shimmying up the north coast Peru

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Trujillo, Peru's third largest city, is beautiful Spanish Colonial city with buildings painted in bright and bold colors amist numerous churches and street performers. The central part is easily walkable and dotted with many cafe's and shops. I stayed in a great hostel called the Colonial Hostel right in the center and booked excursions for the next few days.

The first day of sightseeing included the Moche ruin temples. Many of the ruins are still intact because the rebuilt the temple on top of the old one (by filling it in with adobe and stones) so they are still in the process of digging out the many levels (and treasures!). The Moche civilization are older than the Inca and also performed human sacrifices for the gods (all the sacrificed bodies were found to be boys).

Next for the amazing ruins of Chan Chan , another civilization and built many pyramids for rituals and ceremonies. We were allowed to see one of the largest pyramids and the interior. Many walls you can still the designs and figures carved into the adobe walls.

A few days later I travelled up to Chiclayo and spent one day touring more ruins and museums (got my fill) and then spent one day in a ecological reserve learning about Peruvian plant life and animal life. Unfortunately the guide didn't speak any english and my vocabulary isn't specific enough in this topic, so I understood very little, but she seemed amazingly knowledgable about medicinal plant species. We also saw some Peruvian Bears which were very cute and got to feed them apple slices and watch them climb trees. Honestly was not expecting this zoo element, but they are trying to introduce them back into the wild (not sure how but...)

anyway, so now on the beach in sunny resort surfing town of Mancora, and it's just beautiful here. Soft sand, cold beer, good waves and laid back people (i miss home haha) just a little resting before I head into Ecuador and look my friend Andrea!!

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