Trujillo

Trujillo, where we arrived after dark last night,  is up there with great cities, we are really enjoying it.  In comparison with other cities in Peru I´ve been to, which sometimes can feel a little shabby due to their newness and relatively shoddy concrete construction style, this city is beautiful. while the outskirts are new, the main part is old mixed with new, and people are proud of it, and keep it clean. And, it feels manageable, safe (at least in the center of town which is quite extensive), sophisticated,and gracious, there is plenty of classical (and quite beautiful) colonial detail (the city was the first founded in Peru I think, in about 1538 or something, yet lots of modern feel, the climate is nice and mild, the people have been very friendly to us. It´s a university town so there are lots of charming cheery younger folks milling around in small clusters.  And, the restaurants are great, lots of italian influence, good cappucinos, and really really great ceviche.   and about 15 minutes to the south, there is a pretty outstanding ruin!  The huacas de la luna y sol are spectacular. the pyramid of the moon has been developed for visitors in an outstanding way, it is so easy to see and enjoy its fabulous murals and get quite a feeling for what a special place it must have been.  There are other ruins near too, we will see some tomorrow.

Yesterday, we were still high up in the Andes, in Huamachuco.  at 1 pm, we got on a Tunesa company bus, which is supposed to be much safer than the other line,Horna, whose drivers apparently race down the mountain.  However, they pulled this particular bus out of their dustbin.  we should have known from its shabby interior and the dark, dark cloud of smoke from its tail end that we might be in for it.  Unlike the road from Cajamarca to Huamachuco, which was a pleasant pastoral dream,the road from Huamachuco back to Trujillo is not for the faint hearted, not because of the steep walls we experienced in our Chachapoyas to Cajamarca trip but just because you go up so far, from 10,500 feet in Huamachuco up to about 12,400 at the top of the pacific crest, then,  down to 9,400, then back up to about 11,000 then down down down forever to see level.  Normally this takes 5 or 6 hours, so we were expecting to get in to Trujillo by dark, and there are lots of scary stories about the outskirts of Trujillo after dark.  In our case unfortunately, it took, um, 8 hours.  Why:  first because the entire first 2/3 of the route are bumpy ardous dirt track made worse by our buses aged suspension and the recent very heavy rains, which made it slick and rutted and potholred, second because we had to stop for an hour at 12,300 feet in the intermittent rain for roadwork to be completed and then, sadly, because our bus overheated (with a great stinky smelly steam explosion)  and all the way down the 4% grade, whenever there was a flat spot, we had to stop to add more water.  And there are very very few flat spots. it was rather dramatic! especially once it got dark and you could see the milky way in its splendor and wondered whether we would ever get safely down without the bus engine blowing up.  Also, we have learned, when on a bus in Peru, if something goes awry, do not expect to be told any details.  We got all our details from the ladies who came on board to sell bread, or by overhearing the driver and his assistant yacking loudly on their cell phones with mechanics in some distant place trying to figure out if the thing was safe to drive on,or not.   Ah well. All is well in the end and we made a new friend, Matt the peace corps guy, and said goodbye to our friend Javier the Lima tourist who we had been with in Huamachuco.  So it was fun and we got safely into Trujillo and safely into town to the Hotel Colonial.  The hotel colonial (double, 90 sols= has parquet floors in its open spaces, large open sitting rooms with charming 1800s type furniture and some open patios.  The air is cool due to morning and evening fog but warm midday and has a nice, oceany feel to it.  very nice. Taxis  blare, traffic is rather zany, but the town is mostly 2 storied colonial type buildings and there are lovely old mansions and churches as well as modern stores.

By the way, in the future, this track from Huamachuco to Trujillo or vice versa should be getting better and better. even though it´s mostly dirt now, it has been widened and graded and will be paved in the next few years. I am sure in drier months and/or with a good bus it would be fine now, but, because there are some very very profitable gold mines at the top of the hill, that need oil tankers and food going up all the time, the push  is on to make this a good, fast road.  Soon, it sould be pretty easy to do the circle that we have done, from Chiclayo to Chachapoyas to Cajamarca to Huamachuco to Trujillo, in pretty decent comfort. right now, just a few rougher spots.  


So far here in Trujillo, we have eaten, slept well, eaten, had great fotos with tiny kids in princess costumes and inca costumesmade from plastic bags and foil, seen a nice parade by the same kids around the huge main plaza in honor of the environment, gone on a nice tour to the ruins, eaten some more (fabulous mixed ceviche with all kinds of fresh seafood an fish in lime with red onions and parched corn and fresh corn), had a great time buying pastries (alfajores, which are fluffy and light, kind of like a marshmellow cookie but indescribably better, and, a Maria something or other with chocolate and vanilla in a light fluffy bar), at a bake sale from future hotelier students, had great fotos with a laughing cloud of high school students at this same technical school,, eaten some more, shopped a little (for shoes and cotton and whatnots, not finding much) and then one of our best experiences, going to a collection of preinca ceramics by an italian collector who is now in his 90s, which is in the basement of a Mobil gas station. on display are 1,600 moche, cajamarca, Chavin and other culture potteries, all in one small room lined with 4 shelves and lots of shelves in the middle. the lovely, lovely ceramics in the form of all kinds of animals,domestic scenes, and even pornography are on shelves with fishing line keeping them from falling off, you could touch them although you are asked not to, and,the sweet guy minding the place actually let Craig and this other french guy play a number of these ceramics which are musical instruments.  and he showed us the potteries in detail. it was so much fun. they are so beautiful. the moche in particular specialize in capturing daily life and sensitive human facial expressions.


Our plans for tonight are to eat some more great local food, maybe have a pisco sour, not sure. tomorrow we will probably go see a display of how a Peruvian paso horse (and its rider) dance the Marinera with a lovely young woman, and then, we may take a taxi to the village next to the Moche ruins to watch people make copies of the ancient ceramics (and probably buy one) and then have some more ceviche and then go out to see Chan Chan. Then we might stay up to go hear live music at a pena that starts at 11 pm until 2 am. then the next morning we will be on one of Peru´s premier bus lines, Cruz del Sur, in the ´panoramic´seats at the front of the top floor of the luxury 2 decker bus, to go down the peru coast 400 miles to lima. on board are a bathroom and lunch, the seats are cozy and wide and the whole journey for the two of us costs $35 U.S. much cheaper than airline and if it is like our experiences of Peru buses so far (except for yesterday´s squib) we expect to enjoy it very much!  Bus trips in Peru so far have all been so beautiful, yesterday´s included, that is it like seeing a dramatic movie, like the huge 3 d Imax ones at the Smithsonian, that is so spectacular you do not want to read or nap because you may miss something great.