Vacation in the north

I saw a surprising amount during my vacation. There were the ruins near Trujillo called "Chan Chan" and "Huaca de la Luna", also some interesting museums with highly decorated pottery and exhibited tombs with valuable grave goods, as well as the huge area of the partially excavated and just beginning to be restored adobe ruins of the Lambayeque culture. Unfortunately, I had severe toothache during this time, so I quickly went to the dentist in Trujillo. The cause was quickly found and the treatment costs were estimated at 600 euros. The infection was caused by the further spread of decay under a filling that was made 2.5 months earlier in Germany (which I was able to notice after the tooth was opened by the strong odor). Two molars were severely affected by decay up to the nerve. The following measures were cleaning, 10 days of taking antibiotics, removing the nerves, new root canal, restoration of one tooth, and crown on the other. I have never been to the doctor so often in such a short time. On the second-to-last day of treatment, the doctor asked me if I had ever been robbed, which I denied and thought to myself that nobody would dare to do it anyway considering the size difference. But I had completely forgotten about the cunning and wickedness of people. Not even 4 hours later, I was relieved of about 30 euros. Background: A few days earlier, a man (between 30 and 40) got on the bus with me when I was on my way to the dentist. He sat down next to me on the free seat and started speaking a little German. But he couldn't do much, so English was necessary. He told me he was a chef in Leipzig and visiting his family over Christmas. Leipzig, my hometown! I was delighted by the coincidence. A bus ride doesn't last forever, we exchanged numbers and I definitely had to meet a relative who speaks fluent German in the next few days. Out of politeness, I agreed, but secretly I didn't want to. So I postponed it with a phone call and didn't answer the calls. On that fateful day, I had so many missed calls from him that I started feeling guilty and now called him back. He picked me up from the hospital where I got my yellow fever vaccination, and we went to a nearby café. Supposedly it belonged to his family and two of his relatives would come here. He wanted to quickly get some wine and cigarettes, could I lend him some money that he would give back to me later at the ATM... 100 soles and some change for the cigarettes (probably more for the bus, as I later thought). Must be an expensive wine (I recently got one for 15 soles... but you could only choke it down). As a "pledge", he gave me his bent credit card without a signature... the bend was because of the wallet. Well... naive as I really am, I gave him the money and he disappeared and did not come back. The employee didn't know him either. I won't let something like this happen again!

A little later, I jumped on the bus to Chachapoyas without really knowing what to expect. The small town is located in a dreamlike environment in the Amazon region with huge mountains, straight cliffs, rivers that dig deeper and deeper into the canyons. Here I took Peru's only cable car, swaying hundreds of meters above the ground, to a recently discovered ruin on a mountain ridge called "Kuelap". The next day we hiked to the "Gocta" waterfall, which is the fourth largest in the world. During that hike, I ate my dried skate from the market, which then thoroughly upset my stomach. After two weeks of self-medication with yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and antibiotics, I'm back on track... well, at least halfway there.