Sloth Journeys

Attention grabbed? Good.

Now, if you’re looking for somewhere that has cars constantly, and I do mean constantly, honking their horns, car alarms going off at the drop of a hat, all of which seemingly ‘play’ the same repetitive 6 (ish) tunes in a row, people at every turn trying to knock you over or sell you something, and still babbling at you even when you have politely shown your indifference to what they’re offering (my phrase of choice in these situations is “no grass-your-arse”), then book a £700 one-way ticket now; you’re just 11 hours from paradise! Am I ranting? (Admin – Rebecca and I feel you may need to lighten up a little).

Apparently I’m suffering from ‘Culture Shock‘, which can be all too common, as Mishelle, the guide on our walking tour of Cuenca, alluded to and, to the fact that for a while her boyfriend suffered the same.

To be fair, Trujillo is no different to many places in Peru, but compared to the UK it’s a completely different way of existing and, until we reach Lima, gringos like us are still a bit of a novelty this far north. Still, at least our hostel was nice enough, with a chilled kitchen/social space we made use of on the rooftop.

So why are we here? Predominately to visit the Adobe city of Chan Chan and, in all honesty, to make our way further south. We paved the way for our Chan Chan visit by exploring the archaeological and toy museums in the city itself…as one obviously would! Both were far more interesting than we had expected, the former as a prep for learning about the Chimú dynasty that built Chan Chan, and the latter to see some creepy looking pre-1950’s toys.

Interestingly, shops, museums, galleries and just about anything open to the public in South America has the quirky nature of not conforming to their own designated opening hours; even on shop windows they’ll have Abierto (open) painted, yes painted, on their premises, and they’re clearly not open 24-7! So it was with the Archeology Museum UNT; Even iPeru (the main tourist information service here) verified they were open, but trotting down on Friday afternoon, they had the audacity to be shut, and so we visited on Saturday instead!

Having thus prepped our visit to Chan Chan, the Chimú city itself beckoned.

The city is constructed out of Adobe bricks, which are made from sand; anyone who has ever built a sandcastle will probably be thinking that it’s an odd choice, considering it’s right next to the ocean!? Still, much of it seems to have survived and I found our visit far more interesting than the ‘new’ Machu Pichu (Kuelap – those knackered old buildings up a mountain), possibly because there was more of it left to actually see.

Another ‘cute’ quirk of being such seasoned explorers, and one that has started to rear its bulbous head, is ‘decision fatigue‘. We’ve discussed this with other people too, so it’s def a “thing”. It’s not just the big decisions about what to do and where to go next, but all the in-between micromanagement; What do I need to wear that day? Could the clothes do with a wash? if so, do I have enough to warrant a professional service? Or will the bathroom sink do? Professional service! Ok, which one where? Can they provide a quick service? Breakfast in or out? If out where? What are the reviews like? Same for lunch and dinner etc…..(Admin – I’m drained just reading this!)

Rebecca ‘burst’ a little on our outing to Chan Chan, unable to make a decision about whether to get a local bus there or order an Uber. This ‘crisis’ made us realise we needed to take a step back, throw the toys and dummies out of our pre-1950’s pram, and take a few days break to regroup. As luck would have it, the perfect location was just a few miles up the coast…Huanchaco! (Admin-Mmm)

Now, most of you will have possibly realised by now that what Rebecca and I hear, or read, about a location often is far removed from what said location is actually like; places that websites wax lyrical about often turn out to be a soupson different. So the chilled, Drakes Bay (ish) surfer ‘paradise’ we expected Huanchaco to be turned out more like a cheap seaside town in the UK!

I think you get the idea?!. Suffice to say that Huanchaco did give us the space to breath a little, sort our heads out, dive back in our pre-1950’s pram and wheel our way down the road to take on the lagoons of Huaraz.

Anyone seen my medication….