On a more relaxing note, I had a marvelous time in Trujillo. For those of you who don't know, Trujillo is a town on Peru's northern coast (I can't recall if I've explained this already) and had an important role in Peru's independence movements during the age of colonialism in Latin America. The town itself is fairly small, but is well-known for a nearby (and very touristy) beach town called Huanchaco. Huanchaco is a premier surfing spot in Peru and surfers from all over the world frequent its beaches - it is, after all, the land of the eternal spring. Spring, however, was not with us, as much of the days were overcast, making it a bit colder than usual. The sun, however, did make several appearances, making our trips to various ruins and the beach enjoyable.
To provide a quick summary of the places we visited:
First, we went to Huaca de la luna and Huaca del sol, which are ruins of the ancient Moche tribe of Peru. Huaca is an indigenous word (of the tribe, I assume), meaning "temple," so we saw the temples of the moon and the sun. Huaca del sol, however, was closed while archeologists continued excavating artifacts.
Second, we stopped for lunch at a touristy restaurant that also featured Marinera dancing. Marinera is traditional dancing from the coast of Peru that is based, as you could probably guess from the name, on the ocean and generally tells a story. In this case, the dance was between a man and a woman, and the man attempted to win the affection of his female dance partner. The food was also delicious. I had an avocado salad, which was literally a plate of the biggest avocado I've ever seen, a piece of lettuce, two slices of tomato, and dressing. No complaints here. Below you will see a photo of the dancers. Note my amazing photography skills.
Afterwards, we went to Chan Chan, more ancient ruins of Peru. The architecture was amazing and our tour guide was very knowledgeable, which made the experience a lot more interesting than just looking at an ancient pile of rocks.
The next day, the girls I traveled with met some Englishmen and we ended up tagging along with them to the beach and around the town. They were quite fun and I loved mimicking their accents. Turns out British people also like imitating the American accent. Who knew? After a wonderful lunch of ceviche (raw fish cured with lime juice so we don't get sick) and other dishes, we headed back to Trujillo to go see the Plaza de Armas, which gets illuminated at night and is really a beautiful sight.
Most of us ended up coming home a day earlier than anticipated simply because we had accomplished so much sight-seeing in such a short time. The 9.5 hour bus ride passed quickly, however, as I was unconscious from exhaustion. I did, however, remain awake long enough to watch the bus company's safety video, which was sure to emphasize that we were not allowed to defecate in the bus' facilities - we could only do number 1. I thought it was HILARIOUS. :)
Here are some additional photos from the weekend:
This is a colorful photo I snapped as our tour van was driving by the neighborhood. There are lots of old-fashioned VW Bugs in this country.
And this is a photo of the gorgeous sunset we saw on our first night in Huanchaco. Please be jealous.
Finally, I leave you with the public link to my album on Facebook so that even those of you without this cursed social media tool may partake in photo-viewing.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036436&id=1599810067&l=10a2bbb969
Until my next post!
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