both sit in his boot! An interesting experience but nowhere near as good as the 'Lost City'!

Tarapoto
After 3 collectivos and a long and twisty journey, we had a great pizza feast and enjoyed a street theatre group jumping through flaming hoops and sword swallowing! The Dutch girls I was travelling with had been giving two
guys on a motorcycle the eye..they drove up beside us and passed a piece of paper with their number on through the window! (we did not call)! This is a hot and friendly town but pretty boring when everything closed for labour
day on May 1st.

A day with the locals...
I took a taxi tour in the morning to see some local waterfalls and mentioned to the Lima couple that I'd like to go to Lamas, a local native village, in the afternoon; they invited me to join them with her brother and his friends that afternoon. The village is famous for it's high native population and traditional mud housing. However, the guide book was written in 2003 and there has since been an earthquake causing most of the old houses to collapse. Still, I got to sample a traditional alcoholic beverage made from stewing the fruits of pepper (as in salt and pepper) trees with honey....mmm. Then sampled more brews in a local shop full of fruity alcoholic concoctions with promises of mas dinero (more money) and erectus (very funny for the young students)! We visited a friend of theirs, a retired Brazilian couple who have built the most stunning wood and glass house on a hill overlooking the tropical mountains. Being such a nice couple, they have also built a covered dancefloor and barbecue area for the local annual fiesta and the señor is an expert in brewing huge vats of the pepper drink which will be free for all the locals!

Laguna Azul
Thought it might be nice to get totally off the gringo trail and relax here for a day or two. There's nothing to do but read, swim in the lake and take it easy being a curiosity for the local children. Here, you will be pleased
to hear, I tried fish again, fresh from the lake and filleted and fried. Leaving here Friday, I shared a taxi with a half Peruvian Japanese lady who helped me make up my mind about going to Iquitos. We decided that the boat
journey was too long and boring (3 days) and a risk not being worth it anyway. It was a very long way to go to have to come all the way back again - 4 days on boat + 24hrs on bus or an expensive flight, makes sense if you're going to cross through to Brazil that way but not if you’re retuning to Peru. She then insisted on taking my e-mail address so her 18 yr old daughter can practice her English with me. Peruvians are ever so friendly and always keen to help out, one lady in Chiclayo bus station gave me the address of her sister who lives in Cajamarca, lest I needed a friend once I got there.

Chiclayo
Arrived here shattered after an exhausting night bus where the bus rolled from side to side on the winding roads of the Andes, thus preventing me from sitting still for longer than 3 minutes as I was unable to stretch my legs out fully to brace myself. Had a few hours kip when I got here and a nice day at the shops, movies and hairdresser...and yep, Hostel is really scary when you watch it in an empty cinema!

'The Lord of Sipan' was discovered near here in 1987. Archaeologists uncovered a fantastic collection of gold and artefacts buried with the Moche culture Lord in his ancient mud built city. The museum houses this magnificent collection saved from tomb robbers - read more here

Tucume is another one of these ancient mud cities...unfortunately it really needs a trained eye to fully appreciate the glory they once must have been!

A load of old rubbish
Here's a canny thing...the dustbin trucks here and in Ecuador play a little song (like an ice cream van) as they go collecting rubbish...I think maybe to signal to people to put their bin bags out!

Trujillo
Go stay at the chilled out Huanchaco beach front urges the book...perhaps not in this season, the place was full of tourist stuff, yet deserted and foggy with a chill wind and an even chillier sea..much like Whitley Bay in April! The great thing about this place though is seeing the fishermen on their cigar shaped boats made from reeds. They've been using these for thousands of years and can probably claim to be the worlds' first surf dudes!


Huacas del Sol y de la Luna - I visited another of these ancient mud cities..this one was particularly good though. The Moche pyramid temples were rebuilt over the old one and archaeologist’s have managed to uncover three
layers of walls revealing some fantastic painted reliefs of tiger heads and serpents.


The city's pretty with many colonial buildings and traditional flowered courtyards and some lovely little bistros. There was even an English pub! After getting excited about Union Jacks, pints of lager and a Sunday roast I
was disappointed with 'the Chelsea' being so posh and expensive, being more like a Windsor restaurant than a British boozer!

Huaraz
Now this is a really amazing place and my favourite so far in Peru (Cajamarca being a close second).The town is modern since the big earthquake of the 70's but has many nice places to eat and drink,what makes the place
are the snowcapped peaks surrounding the town! It is stunning...the temperature is hot in the day with bright blue skies and the mountains are dazzling in the strong sun. There are many indigenous people here, the
ladies wearing trilby hats decorated with a fan of ribbon.

Took a tour on Friday to visit the ice caves of Pastarouri at 5200 metres above sea level. It was like entering the ice queen's kingdom, dripping with icicles, yet the sun beating down made it hot. Well, hot for me, all the Peruvians looked on in shock as I played snowballs in just a vest top and woolly hat! Geordie really ya see?? This altitude is a real lung beater and many were green from the thin air but I kept munching the coca leaves and escaped unscathed. Yesterday we visited a Chavin temple, built in an ingenious way to withstand earthquakes. Then walked down a spectacular path to the little village of Monterrey, home to some aguas termales (hot springs) siphoned into two warm rusty coloured pools with many a health giving benefit.

So, Tuesday is the start of the 4 day Santa Cruz trek in the National park of the Cordillera Blanca. Should be really stunning! However it means that my birthday tomorrow will be quite tame as a hangover at this height is
quadrupled in suffering! But hey,ho, going out tonight and will have a feast at the THAI restaurant tomorrow!

Missing you all..........xxxxxxxxxxx Zoe (older and wiser but still 21)

---