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Published: September 15th 2009
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Put on a happy face!
One of many surviving frescoes in the Temple of the Moon Peru: 4th - 11th September 2009
Peru has been our first plunge into South America, and our pace has been much more frenetic than any stop so far. Anyone keeping up with our travels would agree that our trip to date would not necessarily be described as typical of the “backpacker scene.” It's true - we've turned away from the ways of the backpacker. It's just that when you get older, you start questioning things: is there wifi? What about a washing machine? Can I get Plummet Air Points for this purchase? While we carry guidebooks with us, we rarely referenced the section titled “Accommodation,” focusing more on the actual sights and tipping protocol.
In Europe, it was easy to more or less create a mobile version of our prior domestic lifestyle. But, for South America, it became clear that our new fangled modern lifestyle lacked meaning and purpose. We looked to the internet for guidance, but only found empty searches. Some of our traveling companions told us they'd been saved...from high prices by their guidebook. The told us to seek the answers from within...our own guidebook. We could remember that, once, we looked solely to our travel
guide book for all the answers. It was clear that we needed to rediscover our heathen ways of the past to move forward. The only decision now was whether we would remain Lonely Planetists, become one of DK's Eyewitnesses, or perhaps join the Church of the Latter Day Rough Guide.
We're traditional, so we dusted off the Planetist scrolls and charged ahead, our faith restored. For our last week in Peru, we took a vow of two stars and went “off the grid,” meaning that we'd use buses or cars only and that there would be no definite plans for activities or accommodation until we were on the scene.
For no reason other than that it was in the opposite direction from where we came, we chose to explore the northern coast of Peru. We started with a colonial town called Trujillo. To get there, we'd take a quintessentially South American form of travel never seen “north of the border”: a luxury bus, i.e., a bus with business class seats. The rationale: first, buses are cheap to operate, so there's a larger market; and second, Peru doesn't have the greatest roads, so travel times are at least double
of those in the U.S.
Our destination was about 200 or so miles north of Lima, which would take about 9 hours doing anywhere from 15 - 60 miles per hour. But, we traveled overnight, and on paper, with the nice seats, it seemed like a win-win for everyone. In reality, you don't get a lot of bumps in business class on a plane. On the bus, though, I made sure to search for any missing teeth on the floorboard once we'd arrived. But we made it.
In reality, Trujillo was indeed colonial. It was also dusty, decaying, and full of touts converging on us from all directions trying to sell tour packages. Somehow at these moments, my Spanish completely failed me. Funny about that. What was super cool, though, was the nearby Temple of the Moon which is actively being excavated. Built by the Moche people, it dates from around the 6th century AD, and it's about the size of a Wal-Mart. There is so much of the temple still there that the rendering of how it used to look doesn't seem to have required very much imagination at all. Even the wall paintings on the exterior
are quite vivid. I hope they didn't pay that artist too much.
And for all you aspiring archaeologists, looming just a mile or so away is the massive Temple of the Sun, supposedly made with 140 million adobe bricks (no, I didn't forget a decimal point), with excavations yet to commence due to the lack of available archaeologists...at least that's what our guide said, so it must be true.
After a brief chat with the lady at our guide's travel company, we came to the conclusion that, given our limited time, we should head back south, up into the Cordillera Mountains to a town called Huaraz. So, the next night, we were back on another overnight bus. Having consulted the scrolls, we'd preliminarily selected a hostel called Churup which offered a room with a private bathroom for a suspiciously low price of $30 per night. I made a mental note to check for smells in the room. Upon arrival, our suspicions were put to rest by the friendly staff, the well maintained facilities, and our odor free, comfortable room. We then headed to the top floor for breakfast. We knew we'd made the right choice when the hostel
offered banana pancakes and a majestic view of the snow capped Cordilleras Blancas.
Given the proximity to the mountains, Huaraz attracts a lot of rock climbers and mountaineers. We're neither, so we enjoyed the mountains on horses and mountain bikes. After several days, though, it was time to head back to Lima for our flight to Brazil.
But before we left, I was able to squeak in a quick paragliding flight at the cliffs overlooking the Pacific in Miraflores. Launch was a whole 2 blocks from our apartment, and the local pilots were great about giving me tips about launching, flying, and landing. The site is very much like Timbus Beach in Bali in terms of geography and type of flying (there are a few photos in our Bali entry). But the major difference from Bali is that Miraflores has high rise hotels and apartment buildings along the shore line. Naturally, I forgot my camera for my flight, which precluded me from capturing the phenomenal scenery and snapping a photo of my reflection in the Marriott Hotel. But, it was a beautiful, smooth flight, nonetheless.
I guess we've spent so much time in Southeast Asia that perhaps
we expected more of the same in South America, mainly in terms of intensity (population, hawkers, noise, pollution, etc). But, Peru was quite relaxed. In the countryside, it seemed at times a bit like China, but with far fewer people and much less pollution. Peru is rough in many places, no doubt, but it's also a country that is healing after years of civil war and reaching for the future. Also, the Peruvians we met were extremely nice (proof being the extent to which they entertained my broken Spanish). Most of all, it's wonderful to see that the secrets of their past are slowly and diligently being solved.
We leave Peru feeling as though we've only scratched the surface. Looks like we'll be coming back.
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