Trujillo

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With our trip from Lima to Trujillo came our first experience of Cruz Del Sur busses. If Hana was too excited about the chicken breasts, Alison was definitely too excited about the bus. Honestly, we all were. These titans of overland transportation make the Megabus look like a Robin Reliant and really raise important questions about the standard of Iberia planes. Having spent 24 hours on a bus from Vientiane to Hanoi with ants crawling over the seats and windows, and about as much leg room as Laurence Dallaglio in a child’s electric replica car, Cruz Del Sur brought an unmatched luxury to our lives. Every passenger has a reclining leather armchair complete with a personal touchscreen television loaded with films, headphones, a plug socket, on board wifi, meals, and a little button to call the land hostess just like on a plane.

Hostel Colonial in Trujillo was impressive and had an excellent rooftop terrace with views across the city. The Plaza de Armos sits inside an array of colourful buildings and a stunning Cathedral. Over our two days in Trujillo we visited Chan Chan, the largest pre-Colombian city in South America and Huaca del Sol y Luna, more ancient ruins. Huaca del Sol is entirely conserved, whereas Chan Chan is largely restored and for this reason I found the former more impressive, although both are definitely worth a visit. The wall paintings and tiled mosaics at Huaca del Sol are still in their original form and colour from nearly two thousand years ago.

From Trujillo we spent a night in Huanchaco, a nearby beach town. Surfers are drawn like a magnet to the waves here and it’s entertaining to watch them for a while but the beach itself is dirty and the town was dead on the Monday night that we stayed there. Our hostel, McCallums Lodging House was superb and we spent the night playing poker with some lucky Canadians.

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