Huanchaco and around:)

We arrived in Huanchaco about a week ago and haven´t been able to leave! Huanchaco is a little surfing town on the northern coast of Peru, about 20 minutes from the city of Trujillo, where people come from all over the world to surf, swim and enjoy the sunshine. We arrived in Trujillo from Chiclayo in mid afternoon and when we got off our bus, we met another couple who were also heading towards Huanchaco and asked if we´d like to share a cab. The man was from Chile and the woman was from France, and they spoke only a few words of English. We decided to share a room with them at a cheap hostel, and hang out for a few days. It was definately a challenge, as we were trying to get to know them and have good conversations, but our Spanish is not at the point yet where we can discuss anything in real depth. By the end of the 3 days we spent with them, however, we had picked up some more vocab words and had managed to have a few conversations about our work, our respective countries, and a few other topics. We found a really funky bar in town with them as well, which turned out to be our hang out of choice for the next few days.

We have found that Huanchaco is an extremely laid back town, with many fun little coffee shops, restaurants, and wonderful people who seem to have all the time in the world and often stop along the beach just to strike up a conversation with you. While playing guitar on the beach, an older man sat down beside me to listen and proceeded to tell me his whole life story about how he came to live in Huanchaco. The locals call him abuello (grandfather) and after making his aquaintence, we had the pleasure of meeting many other locals who were walking the beach and stopped to say hi to Abuello. While Dave was out surfing, a little girl playing in the sand demanded that I help her make a sandcastle, and then took it upon herself to teach me the word for sand (arena) and castle (castillo). She wouldn´t stop until I pronounced the words exactly right. While walking back from the market, Dave was stopped by a man who invited him to have a beer with him because it was his birthday. Thus is the life here....no doubt we will meet some more wonderful smiling people this afternoon when we set up on the beach for our last day in Huanchaco.

We also checked out another archiological site nearby, the Huaca del sol and the Huuaca del Luna. The Temple of the moon was a religious site used by the Moche people and the Temple of the Sun was used by their political leaders. The site was facinating and we had a very enthusiastic, guide. The visit was all in Spanish, but we understood most of the explanations and were prety psyched to get an opportunity to see this amazingy perserved, beautiful site.

In conclusion, this week has been spent pretty much sunbathing, renting surfboards, running on the beach, and meeting too many people to count. I can say that we are both thouroughly relaxed and content. We even stayed at a hostel where we could use the kitchen, so we spent the past few nights in, cooking nice dinners and enjoying the luxury of being able to cook our own food with fresh produce from the market. Tonight we will board an overnight bus (grrr....not my favorite but there was no other option) to Huaraz, a popular tourist destination in the Cordierra Blancas, where the high season has just begun! We will be doing some trekking, climbing, and playing in the mountains.

Hope all is well with those who are following us!
Much love,
Robin:)

main square in trujillo


trujillo has some pretty amazing churches


engravings and paintings on the walls of the huaca del luna



the huaca del sol


Some sunset pictures:






surfer dave


local fisherman and his wife examining the days catch (cangrejo!)




ahhh bliss....


Lilli eating marycuya...one of the excellent tropical fruits you can buy for less than a dollar!


Us on the beach, enjoying the sunshine


Beach gymnastics


Ana, Regu and Dave walking the beach our first evening in Huanchaco


boats that the local fishermen use...made out of reeds!