Trujillo

Hola, I am writing about a recent trip I returned from to the city of Trujillo.  It is located south of Piura along the coast.  Trujillo is the third most important city in Peru, and is much larger in size than Piura.  While there we were staying at Simon's "uncles" house near the center.  The uncle and his family were extremely nice and there house was beautiful and perfectly situated in the city, also across the hall from us lived a 104 yr old woman, who had many interesting things to say.  The first day we had a chillax day where we went into the city center and visited the market, the city square, cathedrals, etc.  After that, in the afternoon we headed to Huanchaco, a famous surfing beach.  Unfortunately for us we had not read any forecast and we were soon chased away by the rain.  The next day we headed at 11 am to the tour we had previously scheduled the day before, it was absolutely beautiful.  The tour took us to Huaca de la Luna y Huaca del sol, museums, and a nice local restaurant.  After which we chose not to go to the second half of the tour that day as Simon was feeling extremely sick.  The next morning we headed to the beach nice and early and had a wonderful time swimming around and having a great time.  Around 230 pm we started the second leg of our tour, we were taken to Huaca Aca Oiris, Chan Chan, and various on-site museums.  The guides were extremely good, and there explanations of the different temples made it fascinating for me.  Later that night we headed to a bar for a few beers and saw a live peruvian bad, El Mecano, they were wonderful and captivated our attention for a better part of the night.  The next day we returned to Piura by bus around one in the afternoon.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

December, Talent Show, Navidad

Hola, now as we enter Christmas and I have not posted for a while many things have begun to arise.  To start with AFS had a talent show in which every AFS student was told to present a talent and bring a dish from their home country.  I told jokes with my friend Simon and made some crepes for them to try.  Others played the piano, guitar, sang, etc.  A few days later we left for Chiclayo with our AFS group, its around 3 hours south from Piura.  There we visited the museum, the nearby beach, and hit the discotecas at night.  The museum was very interesting as it shed light on the Moche culture, and the tombs of Senor de Sipan.  The club was extremely fun although it got pretty hectic near the end.

  

   

   

  
 The next day we went to the beach, which turned out to be a muddy, very windy, cold beach (we were all pretty dissapointed.)  When we returned to Piura I was greeted at my house with Christmas decorations everywhere, since it has been getting hotter and hotter, Christmas had slipped my mind.  It was extremely fun putting the lights on the tree with the kids, they look adorable in there Santa Hats.  With AFS we are doing a volunteer activity for Christmas where we are making goodie bags with candies and cookies to give out to under-privileged children at the english school.     Also since we just passed the summer solstice we have been having wonderful sunsets, I will post some pictures.  Feliz Navidad a todos!!!      

Mancora

Hola, this weekend I was invited to go to Mancora ( a beach near Piura) with Simon and his family.  We left around 830 at night on Saturday, arriving there around midnight.  Upon arrival Simon and I walked down to the beach (200 meters from the hotel room) pulled up some lounge chairs and watched the Ocean.  We did not go swimming during the night as it was really dark and pretty scary, but it did provide for the only time I have been able to see the stars the entire time I have been here in Peru.  After having some Cuba Libre's we went for a splash in the pool, it was extremely refreshing.  In the morning we awoke to the beautiful sound of the ocean, and stumbled out of bed to find a wonderful breakfast waiting for us on the beach.  After finishing breakfast Simon's parents rented horses and we went riding up and down the beach for an hour or so.  When we finished with the horses we immediately threw ourselves in the water and swam for hours, it was the perfect temperature and a wonderful break from the boiling sun. We then walked up and down the beach for a while, stopping to take pictures and go swimming every now and then.  We returned to the hotel right in time for a huge lunch and wonderfully refreshing beers, topped off with some sunbathing and poolside cocktails.  Around 4 o'clock we boarded our vehicles, waved goodbye to paradise and began making our way home.  


       

Fourth Day- Gocta Catarata

Hola, this day of the viaje was by far my favorite. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my entire life.  We awoke at 6 am so that we could load the buses around seven and get off to a nice fresh start before the hike.  It took 2 hours to reach the trail head so we began hiking around 9am.  Everyone was a bit hungover from the club the night before and there was a few people who vomited on the hike :( (ewwww)  To get to the catarata it took around two and a half hours of hiking for others 4hours :/ I have an extremely slow class.  When we got there its was literally breath taking, you turn the corner and arrive in this unbelievable paradise. There are birds flying up ahead, vegetation everywhere you look, nothing but green and flowers, and then the waterfall.  Gocta.  A huge towering waterfall posed against a beautiful black wall.
We stayed there for a few hours, unfortunately noone was able to swim.  The water is stunningly cold, and there is a high risk of hypothermia.  I myself put my hand in for about 30 seconds and three of my fingers turned a deep shade of blue. Yikes!!  After we walked back, or for me I pretty much ran.  Making it back in a little over an hour, in 32 degrees Celcius.  It was horrid.  Tomorrow we venture into the caverns of chachapoyas, and make our way home. Ciaooo

Third Day- La Kuelap

Hola, after an extremely long 9hr drive through the mountains, we arrived at 3am to the cold city of Chachapoyos.  We had 2hrs to sleep as we were waking up early to go on a hike to the Kuelap (an extremely old military fort used 3000 years ago).  After an extremely scenic two hour drive, we arrived at the beginning of our hike.  Little did I know I had made a large mistake not wearing sunscreen this day.  When we got to the fort it was absolutely stunning, the rocks were meticulously placed and everything had been preserved over the years.  We then climbed up the steep narrow passage way to enter inside and found ourselves in a half jungle half rock city.  There were lamas running around, and birds everywhere I turned.  We went through and our guide explained the different places used for cooking and showed us the mass grave where there are still bones to this day.  After visiting for a while we returned to the hotel where I realized I had received one of the worst sunburns ever, with my scalp being completely pink as well.  That night we went out after dinner to one of the discotecas in the city.  We had quite a few beers and danced very hard, it was a great night but everyone regretted drinking when we hiked for theree hours the next day.  Onward to Gocta.