One day in Chimbote

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Chimbote

I took the bus of the company LINEA from Trujillo to Chimbote. I just got a place in the 7am bus, with which I missed my connecting bus to Huaraz. It costed 7 Soles. I wanted to take the bus from Yungay Express which leads over the cañon del Pato, but that one leaves every day at 8:30am from Chimbote and costs 25 Soles. I decided to take the bus on the next day and to stay one night in Chimbote.

I took a taxi from the terminal to the city center, which is pretty far. I paid 6 Soles. The first time, that I didnt had to lower the price, because I think it was fair. Normally they asked for more and in the end I give them less. Yesterday evening I printed a map of Chimbote and searched for some hostals, because in the lonely planet guide there is only one pretty expensive hotel.
I found the hostel "El ensueño" and decided to check this one out. I got my private room with a tv and a shared bathroom outside with warm water for 15 Soles per night. Thats okay! I think this is some kind of motel, but I am not sure. The owner is really nice and helpful, gave me a lot of information and another blanket for the cold night.

I went for a walk, along the malecon. Surprisingly this town doesnt smell like fish at all. After asking some people I got to know, that its because now all the boats are in and stopped fishing because they reached their allowed amount of fish. So you wants to visit this city should choose a good time, like middle of June, July. The view from the malecon is amazing, all the blue fishing boats in front of a snowwhite Island, called la isla blanca. And on the side you see another high mountain with a jesus figure on top, cerro santa or sth like that.
I paid a guy 5 soles to take 2 pictures of me on the main square and then print it directly there. Nice memory! Then I went through the city center which is really small and after that I walked all the way to the "Vivero", a big park with lots of trees. There were still some rest of the celebrations for "San Pedro" and I found cheap food for 2,5 Soles: potato slices with sauce (which is the typical first plate here) and pasta with Cebiche (raw fish salad) and some Churros as dessert for 1 Sol. I also saw a nice souvenir, a tried pumpkin in form of a bottle with ingravenings of the story of the indians and some lines, so you could use it as an instrument and inside rice, so if you shake it it sounds like rain. He wanted to sell it to me for just 10 Soles (=4US$) but I just didnt had enough money with me.
I went back to the city and spent the afternoon in the internet and then went for the sunset to the malecon, but the sun went down behind the mountain, so not so special. Close to my hostal were a lot of people, I walked there to see what happens. There is a basar where people sell stuff on the street and a tower of fireworks, which they would lighten up at eleven as they told me and a church where people were celebrating San Pedro. People were standing in line to put their head under the jacket of a San Pedro figure which they paid for. Traditions!
I went to the hostal to color my hair black again and at 11pm I came back to see the fireworks, but it already happened ... tja, south americans and time planning ...
For dinner I had a filled potato for 1 Sol (delicious!) and another big Churro (which is a fried dough filled with caramel cream) for 0,8 Sol. I bought some water and cookies for the travel tomorrow.

All in all, Chimbote is not that bad as expected. And its really relaxing to be in a not so touristic area where everybody shouts something to you just because you are a foreigner.

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