Huanchaco and Chan Chan

The drive to Huanchaco near Trujillo was a long 12 hours but blessed us with some amazing scenery. We got stopped several times by police on route, just carrying out routine checks on the Pan American Highway. To be honest I think half of the reason they stop people is to relieve their boredomn or top up on supplies of toilet paper. They sit on the edge of the highway in the middle of nowhere in the heat of the desert for hours on end with one colleague for company and some cheesy dance tunes playing on the radio. One pair boarded the truck, had a look around, had a chat with us then grabbed some loo roll on the way out! It really was quite entertaining.

For the most part we travelled through desert. We passed the odd house / wooden shack made of timber with maybe a horse / mule, chickens, and a few cattle in the backyard grazing on what little vegetation there was. It must be quite a hard life with very little / no fresh running water and so far to the nearest town to get supplies. I also couldnt help noticing the amount of litter in the desert. It looked like it had blown across the land until lodging itself in the odd shrub. Further into the drive I realised that it is common to see waste just dumped along the roadside in the desert and often loads of it! I dont know whether there are any official sites for waste diposal in the desert which admittedly is vast with very little in the way of habitation but I would assume not. This is not the case in the peruvian cities as there are facilities for recycling etc.

On the occasion we passed a fresh water source on route to the sea we saw a green oasis of very organised agricultural plots. Again the houses were basic and horses / mules were being used for farming and sheep, cattle and chickens were being farmed.

When we did drive through a town it was a strange cacophony of trucks, tuk tuks and mules or pedestrains pulling loaded carts all trying to manouvre around each other on a fairly narrow road.

On route we stopped for a welcome break from the drive and a short visit to Sipan Museum and our introduction to the interesting and fasinating cultural history of Peru and it`s inhabitabts. The Museum displays many artefacts found in the world famous burial chambers underneath adobe pyramids. The 13 skeletons found pre dating the inka's and were buried with ceramics, ellaborate metal work of gold and silver made into jewellery for the whole body. This was a good introduction to the Moche civilisation. Unfortunately no photography was allowed in the museum so I do not have pictures to share. For the final part of our long journey to our campsite in Huanchaco we watched a beautiful sunset across the desert.

The following day we visited Chan Chan, ruins in the Peruvian desert near Trujillo on the coast. Predating the inka's the ruins are were the capital of the kingdom of the Chimu Empire and the site probably used for rituals, fiestas and trading. It is a maze of large rooms and squares with the remanents of incredible artistry and decor on the thick walls which in their day must have been fantastic, of which the pictures have provided a lot of information about the lives of the people at the time. On the coast fish was a amin foodsource but they also were good agriculturists. Although they worshiped the sun and the moon as gods and made temples for each, the moon was their god (probably because it gave them relief from the hot and dry daytime) and we were able to visit the Huaca de Lunes, A huge ruined temple where sacrifices to the god would have been made. The most fascinating part is that it comprises of several overlapping temples as each time a king died the Chimu's would fill in that layer and rebuild the temple on top of the previous one with large colourful murals each time which the remains of can still be seen.

By the time the inka's conquered the Chimu's in 1470 AD the empire strectched 621 miles of the pacific coast.

Woop Woops on the Peruvian Coast

I spent the first full day in Peru on the beech relaxing and reading more of the 900 page book Shantaram which was given to me by one of the rainforest volunteers. Sasha if you get to read this, thankyou it is great and I recommend it to others. The sun was shining, the air was warm warm with a nice cool breeze and the sea warm. As spring turns to summer in a few months time the days will be much hotter but with heavy downpours in the afternoon but with the rains the surrounding sand dunes are bought to life with wild flowers. The couple, a Peruvian and a Columbian who own the campsite live on the beach all year round with their young daughter. Apparently the daughter attends a good school which has a good programme for English, environmental issues and land management. We ate at their adjacent restaraunt on the 2nd night which was absolutely fabulous. A traditional Peruvian barbeque meal with fresh fish, varying dishes of rice, potatoes, vegetables and the traditonal beverage pisco sour.

The following day we set off for our next beech destination in Mancora, a small hippy town with many tourists as it is an ideal spot for surfing, not that I tried it. The main dusty road through the town hosts lots of stalls selling touristy items and lots of restaraunts and bars. Tuk tuks, large coaches and the occasional old car bustle past at speed negotiating each other and tourists. The beach was really busy with both peruvians, tourists and surfing doods.

The hostel was not the sort of hostel I would have chosen, being a large white washed complex with a swimming pool owned by europeans to cater mainly for westerners on holiday for sun, surf and sssserious cocktails. From inside the complex you could have been anywhere in Europe but actually it turned out to be quite fun, well if you can`t beat them join them and all that.....

With cheesy tunes playing in the bar / pool until 2am and very tastey rum and fruit slushes one could not help but fall into line/ off it as the case may have been. After the first night of a little drinking and dancing I had warmed up and the 2nd night involved mobing on to a bar outside of the complex when the music after the music had finished. After 2 hours sleep I awoke for the 6am start on the truck again!

Across the Border and into Peru

The road from Cuenca took us high up into the Andes. We followed a diversion due to road improvements and for hours we drove down a bumpy dirt track which wound its way through numerous hair pin bends on steep sided mountains. There was barely any vegetation partly due to the altitude and partly due to the disturbance of the works, although surprisingly there were people attempting to farm some of the surrounding dusty land. All of a sudden like an oasis in a desert we would reach a rare valley with green crops amongst the mountains of surrounding dust.
We all cheered our driver Mike when we finally reached the end of the dirt track, turning left on to a tarmac road once again. Speeding along now we entered the lowlands where agriculture on a larger scale was evident.
As we neared the border it became noticeably hot and sunny and the land became much flatter with huge bannana plantations. Bannana's are currently one of Ecuadors main exports. Finally the land became barren and desolate with immigration buildings and armed guards only. At the first stop the crew had to deal with the paperwprk for the truck, we then drove on a little further to the deal with the human paperwork with a stamp out of Ecuador. A little further on still desolate and barren we crossed the border into Peru and a final stop to stamp our passports in our new country, Peru.
In Peru the landscape continued unchanging for a while before it became more fertile and green in places with large scale agriculture on the flat terrain, reminding me of Essex. Houses were simple, mainly very small shanty towns with an associated working horse and the resident dog hanging around outside.
In a relatively short distance from the border we entered the bustling chaotic city of Tumbes. We parked the truck to get some US Dollars changed to Peruvian Soles and beer as we were heading to the beach. Tumbes felt crazy. Tuk Tuks had replaced ecuadorian yellow taxis and road crossings even more confusing. Negotiating our way through the street vendors and crowded streets we happened upon a guy on the street offering a good rate for US dollars, obviously we were trying to be non conspicuous and careful both of which were quite difficult on the bustling street corner. With local currency and beer we set off for the beech in high spirits. We followed the coastline with the sea on our right and huge sand dunes on our left until after a total of 12 hours on the road we arrived at our beech resort where we pitched our tents on the sea front looking out to the sea. When camping we all get divided up into cook groups and it was my turn with two others to cook. Having been food shopping at a local market before we left Cuenca the three of us made a chorizo pasta by headtorch to the sound of the waves on the beech of white sand!

Baños and Rio Verde then on to Cuenca

Baños is a beautiful town situated in the central highlands of Ecuador at 1820m above sea level in a valley overlooked by steep hills and Volcan Tungurhuaa which has recently had some activity so evacuation procedures are in place. The town is bustling with tourists as this is a common spot for hiking, climbing, horse riding, white water rafting, canyoning and more.
We were camping in Rio Verde just outside of Baños. There are several tours similar to the Dragoman tour all touring at the same time at the moment as the full tours are planned to arrive in Rio (Brazil) for the Carnival. We are often a day behind or infront of the others but it is not unusual to be staying in the same places and at Rio Verde we found ourselves meeting up with lots of others who had been at shangrila.
I tried canyoning which involved getting extremely wet whilst abseiling down the face of a waterfall, atleat this time we were harnessed and roped! Here is where I realised water sports and contact lenses dont really mix. Nonetheless it was good fun and we got some interesting photos and video footage.
One thing I really enjoyed about Ecuador is the way you can just grab a lift in the back of a pick up truck. It feels like horse riding without a hat on, ok you are not so safe but you can feel the wind in your hair and it is only as risky as crossing the road. Actually crossing the road over here is probably more dangerous! So 4 of us girls had been offered a ride by a passer by heading in that direction so we hopped on the back of his truck for the speedy 20 minute ride down the windey roads and through the numerous leaky tunnels. The driver and his wife turned out to be tourists from the States. It was all quite random but they were nice people and we had a lovely afternoon in Baños.
That evening we jumped into the back of another truck, this one prebooked from our campsite. Posing as a taxi but really a vegetable truck by day and and a party truck by night. Yes the precariously mounted speakers in the back of the small pick up truck were booming out cheesy dance anthems all the way to the thermal baths. At the baths I was initially quite surprised at the amount of locals using the baths and most of us gringos suddenly became quite self conscious. We went straight for the really hot one and wow, it was great. Steaming natural hot spring on a cool night, under a clear sky and a full moon.....magical. I even enjoyed interchanging between the hot and the very cold baths and I hate cold water usually!
On leaving Rio Verde we stopped to take some photos of the volcano (which since then has had more activity and the town has been evacuated!). We travelled on in our truck over the Andes taking in the beautiful scenery and observing the Andean communities going about their daily lives. Many continue to wear traditional costume. The people are shorter than me, the ladies wear a skirt with a colourful poncho, a hat and wellies and can often be seen either carrying a baby or goods such as shopping or farming goods on their back in a satchel /sling made from plain material.
At higher altitude the vegetation is a little sparse and dull but it every now and then you will pass a fertile valley where there are agricultural fields neatly organised in patchwork design up the hillsides surrounded by houses. You catch a glimpse of a colourful poncho in the distance as a women works the land by hand with her satchel on her back. I watched a man in a large field continually throwing a fairly large boulder to the ground in his field to break up the largr clumps of earth and at one point I wathched a shepherd walk downhill out of thick cloud towards the small town leading 2 sheep with 2 lamb following closely by their sides. I also saw larger family groups farming together.
After 10 hours of driving we arrived at Cuenca, a beautiful colonial city which has a real cosmopolitan feel to it with great restaraunts. We ate well!
I took myself off to Museo del Banco Pumapungo and archeological site which I have to say was fantastic. The museum was the best I had visited so far with exhibits of colonial art, crafts, folk celebrations, and the way of life of the different groups of inhabitants in Ecuador through the various ages in their diverse zones of environment up to the present day and included displays of indigenous costumes and masks and a stunning display of shrunken heads from the Shuar culture. The crafts varied in materials including silver, material, wood, straw, leather and stone. Every corner I turned, there was more to see.
The archeological site comprised of the foundations of the most important inca city of Tomebamba which overlooks the city. Below the ruins there are modern gardens with interpretation and examples of how the inca people would have used the land and what they would have grown.
Next blog: The journey across the border and into Peru

Back to the Jungle

We left Otavalo just after 6am heading for Tena. The weather was cloudy and quite cold which continued over the Andes. We passed through cloud forest after our descent on the other side became noticeably sunnier, hot and humid as we entered the lowlands of the rainforest.

After 8 hours of driving we arrived at Shangrila in Tena a very comfortable jungle lodge accomodation with great food, great staff and fantastic views over the Rio Napo and surrounding rainforest. (Google Shangrila lodge, Tena to see the views).

After lunch 2 staff took us all out on a so called gentle walk which started with a meander through secondary forest but to our surprise was a little more like canyoning / caveing towards the end. To be honest I loved it and the humour of our guides, Jamie and Pedro made it all the more fun. As there were so many of us the walk took quite a while and we didn´t get back to the lodge until after dusk.

Next morning at 8.30am, accompanied by Jame and Pedro we set off again for a slightly more difficult walk up through the cascada. More gentle canyoning and although our guides were very conscientous about health and safety, there was no harness. Everyone loved the randomness of it all, the rock climbs, the rope climbs, the water, the dip in the waterfall and the rainforest. After the long descent back the through the rainforest we were rewarded with lunch at a different lodge before walking to a beautiful swim hole. We were driven back to Shangrila in the back of a truck. It was dusk, raining but mild and we could smell the wet tarmac interlaced with the sweet smell of wet forest vegetation, exhaust fumes from our truck and food as we passed through the villages at speed in true Ecuadorian style watching children playing along the roadside waving as we passed.

The following morning whilst others visited an animal sactuary I opted for the morning in the hammock soaking up the beautiful view from my room. After lunch we all set off along the river for a bit of tubing. With 5 inflattable tubes tied together and 7 people on board we drifted along quite nicely until we came to a rapid when poor Pedro at the front would be paddling frantically to steer us away from any rocks etc. About 45 minutes down river we stopped off to visit a local community who although dressed in modern clothes live a mostly traditional life. Pedro and Jamie explained some of their traditions, showed us some cooking tools and we sampled some traditionally made alcohol and food and the shaman demonstrated part of a cleansing ritual.

We left the community hastily as our guides realised that we again were rapidly loosing daylight. I tell you, these Ecuadorians really do know how to show a girl a good time......Tubing down the River Napo by moonlight listening to the sounds of the rainforest, navigating the rapids (badly at times now it had become dark), the light from Shangrila deceivingly far away! Oh but we did laugh, it felt so surreal and we all had a real laugh. More pina coladas at the bar that eveing whilst soaking up the views and sounds of the rainforest :-)