The Long Road South

---

I spent the beginning of July travelling south to Peru. I decided it was time to say hasta luego to Ecuador. I saw a lot of scenery from the bus windows and was lucky enough to see three (yes three!) Jean Claude Van Damme movies but the funniest sight of the trip was seeing a woman trying to fit an oven into the luggage compartment under the bus. When it would not fit the driver just tied it to the roof.
I arrived in Loja to catch the bus across the border at 11 at night, just missing the bus by a few minutes. Only in South America can a 300km trip take almost nine hours.
The next bus was leaving at seven so I chose a hostel from my guidebook and caught a taxi there. The owner was not too happy to be woken up but he was less happy six hours later when I woke him up again to pay my bill before I left, especially when I asked him to go outside in his pyjamas and wave down a taxi for me.
Then it was another day spent on the bus. From Loja across the border to Piura and from Piura to Chiclayo in the desert of northern Peru. After the green hills of central Ecuador it was a big change. My hotel room in Chiclayo had a tv so I spent the night watching soap operas in spanish and advertisements for miracle anti aging creams.
I visited some ruins around Chiclayo the next day. The trip to Sipan was the most interesting. After finding my way to the bus terminal and getting on the right van, it was an fifty minute trip with twenty one people in a van meant for fourteen speeding along a dirt road through sugar plantations.
I spent a couple of hours walking around the dusty ruins. They included three major tombs, including that of the Lord of Sipan who was buried with eight living people (inlcuding three women) and a LOT of gold and jewellery. I decided that the next day I would go to Lambayeque to see the museum where all the jewellery is kept. It was very impressive but full of school children who I think were more interested than me. I just wanted to see the jewellery!
After leaving the museum I had two men fight over me...but they just wanted me for my money. There were two combis going back to Chiclayo and both drivers were trying to get me to go on theirs. For one sole (less than 50 cents) they were yelling at each other in the middle of the road. Finally I just walked away and caught another van further up the road.
Back in Chiclayo I packed up my stuff again (the bag is getting heavier) and caught a bus south to Trujillo.

---

Photos

Sipan
The view from the top of a pyramid at Sipan.