Sucks when you forget to put sunscreen on that one spot...

Well, today I actually missed a couple of spots: the inside of my arms and the lower half of my legs -whoops! Reminds you how well sunscreen actually works. I can see the outline of where I stopped putting sunscreen on my arms. I think I've learned my lesson.

Huanchaco

The last few days I've escaped to Huanchaco, a beach town in Northern Peru. I'm staying at a hostel/hotel that is owned by a friend of Gean Carlo's and it is nice and clean and quiet. Unfortunately, they're almost full so I have a ground floor room, but some of the other rooms are up 4 stories. The amount of time I spend in my room, I guess it doesn't really matter.

My hotel in Huanchaco

Public transportation

The first couple of days here I just slept, ate, went to the beach and did yoga. Ah, finally, some rest. This isn't much of a youth hostel and there's mostly couples and families here, so I haven't met too many people, but I actually kind of prefer that for these few days. There are very few other gringos (white people) here right now. Even though it's summer, it's considered low season for tourism. Obviously most North Americans and Europeans travel between May and September, leaving the Peruvian summer for the locals to enjoy.

A few things about Huankarute: the town's icon are the caballitos de totora, which are fishing boats made of some sort of huge reeds. There is one area of the beach that has a lot of them and you can try them out, but I didn't go for it. I think it would sort of be like kayaking, as they also have one paddle.

Caballitos de Totora on the beach

There's beautiful sunsets...

Surfing at sunset

Also, the ancient Chimú culture was around this area until the 1400s (pre-Inca takeover) and there are a number of ruins that you can go visit. This morning I went to the Huaca Arco Iris and Chan Chan, two different temples/ruins. Huaca Arco Iris was much smaller, just a single temple. Some of the hieroglyphs are still very well preserved, but a lot of the walls have been restored to the original shape/size but is lacking the hieroglyphs that have long been destroyed over time.

Huaca Arco Iris

"Arco Iris" means rainbow - can you see it?

Restoration at Huaca Arco Iris

Chan Chan was absolutely amazing. It is a huge maze of ceremonial rooms, temples, "storage areas" and even a couple of large reservoirs that still have water in them. A large number of the hieroglyphs in Chan Chan have been preserved because they are often in small hallways and/or located inside of the walls so they are not as exposed to the elements. It was amazing how many people were working throughout the ruins- it is about 70% restored at this point. When you see the parts that have not been restored you can see how much they have done. Many of the walls in the untouched areas have crumbled and the floor is worn away. However, the base of the walls still have the markings from thousands of years ago. They will restore the walls and preserve these hieroglyphs at the base. Many of the walls still have the markings all the way to the top.

Chan Chan

The wall designs in this ceremonial chamber at Chan Chan respresent the three elements:
1- Earth (the squirrels at the bottom are of the earth)
2- Water (the horizontal "waves" that cover the mid section of the wall
3 - Air (the smooth section at the top of the wall)


Fish and bird hieroglyphs at Chan Chan


With my tour guide Ibeth

I went on a formal guided tour of these ruins, leaving from the hotel this morning. There was also a German couple that joined me. I'm glad there was someone else who also wanted to go today because otherwise it would have been a private tour and considerably more expensive (but still not that unreasonable). Because the German couple didn't speak Spanish, the guide spoke in English. She still spoke in Spanish to me sometimes because I told her that I'd like her too. I also helped her with translating some of the words she couldn't think of in English. It was fun.


The rest of the day I've been at the beach, then wrote some postcards and enjoyed a beer on a patio. Tonight at 10 pm I'm catching a bus back to Lima. It's the same kind of bus that I took here and it has super reclining seats that are pretty much like a bed. It's very comfortable and I slept pretty well last time. It makes a lot more sense to travel during the night like this if you can, it saves the days for more exciting and productive activities. Next week I am going to Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Puno and Lake Titicaca. Gean Carlo helped me organize a proper tour, complete with someone picking me up from the airport in Cuzco (!!) I've never really traveled this way before, with guided tours and such, but it really does make sense if you want to make the most of your time and see things properly.