Down The Northern Coast of Peru!

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Currently in Huarez (Sept. 14)

We flew from the Galapagos into Guayaquil and took a taxi directly over to the ginormous Terminal Terrestre which is right next to it. I had down an internet search and had found the Turismo Civa company which had a sleeper bus directly to where we wanted to go (Chiclayo) at 9 pm so we found their office and bought the tix pronto. This sleeper experience was going to be a new one for us! We killed some time by joining a crowd watching Ecuador play Columbia in football (they lost!) then went to where we can see the bay and waited for the bus. The sleeper thing was pretty cool - it was comfortable and there wasnt anybody next to me so that was even better. They played a few spanish speaking movies and gave us a snack but we all fell asleep by the time they awoke everyone to leave the bus for border formalities at around 1:30 am. These were pretty straight forward until they came to us and the ecuadorian guy couldnt find us in his computer! When we pointed out that we had crossed the border at La Balsa, the official rolled his eyes majorly!! Eventually, he worked it out and we were on our way but we really had a good laugh at the look on his face when we mentioned 'La Balsa'!!

We made it to Chiclayo at around 9:30 am on a Saturday morn and when we finally figured out where we were we walked over to the Hostal Sican and got a triple for 90 soles (about $32) with breakfast (You can probably get cheaper at other places). We went over to Mi Tia's for lunch but they only have the hamburguesas in the evening so we had the set meal instead which was good. We did have one of their suspiro de limenas and that was fantastico!! So, we went back there in the evening and really loved the hamburgers, too! And we shared another suspiro for dessert!

The next day, we walked over to Moche Tours at around 10am but there was something going on in the Central Square (dancing, bands, marching-parade, etc.). We went over to have a look while we were waiting for our tour to start and it was fun! Later, in Trujillo, it was the same over there so maybe a lot of Peruvian towns have a Sunday morning parade down in the square??!!

Then we went over to Moche Tours for an all day (10am > 6pm) tour of the Sipan site, then to the Tucume Pyramids and then, after lunch, finishing up with the absolutely fantastic Museo Tumbes. We had an English speaking guide who spoke both spanish and ingles, as we had an Italian woman on the tour along with a couple from Lima. And it was great!! The Sipan site with all of the actual tombs was really fascinating and then we drove across town and to the north for the Tucume Pyramids and that was interesting although they havent done a lot of excavating there and to finish up with the Museum was absolutely mind-blowing with all of the restored items in all of their glory! Very worth it indeed!

I was out in the evening on Sunday looking for some bottled water when I came upon a storefront of gaming that was packed with young kids, most of which were playing the same war game (I dont know these from Adam so who knows!!) and they were all yelling at each other while playng the game! It was fascinating to watch so I went back to the hotel and got Rumi and took him over and he played some Zombie killing game while I sat nearby and waited for him. He was also amazed at the yelling and screaming that everyone was doing! It was very cool. There was about 35 computers in there and it was all filled with young kids having a lot of fun!! (The way to this place was left out of the Hotel Sican for a full block and then a right turn and all the way almost to the end of the block on the right side! Enjoy!!).

The guide told us about Empresa Bus Lines for the Chiclayo-Trujillo route and we walked over to it on Monday morning with our bags and were soon on our way down to Trujillo.

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