Trujillo

Once again we took the night bus on the now 12-hour journey to Trujillo. This time, though, with seats that fold back completely flat so you could actually lie down and sleep. That's the theory. But we reckoned without the very fat man diagonally behind us. We're not exaggerating when we say we've never heard anyone snore so loudly. Despite earplugs, the good gentleman was so deafening that Jana was able to celebrate her birthday quite involuntarily, because sleep was out of the question for her. Even after shaking his knee several times, the man didn't wake up from his obviously very oxygen-depleted and comatose sleep, so Philip started throwing paper balls in his face. After this was also unsuccessful, Philip shook the man's leg so hard that he finally opened his eyes in amazement and then, to our relief, just stayed awake on his own. We slept like babies for the last 3 hours! A bit crumpled - was it the 30 or just the bus ride? 😉 - we arrived in Trujillo, where the last party people fell out of the discos. We left our backpacks at the hotel and had some breakfast downtown. There was a big parade in the main square, which went down the street with music and much fanfare. We couldn't quite figure out what the reason for the parade was (certainly not Jana's birthday 😁), it consisted of employees from the Ministry of Health, military, mountain rescue, gymnasts and women in blue suits who marched goose-stepping - maybe an exercise for him on 28.7. taking place national holiday. Our hotel room was again very nice this time and we enjoyed that we had a few more relaxing days ahead of us. We spent Jana's birthday in a very unspectacular way, strolling through the city with its pretty Plaza de Armas, looking at some churches from the outside, eating delicious food and spending a cozy evening in the hotel room.

The next day we took a “colectivo” to the nearby town of Huanchaco. These sometimes small, sometimes normal-sized buses always travel the same route and you can hop on and off anywhere along the way. The drivers are generally in a hurry, so when you ask where he's going or how much it costs, you usually only get an annoyed look - he just goes there as usual, stops where you want and it costs so little that you don't talk about it must 😄 So we, as what feels like the only non-Peruvians, dash to Huanchaco, which is famous on the internet as a “surfing spot”. The place was somehow not what we expected in the end. The streets weren't very nice, the "beach" consisted of stones and there were only small waves - there wasn't much of a "surfer town" atmosphere. After watching the surfers a bit, we just wanted to have lunch and head back home when we did experience something funny. Across the street, two police officers performed a dance to the accompaniment of incredibly loud music blaring from a multi-speaker trunk and were caught on camera. Unfortunately, the dance steps were not 100% and the noisy spectacle lasted quite a long time. We asked the owner why the police were dancing around so loudly. That's for the national holiday and since it's the police, they're allowed to be so loud. Aha, let's make it clear: the Peruvians love their national holiday and are generally a very noisy people 😄 We drove back to Trujillo and bought an underwater action camera in a shopping center.

The next day, after checking out, we still had plenty of time until our bus left. We drove again with the "colectivo" to an excavation site that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Here the largest pre-Columbian city of what was then South America was discovered, Chan Chan, built of mud by the Chimú culture. The Chimú lived before the Incas and were conquered by them. Chan Chan stretches 28 square kilometers along the coast, but not all parts of it are accessible to tourists. Since we were a bit tired from the many tours through ruins, we decided against a guide this time and just looked at the beautiful decorations in the old walls, some of which were impressively high. Then we visited the associated museum. In the afternoon we made our way back to the hotel and from there to the bus station.

Overall, Trujillo was a cute little town where we spent a few quiet days, you don't have to see Huanchaco.

For us it is now a good bit further north along the coast, namely to the seaside resort of Máncora.