No more beach

The mountain didn't fall down, so I was able to go to the beach and explore another part of Peru. But it wasn't all sunshine and happiness. Actually, much of it was, and I was constantly in the presence of kindness of strangers, but a string of things happened that made it a difficult trip. Where do I start? I went to Huanchaco beach (north of Trujillo - Peruvian northern coast) alone, with a good book (1,000 Splendid Son's - same author of the Kite Runner), so I was excited to be a peaceful zone, different world, away from reality. The problem with going to the beach alone is that there is no one to put sun block on your back. So there I was all day reading my heart wrenching book on Saturday. I got burnt. Bad. Not only my back, but my shins - have you ever heard of such a thing?



The next day I decided to take a beach sun break and go to Chan Chan - "oldest abode village in the world, dated pre-Inca times." It was a short 15 bus ride from the beach, and very desert like - so I escaped the beach, but not the sun and the heat. It was incredible and I met some great guys along the way. We went back to Huanchaco in the afternoon to have the "best ceviche ever" and some cold beers while overlooking the crashing waves. When we were done drinking and commenting on all the passerbyers we decided to take a walk along the beach. There was a red alert out because the waves were so big and powerful, but we were just going to dip our feet in, walk along the shore. As we were walking a huge wave came and knocked me down, covered me and left me like a washed up fish in the water. Not only did it leave me like a dead fish, but it left my camera and phone dead too. So I left the beach a little bruised and battered with malfunctioning electronics.

Monday I spent the day in the colonial city Trujillo, although I didn't get to see too much of the "colonial" part of it, as I was fighting with the immigration officials and trying to get my phone fixed. Well both ended in a positive note; I was granted two more months of stay in Peru (after spending a pretty penny) and bought a new phone that uses my old chip/same phone #. I spent part of the day with my friends that I had met the day before, but they turned out to be your "typical sketchy Latin men" type. The overnight bus ride back to Cajamarca was bumpy, loud, and the guy next to me had no idea of personal space. I arrived in Cajamarca without a wink of sleep at 5am this morning and with some lingering ocean water in my ear. Needless to say, I am happy to be back in cold, rainy, mountain country where my Peruvian family helps me apply aloe to my back and I have clean clothes and can escape from sketchy people by coming back to the comfort of my home.

Really though I was in constant contact with amazing people. I sat next to a friendly 20 something yr. old girl on my bus ride to Trujillo who offered to help me get to Huanchaco safely. Then I met a nice gentleman on my Trujillo-Huanchaco bus ride who helped me find my hotel and gave me some good local tips on getting around. My sketchy friends were really great sudo tour guides in Chan Chan, and really great people in general - just took the turn of saying things like, "you are so beautiful, I want to steal your eyes," etc... I met some fun Peace Corps volunteers that gave me some inside scoop on PC in Peru (FYI Guatemala PC is better). And on my ride back to Trujillo on Monday, when the bus man wanted to charge me more than the locals, a nice old man paid the difference so that I wouldn't have to pay more. These kind of experiences happen when you travel, but I feel like when I travel alone, the kindness of stranger doors just fly open. Thanks be for that.