Why we left the beach so quickly

We took the night bus to the next destination: from Chachapoyas to Trujillo. After a 14-hour bus ride, we opened our sleepy eyes and saw: nothing but desert. A little shock so early in the morning! Coming from the Amazon, the beautiful city of Chachapoyas, we arrived in Trujillo, quite tired, and were shocked! Huge piles of debris, garbage as far as the eye can see, dilapidated houses and buses. We hoped that the small surfer town of Huanchaco would be nicer and immediately took a taxi. Unfortunately, false hope... Huanchaco was also littered with garbage, the beach dirty, countless stray dogs (and their droppings), and the beach covered in dead crabs and fish. We actually wanted to take advantage of the amazing waves to go surfing - but when we saw the beach and heard reports from people who got diarrhea from swallowing the contaminated water while surfing - we decided against the polluted sea and visited the sand dunes of Chan Chan.

They were really worth seeing! The Chan Chan people decorated the walls inside the cities with marine symbols such as fishing nets, otters, pelicans, or various fish, which were carved into the wall and then partly painted. The ruins of this city, made of clay and sand, have been under reconstruction and preservation for about 40 years now. An incredible amount of work, but the result is impressive! So we strolled through the ruins and enjoyed the sun before we had to head back to Huanchaco.

A café run by a German-Swiss saved our beach vacation: chocolate cake, French toast fruit, delicious coffee... That's how we passed the time until we took the night bus again to return to the mountains. The sunset on the last evening, in addition to the chocolate cake, sweetened our stay with Bárbara. She will travel directly to Cusco, while we want to visit a few more stops before daring to visit Machu Picchu!