In Piura, my last stop in Peru


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South America » Peru » Piura » Piura
March 28th 2009
Published: March 28th 2009
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Hi all. I´m in Piura until tomorrow morning, then off to Ecuador. Spent a couple of days in Chiclayo, saw some adobe pyramids from the time of Christ and what was excavated from the tombs. This site was found and began the excavation in 1987 so the museums that house the finds are pretty great. The sites themselves look like big dirt mounds but apparently there were some local people stumbled upon these ruins, plundered the graves, sold the findings and an archealogist figured out where the sites were. The crazy thing is the first layer (lowest layer) of the pyramid belonged to Lord Sipan who lived around the time of Christ. When he died, they buried him along with any wives, children, concubines, servants, guards, a dog and a llama (ALL were sacrificed) to keep him company in the afterlife. The only remaining person was the first born son and he was to build his tomb on top of the first layer and so on for about two hundred years. Would hate to be any part of that family unless you were the first born son...

Now I´m in Piura, not much to do here so that´s why I´m off to Ecuador first thing tomorrow morning. I did hit a neat little art market outside this city named Catachaos but the heat is so intense, you don´t hang around in the sun for long. To get to these little outlying places, you take what is called a ´collectivo´which is like a mini-van with additional seating to cram as many people in as possible. They´re relatively cheap but as someone who is over 5´7¨tall, they´re a tough ride. They have the seats set so close together that even if I sit with my rump as far back in my seat, my knees still press against the seat in front of me. The best part is my Spanish is so minimal that I´m never 100% certain that I´ll reach my chosen destination, so far it´s been fine.

I´ve decided that if I come back in the future (have no reason to think I wouldn´t), I HAVE to speak better Spanish. Wasn´t much of a problem that first week in Lima and Cuzco but since then, I´ve had some difficulties communicating. Even the people that run the guest houses don´t speak english, that´s been the toughest part. My friend got me a spanish phrase book and thank goodness for that! It has been used A LOT!!!

Well, enough of what´s going on with me. Looking forward to Ecuador but sad to be leaving Peru behind. I know those in Calgary have been dealing with more snow, I´m so sorry, when is that stuff going to end?!!! Thank you to Mary and Kirk, I owe you both... I know you´re not going to like this but it´s too hot here! I know I´m nearing the equator but sheesh, I feel like I´m melting... Thanks to all for the great messages, I miss you all and I´ll be in touch again.



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