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Published: November 27th 2006
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It’s been a while since we’ve blogged, and we’ve covered a lot of ground and gotten quite a bit behind. After toying with the idea of blowing off the whole blog thing, we decided that we’d do what we could when we could, and hopefully if we’re not too busy holding babies when we get back to Washington we’ll have time to finish up this thingamajig sometime before the end of the year. But for now, we’ll turn back time a month, and go back to where we left off way up in Ecuador. It seems so long ago now. (Picture wavy lines going across your screen like from Scooby Doo to signal our trip back in time.)
Heading into Peru, Paul and I were really looking forward to a couple of peaceful days lying on the beach and playing in the waves of Huanchaco in Northern Peru before heading to Cusco where we had some very challenging days ahead of us on the Inca Trail. And then after the two unbelievably long days it took to get to Huanchaco from Vilcabamba, driving through some of the most barren, desolate, and ugly bits of this earth that we’ve ever seen
with our knees shoved up the bums of the folks in front of us on really crowded buses, we were simply gagging for a couple of days of chilling out. Quite simply, we needed a break. And Huanchaco seemed like the perfect place.
Perhaps we should have done our homework first. The guide book described Huanchaco as a quiet little town with a great beach, especially for surfers. And all of this is true. It’s just that the town is smack dab in the most drab and desolate desert that I’ve ever seen (and I grew up in a pretty ugly desert). And the weather wasn’t quite what we were hoping for. To be fair, I think most folks would have assumed, like us, that the weather would be warm and pleasant on a beach close to the equator in late spring. They, and we, would be wrong. It was downright frigid. Not only were we quickly aware that swimming would not be an option, it was a rare and brief occasion when we could even take off our jackets. The cold wind which constantly blew clouds of dust in from the desert wasn’t much fun either. Not exactly
Sweet little Evan
I can't wait to hold him already!!!! what we had in mind.
But Huanchaco wasn’t all bad. There were some incredible waves, and we spent several hours sitting on the boardwalk watching the wet-suited surfers tearing them up. But even more interesting was watching the fishermen paddle into these waves in their beautiful and surprisingly strong, traditional reed boats to catch that night’s meal. There were also several pretty terrific restaurants to eat freshly caught fish and yummy vegetarian treats. But the best thing of all was that our hostel had free wireless internet so I was able to check my email every couple of hours and learn about the progress of my new little nephew, Evan’s birth. That was pure joy and kind of sucked up most of my attention while we were there.
And we did get out some too, and I would be amiss if I didn’t describe some of the other great things in store in this part of Peru, namely some fantastic ruins of pre-Inca cities. Being into ruins like I am, we spent a couple of afternoons visiting a few of these sites and learning about these early civilizations as well as the Inca Empire which in time would
take over these cities.
Our first visit was to Chan Chan, allegedly the largest adobe city in the world (by some sources reaching a population of 250,000 inhabitants) which spread out across 20 square kilometers of some really inhospitable desert. The city was built by the Chimu people, fishers and farmers, who reigned in this region from the ninth to the 15th centuries when the Incas finally conquered them.
While the site today is mostly ruins of the former imperial city, one of the nine palaces has been preserved and gave us a bit of insight into what the rest of the city might have looked like. The walls of the palace are seven to twelve meters high and a couple of meters thick and ornately decorated with the symbols that were most important to them fishing nets, waves, and pelicans (whose dung helped fertilize their farm lands). I found the place stunning; Paul was a little underwhelmed claiming he’s seen more impressive ‘living’ cities in Africa. But let’s face it; Paul is a little bit Africa-biased.
But the other ancient ruins we visited even impressed Paul. Huaca del Sol (really just a pile of dirt waiting
One of the bright reliefs in Huaca de la Luna
The gold figures in the black diamond are sting rays. Lovely. to be excavated and explored) and Huaca de la Luna are two temples built by the Moche people sometime between 300 and 900 A.D. Huaca de la Luna, an adobe pyramid rising nearly 50 meters out of the flat dusty earth, is simply amazing. The really interesting thing for us was just how similar its design was to the temples of Tenochitlan in Mexico City. Each 100 years, the rulers would cover the existing structure with new walls painted in bright colors and designed with reliefs of stingrays, snakes, spiders and other things they worshipped (not sure about their choices in idols—yikes).
We were guided around the ruins by a friendly student who pointed out all sorts of interesting things including many of the tombs buried deep within the pyramid which Spanish grave robbers (among others) were somehow able to find, uncover, and loot much of the gold that was so prevalent in this part of the world centuries ago. The area is still under extensive excavation and although funding is pretty skimpy, in another ten years or so, this place is sure to be even more impressive.
Before leaving northern Peru, we also spent a night in
the beautiful nearby city of Trujillo which quite possibly has the most beautiful main square and cathedral of any we have seen so far. It was a great place to stroll around dodging the manic taxis before hopping on our long, although luxurious, night bus to Lima. Once there we groggily found a taxi to the airport and caught our flight on to Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, the gringo capital of all of South America, and according to the Incas, the belly button of the world.
Once again the altitude bit us in the butt as we went from sea level to Cusco, at about 3400 meters high. We were so excited to visit all the fantastic things to see around Cusco and in the Sacred Valley before starting the Inca Trail, but honestly we were so shattered with pounding headaches and lots of pressure behind the eyes that we spent lots of time just sitting in cafes drinking lots of coca tea (which has immediate therapeutic effects for altitude sickness). We would become quite the coca connoisseurs over the next couple of weeks, but you’ll have to wait until the next update to learn
the depths of our coca habit.
(As a matter of fact, I’m sitting down with a cupper of the fine stuff right now, as we post this in Arequipa.)
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Rebecca
non-member comment
Orange peeler...
Ha! My mom has one of those and uses it for apples...she loves it!!! Enjoy the armpit...yikes, I suppose you are heading south which means you will soon be in the world's crotch, right? Miss ya. Love Reba