Where the Desert Meets the Water

Today is my last full day in Peru. I am very close to the Ecuadorian border and tomorrow I am taking a bus to Guayaquil to visit my Stanfordite friend Carlos Burgos. Where I am it is completely warm, all the time, despite the fact that it's winter. I've been within the tropics for a month now, but here where I am is the first time that it's really felt tropical.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. To pick up where we left off, I took a night bus to Trujillo, about 9 hours north of Lima. Here, you have to go by the time it takes to get to a place, not the distance, because distances can be completely deceptive here. It might very easily take 6 hours to go 150 miles, due to road conditions, mountainous terrain, and other variables.

Trujillo is the capital of the Chimú culture, which rose and fell before the Incas took control of everything from southern Colombia to northern Chile. The Chimú capital city, Chan-Chan, is right outside Trujillo. Unfortunately it wasn't very well preserved, mostly due to periodic El Niño-related flooding that had the tendency to sweep everything away. The fact that their buildings were basically big piles of sand right next to the ocean didn't help, either. But hey. Now they are restoring Chan-Chan, bit by bit, and I took a tour of it. Here is a picture of its main square:

Trujillo itself is a pretty quiet place. It does have good ceviche though. I must have that stuff on the brain, as I have eaten it for lunch every day for the past week. And I haven't gotten sick once!

From there, I took another night bus to Máncora, which is where I am now. Máncora is a completely laid-back beach town, and I have spent the last two days a) sitting under an umbrella by the beach; b) swimming in the warm, warm water; c) ordering ceviche for lunch; d) ordering beer and/or Inca Kola whenever I get thirsty and/or the ceviche is too spicy. Life is good.

Tomorrow: Ecuador.