Huanchaco: Fiesta de San Pedro, Football and Ruins

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After a long journey that took me over 24 hours, I finally reached Huanchaco... and the first thing I did when I arrived was shower! I was especially happy because there was hot water...which is always a bonus! However, after this I realized that I had arrived on the Fiesta de San Pedro, and since Huanchaco is a fishing village and San Pedro is the patron saint of fisherman, there were festivities in town.

When I arrived in the hostel I had met a girl who was actually working in Gaspesie, Quebec, so we went out have some ceviche (a peruvian specialty of raw fish, lime and onions) and then went to a party that was going on in town. It was great to take in the music and the dancing😊 However, I was too tired to stay up for the fireworks😞

The next day I was keen on going to see the ruins. However, since the Fiesta of San Pedro was continuing, I wanted to wait around to see them send off a statue of the saint in the boat. I think I waited there for over an hour before he was finally sent off for a little tour of the area! I decided at that time, that it would be better if I played some beach football first. There was a german guy from my hostel keen on playing too, and we met some guys from the army on the street and they wanted to play too so I ended up playing football in the afternoon and drinking beer and chica (fermented maize drink)....instead of going to the ruins. It was a nice afternoon and we ended up returning to meet up with those people for a bonfire at night by the beach which was really nice.

The next day I forced myself to wake up to go and see the ruins. The first ones were from a tribe called the Moche, and were called Huaca de la luna. It was the place where the tribe used to make sacrifices. It was crazy to think that the tribe was around from 100 to 800 AD and yet the colours on the images have still remained! The second ruins I went to see were in Chan Chan, and were of a plalce. There are actually nine palaces in the area, but only one is available for viewing. It was another impressive sight, as the images of pelicans, fish and other important imagery was still really easy to make out. There were even gardens that spoke to the impressive irrigation systems that existed at the time. I think that one of the greatest realizations from visiting all these ruins is how advanced they were before they were conquered.

After a great day of learning, it was off to the bus station to catch a night bus to Lima.

Hasta pronto,
Caitlin

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