October 30, 2011 The adventures continue....in Peru

Bye for now to Cuenca, Cajas and Ecuador 

Thank all for traveling with us from Ecuador and now to Peru. For our last day in Cuenca we headed to our favorite park - Cajas for another walk around a different lake - with the familia, including Ana and Brian - two other students at Amauta.

Our "familia" in Cuenca

Then...a long day by bus (one of the many of this week). We left Cuenca for a bus to the border. The adventure of the day began when we arrived at the border in Machalla and the officials at immigration told us that we had overstayed our time in Ecuador (which was not true) and that the only way to get our passports back was to pay a "multa" or fine of $200. each. We had been warned by many not to carry much cash while traveling on the bus so of course we did not have $400. So....they instructed one of the "guards" to take us to the bank in town to withdraw money. They wanted me to stay behind while Richard went with him but we decided that we should definitely stay together so we both went. We knew that we could only take $300 from the bank (the most they allow at one time) so Ricardo "negotiated" our multa down to 300. When he said yes to this, we were convinced that this was a scam, which we had already suspected...however....we did want our passports back!!! He pulled the car over to the side of the road and asked for the money. He pocketed 100 and held the 200 for his buddies back at immigration. All this while, we were holding up the next bus which would take us to Peru. (We never knew till we got back whether the bus would wait for us or not - it did.) When we got back to immigration they gave us our passports with no receipt or information that we had paid or any indication that we had indeed done anything wrong.

So, back on the bus for 4 more hours to our destination...Mancora, Peru....the coast. BEAUTIFUL weather for 4 days and swimming, relaxing, walking the beach, and yoga! Also....the best vegetarian restaurant that I have ever eaten in...Angela's place with delicious yucca bread and sweet potato bread as well as many incredible dishes. Needless to say....we ate there every day. We found a good Thai restaurant for dinner meals too.  We loved our yoga class at a beautiful hotel on the beach with the sound of waves and wind during the whole class. Mancora is on our list of places to return to.

Sea horse on the beach

The docks at Mancora

Our hotel in Mancora....finally great weather

We even found a yoga class in Mancora...
with an incredible view

Our next interesting adventure was the night bus from Mancora to Trujillo. We left at 10:30 pm and then arrived at about 7am. In some ways this is a great way to travel...save on a hotel room and also have an extra day wherever we are going and coming from. They have "cama" or bed buses with reclining seats so it is fairly comfortable but not the best sleep of our lives. Otherwise, uneventful.

Plaza de Armes, Trujillo...great colors

Trujillo is a beautiful city with a colorful historic center. It is a great place to be for a few days as there are many local tours to the ruins of the area. The ruins include several different cultures and we saw two...Moche and Chimu. We enjoyed our Spanish speaking guide with much information and though I did not understand everything, it was an eye opener to these cultures that were unheard of to me. We went to Huanca de la Luna and Chan Chan. At one point there were 60,000 people living in Chan Chan.  I plan to read a bit more about these cultures when I have time, though we are now heading south and soon will be in Inca country where the culture, building, gods, and lifestyles were much different. Here close to the coast all the building was made of adobe, and cover with some kind of aloe vera product which has kept if for over 1000 years, through all kinds of weather related problems.

amazing work down on these large adobe temples
(100 BC-850AD)

While we were here in Trujillo there was an earthquake in Lima - about 9 hours from here, which we did not feel. This was going on at about the same time as many of you in "el Norte" were experiencing snow in October. Mother Nature seems quite upset these days!

Huanca de la Luna...Moche cultural site
built with mountain in view.

Believed that this was a calendar of the Moche people

Tourists....great that we can go with
Spanish speaking guides.

Chan Chan...the largest adobe city in the world. Chimu culture
(850 AD - 1530's when the Spanish arrived)

Chan Chan - just one LARGE area is open to the public, one adobe mansion
and there are at least 15 more that are uncovered. They suspect
that there are many more buried areas of the Moche and Chimu
cultures here on the coast of Peru. Why do we only think
of the Incas?  I am always amazed as what we (I guess I should say I)
do not know about these other cultures if the world.

Now, Sunday, we are planning another night bus ride to Lima, the capitol of Peru where we will spend a few days. At the suggestion of our friends at our school in Ecuador, we have been in touch with the Ecuadorean embassy and plan to visit them on Monday and discuss our "adventure". Our main reason to go is to find out what the visa situation is for Ecuador and whether we can return one more time in 2011. If not, we can plan for other adventures in South America. After Lima, we will fly to Cusco where we plan to spend one month. We are hoping to rent an apartment and "settle down".

We look forward to hearing from you and wish everyone a Happy Halloween and Dia de las Muertos.

Many details of fish, birds and other
sea wildlife on the walls of Chan Chan

The beach at Huanuco, Peru.
Fisherman still use these boats