Lima

The Couchsurfing didn't really work out, but we've made the best of it and there are some pretty cheap hostels here.  Unfortunately we both got a bit sick from something (at the moment we suspect the new malaria pills we got for our farming stint next week), so have been taking it pretty easy.

That said we did manage to get out and about a bit in Lima.  We went to the ruins of Pucllana which was a large temple complex made by the Lima culture (not their own name, just the name posterity has assigned them) about one and half thousand years ago to worship/appease a sea goddess.

Because of the lack of writing systems and the occupation of the site by several different cultures afterwards, there was definitely a lot of guesswork showing in the interpretations.  One of the later occupiers from the Wari culture, which was an empire which lasted far longer than Inca one. But, as we are discovering, like the Aztecs in Mexico, the Inca are the most famous simply because they were the most major culture the Spaniards met and crushed.  The Wari used Pucllana to bury some important people and they buried their heroes with several babies who would act as guides to the spirit world (maybe, possibly).

Also at the site were gardens with a lot of traditional crops and animals as would have been cultivated by the people here.  There were sweet potatoes, chillies, yuca as well as animals like guinea-pigs (which due to upset tummys we still haven't eaten yet) and alpacas.

We felt this was a nice addition as it provided variety from mud bricks and introduced the agriculture and food culture of the people, understanding its food is really importan in understanding a place and also if you are from Peru, would highlight that the diet wouldn't be a million miles from modern Peruvian food.

We also went to the monastery of San Francisco still owned by the Franciscan monks.  You weren't allowed to take photos inside, possibly because it would show just how much golden loot this supposed poverty-sworn order have in there.  It was used as a graveyard for the city for almost three centuries so there are catacombs underneath filled with bones, which modern archaeologists have arranged in fetching patterns for their own amusement.  We didn't think archaeologists were supposed to do this.  There was also a library of 60,000 volumes some dating from the 16th century, with spiral staircases, that we both would have liked to live in.

On Saturday night, we went to Parque de la Reserva where there are dozens of fountains and light displays every night.  Considering it only cost about a pound, it was a lot of fun and very magical.

Later on, there were also lasers, which we suspect is an addition to the 1930's fountains (oh the jaded youth of today, not satisfied with fountains alone).

Today we are taking a 20 hour bus to Cusco, where we are going to work on a coffee farm for a week.  As Peru is one of the world's biggest producers of organic coffee, this should be pretty appropriate and interesting.  We are also looking forward to the change of pace, as we are a bit travel worn.  

Trujillo

We enjoyed our stay in Trujillo as we got on well with our hosts and saw some interesting things at a relaxed pace.  Our hosts turned out to be really into chess and this made J very happy as she enjoyed endless tournaments.  Between all the chess and some nice evenings with local beer and food, we explored Trujillo.  The city is surrounded by desert and the stuffy dry heat never leaves and even in the city centre, there are cracks where the desert pokes through.  There are numerous historical sites in and around the city, we first visited the city of Chan Chan, capital of Chimu culture until conquered by the Inca half a century before the Conquest and largest adobe (sun-baked mud bricks) city in the world.

This is part of a palace complex.  For being made of mud, it is a very impressive and beautiful site, though much of the surrounding city is now little more than unusual tumours in the desert outside.  Hanging around we met one of these guys;

It's a Peruvian Hairless Dog, a type which existed here alongside many Pre-Colombian peoples for many centuries.  We would later discover that the governement decided to keep several of them at many different Pre-Colombian sities, as a sort of living piece of pre-conquest culture we suppose.  They certainly seemed happy enough bumbling around the various pyramids we saw.

As well as Chan Chan we also went to a pyramid which has now been surrounded by modern Trujillo.  It's only a single building but we had it to ourselves and enjoyed the elaborate reliefs, the compulsory hairless dogs and also saw a burrowing owl flitting about.

The next day J got her hit of horses when she went to see a display by some Peruvian Paso dressage riders.  There were also dancers and sometimes the two were combined;

We returned to historical sites at Huaca Moche, a holy site from the culture that preceded the Chimu of Chan Chan.  We were lucky enough to get a great guide and he took us through not only the history, but the current archaeological projects at the still working site;

The site is often referred to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.  However, our guide was explaining to us that the deity represented had nothing to do with either of those and the names date from white people in the 19th century who had been to Mexico and decided to label any indigenous site larger than a house "of the Sun or Moon".  We had encountered this problem in Teotihuacan (as anyone who's followed us that long might recall).

We also experienced a bit of a cooking fail, when we got some of the purple corn and tried to make corn-on-the-cob with them.  After half an hour of boiling, the corn was no softer and our host realized what we were doing.  This kind of corn is only for making chicha morada with, she explained.  People don't eat it.  The tasty chicha morada nearly made up for our embarrassment.

Yesterday we set off for Lima, expecting it to take a couple of days.  Once again, we underestimated Peru and arrived in Lima late last night with a friendly trucker (who also bought us dinner).  We are hoping to Couchsurf most of our stay here, but are currently in a hostel in the city centre.  Today we've explored parks and big colonial buildings and got some shopping and important errands done:

From Darkest Peru

We caught a bus south in order to escape the sprawl of Quito and get to a turn off for a pretty volcanic lake we were planning to visit.  Unfortunately, one of the down-sides of getting up at six am is being pretty tired and we missed the city we were suppossed to get off at.  Having avoided paying more for our mistake, we made the decision to keep pushing south towards Cuenca (in classic colonial spanish style the city's full name is ridiculously long: Santa Ana de los cuatro rios de Cuenca).  The mountains were beautiful as always, and with the good hitching here we reached the city that very night.

Carnaval was still on-going and it was fun to see foam and water flying everywhere.  However, it made hitching a risky prospect and at least once J got a face full of foam from a passing vehicle.  Another consequence of the festivities was that nearly everything in Cuenca was shut on the day we arrived.  And we mean everything.  This wasn't so terrible as we the city is very pretty and it is enjoyable just to wander through the old centre.  Not holding out much hope we strolled through town towards the Museum of the Central Bank, which was next to some Inca ruins.

It was surprisingly open.  Numerous toursits were drifting towards it suspiciously, exclaiming to find it both open and free.  There were numerous exhibits on the Pre-Columbian society that lived there, conquered in the late 15th century by the expanding Inca empire, where it became Tomebamba, the most important city in the northern empire.  Next to the museum, the ruins of the military/administrative hub of the city, called Pumapungo still remain.

We were informed that the usual archeological series of small walls were once barracks, homes for the sacred virgins, canals and religious baths and a foundry.  It was very interesting and a really nice peaceful place to come for picnics or reading since it was free access so we were pleased.

Having failed to get the the National Park we had meant to go to, we heard of a petrified forest to the south-west and made the decision to go there to get our camping and forest-wandering fix.  Again, we underestimated how easy it is to hitch-hike in Ecuador and we made it in a day's beautiful hitching in mountains and through dairy farms

We crossed a beautiful but somewhat dangerous mountain road past a valley that is being converted into a hydro-electric dam followed by mile after mile of banana plantations in the province named 'El Oro' after the fruit, reaching the park as firefly illuminated night fell.

There was a very large pavilion for maybe as many as a hundred people to eat, and inside large meeting rooms we could see rows of shiny mountain bikes, presumably for hire.  However in all this they forgot to provide space for people to actually camp.  We set up in the eating area, which we were grateful for when a tropical rainstorm lashed onto the roof for much of the night (and thankfully brought the temperature down a bit with it).

Armed with our ever present tin of pulses/beans and some cheap fresh local cheese (the cheese in Ecuador is both tasty and cheap.  It was explained to us by a lift from Colombia who worked in dairy products that while Colombia had been conned by free trade agreements and much of its dairy products were from the U.S.'s leftovers, Ecuador imported barely any dairy and had a strong and plentiful local industry), we set off into the forest picnicing.  As well as the 100 million year old fossils, many of which still had bark or rings visible, the site is in a very current rainforest as well and we enjoyed the abundant life as much as the fossils:

At this point we were a bit concerned that we were moving too quickly and would reach our next planned destination (Trujillo, Peru) days before we asked Couchsurfs, and indeed before any had replied at all!  This rapid pace was arrested somewhat the next day due to border faff.  The hitching remained as good as ever and we watched the landscape become increasingly arid and desert-like from the cabs of several trucks as we made our way to the Peruvian border at Alamor.  Here we found the 'border control' to be the porch of some man's house, the only indication it was a border control being his posession of a ink pad and stamp.

However, he was the Peruvian border guard and we found ourselves once again needing to officially exit a country before we could be allowed into the next one.  A backward glance across the blasted desert showed a distinct lack of an Ecuador border and we were told we need to back to the nearest town Zapotillo.  When we arrived back there however, we discovered that the border police in this town didn't have the authority (or possibly skill?) to wield a rubber stamp and that we had to go another couple of hours to the town of Macara in order to be allowed to leave.  This was pretty frustrating, but the aforementioned great hitching here made it doable and we did reach the correct town and settled in for the night.

The next day we crossed into Peru, back on the Panamerican where we belong and headed south.  We got away from the border in a collectivo since they made up over half the traffic there.  We've done this at quite a few borders, however this "collectivo" was only a normal estate car.  Refusing to accept the limitations of this, the driver managed to get seven other people and two live goats (plus baggage) in there in an immpressive defiance of physics.  The hitching here was as good as in Ecuador and we rarely waited more than 10 minutes.  This was a good thing as the land had turned into a fully fledged desert with dunes and vast, stunning vistas of nothing;

and the heat was punishing, so we were very glad that people were as friendly as they were as there was little in the way of shade to hide in.  One lift told us that the area in the picture flooded every year during the rainy season and so everything we could see was underwater a few months ago.  The further south we moved though, the scrub grew even thinner and the only thing breaking up the landscape was the occasional cement factory and ruined shacks.

When we arrived in Trujillo, we relished in the chance to do all kinds of luxurious things like lie on a bed and shower.  We also went for a wander to eat.  On the recommendation of a fellow Couchsurf who has been in Peru for a few months, we went to get some ceviche.  It was a huge helping (we shared one) of fresh scallops, crab, mussels, octopus and a lot of some delicious fleshy fish with yuca, something like yuca, all covered in a sharp lime sauce.  It was amazing and at the risk of this becoming a food blog, we've also been enjoying some other Peruvian food in the last couple of days.  Chica morada is a drink made from purple corn and with the cloves and cinnamon tasted for us like Christmas.  Cheap and easily wowed as we are, we have also been enjoying lots of fried corn that gets handed out as a side/appetiser often with garlic/lime sauce.

We're going to be here for a couple of days exploring before we move south.  There are nice fruit and veg markets here.  Peru grows everything from dozens of types of potatoes, to tropical fruits, to olives, so there is plenty options for us to munch on over the next few days.

Also, for those who didn't get the joke in the title- what were you doing with your childhoods?!

Good Browsers

We hitched and bussed our way across the mountains to just south of Popayán by the time it got dark.  We met someone else hitch-hiking and the three of us asked a family who had watched us unsuccessfully hitch for over an hour if we could sleep on their porch, to which they said yes.  Furthermore, they were having a birthday party for a five year old, and we received food and cake in return for entertaining the kids by telling them the English pronounciation of Spanish names.  Then a surprising amount of photos with us were taken.  This came on top of someone asking us to pose with her for a photo earlier that day on our journey for reasons she couldn't explain.  But it was a fun evening and good antidote to us both feeling a bit tired out.

Early the next day, we caught a ride on the back of lorry trailer for six hours through mountains that ranged from near vertical farms, to jungle, to cacti-filled desert:

it was beautiful, though as you can see quite dusty on our rear perch.  It was a good day of hitching however and we got all the way to Ipiales on the Ecuadorean border.  Checking our emails we found an Couchsurf invitation from someone who has a english language school there in town to come stay with his family and help out with some classes for as long as we're in town.  It was a pleasant surprise and we spent a couple of days in town, running lessons, resting and C recovering from a slight tummy bug.  We went out to the nearby Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Slab:

The church is right in the middle if you peak closely, and we also went down to it:

which was very pretty (though surely there was plenty of easier places to place a church we thought), the altar was backed by the uncut rockface within the church, which we liked more than the frequent gold-covered gold theme.

While eating in a little fonda, we also got to see a Colombian soap-opera, which was as truely terrible and hammy as people say.  It's hard to tell if it was worse than those in Mexico, but it was close.  Every woman under 60 was unable to display emotions as she was Botxed and the male "actors" had clearly confused expressing emotions with having a big hat and/or moustache.  At no point did anyone have a normal conversation and there was pathetic music that went "bum bum buuum" at dramatic moments.  C found it hilarious.

While in Ipiales we also both did some English lesson type things with various age groups.  We were kind of thrown in there with little help/idea, which was OK since J teaches anyway and we both have some teaching english experience but it was a bit ad-hoc and they didn't know that we weren't intimidated or anything.  It was fine though and even filled some of the 'doing a project' craving we've both been feeling.

On Thursday we crossed over into Ecuador and went to check out the graveyard in the border town of Tulcan.  But not for Edgar Allen Poe type reasons (although C still has his "Goth boots"), but because it was filled with lots of topiary of many animals and indigenous imagery and characters;

We travelled the rest of the way to Quito, but had a bit of a problem when our Couchsurf wasn't answering his phone to give us some directions.  Ok, we thought, there was a second Couchsurf who did give us directions, we'll just go to an Internet cafe and get them.  But we had reckoned without the insanely early closing time of nearly everything in Quito.  In the end J used a travel agent's computer for two minutes to get the info and we found the place.  There were a number of other Couchsurfers staying there as well, including some who had spent the last few months coming up from Chile and Argentina.  Although they had motorbikes, we shared similiar interests and budgets and thus were able to do a good info swap.  We even got a good map of Argentina, which will be the best (read only) map we've had since Mexico!

There are lots of excellent new fruit here as well and we've been enjoying cheap glasses of Taxo juice.  While searching for a exhibition of local artists we accidentally found the national history museum with lots of varied and interesting pottery, metalwork and manipulated skulls from various Pre-Colombian cultures in Ecuador.

On Friday we found an English language second hand bookstore, which usually lurk near hostels for other travellers like us who are as addicted to books as ever but not quite there with the Spanish to attempt grown up novels yet.  This one was a bit of a treasure trove and (J clutching an Isabel Allende, who she is in love with, novel tightly to her) we explored for what we thought was a reasonable amount of time.  The owner popped out and after only an hour or so returned and was heard (by C who was hidden in Science Fiction) having this conversation with the assistant-

"Did the Scottish girl buy anything then?"

"Oh, they're actually still here."

"Really?" Note of surprise.  "Hmm.  Good browsers."

Well, we try.

It is Carnival here, and although there is nothing as flamboyent as across the continent in Rio, we did come across many people doing different regional dances:

and many more people spraying everything that moved in foam.

Today we attempted to go to a "Carnival mask-making workshop" making masks out of recycled objects.  But when we got there we discovered everyone else either was, or was in the company of a, five year old.  It never occured to us that it would be a solely childrens activity...  The masks looked like paper and glitter affairs as well, and we made a hasty exit.

Tomorrow we're moving south, so this shall be our last post in the Northern Hemisphere.  On that note, one of the tourist attractions here is the "middle of the world" monument and line which countless people photograph themselves straddling (the line, not the monument).  The thing is, that this place is not in fact on the equator.  And if it is not actually on the equator, you may as well photo yourself standing astride a line drawn in the dirt of your own garden and not have to pay for the priviledge.  Anyway, if anyone wondered why we aren't there, there's your explanation.       

Art new and old

We arrived in Bogotá safely, having had a very nice lift with an electronic engineer who had just taken over his grandfather's small farm and was full of really interesting chat.  We also got to try lots more Colombian food like, a chilled oatmeal yoghurt drink called avena fria, delicious broth-like soups and Aguapanela, a hot sugar drink which did indeed come with a lump of cheese to go in it.  We got into the city, eventually got to our host's and promptly fell asleep.

The proper exploration of the city began on Monday.  Unfortunately, Monday is the day most of the museums are closed.  We did manage to get into the Donacion Botero, a large collection of works by and belonging to the artist whose sculptures we found in Medellin.  We quite liked them, the majority being big, chunky, lively figures like this version of the Mona Lisa after a few more empañadas

With much of the museums we had come to see shut, we just wandered around enjoying the city, both the old centre and some of the newer parts.  There was a lot more street art and graffiti than anywhere we've seen since Mexico and quite a few slogans and remains of paint-bombs on almost every government building.  Some of the street art was pretty impressive

We also had a really amazing lunch of Ajiaco, for surprisingly little money, given how stuffed we were at the end of it.

While there we explored a few areas of the city (though in a city of more than 8m people, it would take a lot longer to see it all), spent time in the Gold Museum, which has a large collection of Pre-Columbian metalwork and artifacts, and went out for drinks a couple of times with our host, who was a bastion of knowledge on Colombian Metal music.

It is our experience that there are an awful lot of police and army present all the time here.  We've been asked for documents a few times, just sitting in a park or on a bus.  And everywhere we've hitched there has been army and police checkpoints, staffed by teenage, bored-looking people, who sometimes just seem to require a thumbs-up to check everything is alright.

Though the distances aren't very large, the fact they cross over enormous mountains made hitch-hiking not the easiest we've had it.  And while we are enjoying Colombia in many ways, we have encountered some problems.  The hitching has also been complicated by people not being particularly keen to pick us up compared to parts of Central America.  People who have picked us up have explained that the recent history of the country explains this hesitancy, which we totally understand and can appreciate.  The far graver problem has been the lack of cheap beans in supermarkets.  Let us explain.  Ever since our first visit to Fred Meyer supermarket in Fairbanks, Alaska, tinned beans have been the mainstay of our hitching road food.  In Canada they came with maple syrup (whether you wanted them to or not), in the States it was tricky to find them without added bacon fat, in Mexico and Central America they switched to refried red or black beans, but all the way through we've pretty much been on a bean heavy diet.  Beans exist in Colombia, but not in any super-cheap and easy form.  We're experimenting with other tins, but it's just not quite the same.

We got some buses on Thursday to escape the urban sprawl of Bogotá and started hitching south.  Yesterday we arrived in San Agustín, via some amazing views of the Magdalena River, which runs almost the whole length of the country and featured heavily in some Gabriel Garcia Márquez books we read recently (we're somewhat underwhelmed by them to be honest, mostly about the concerns of old white men and their difficult bowels)

San Agustín is famous for its Pre-Columbian ruins and sculptures.  We found a nice camping site and today explored the biggest site in the area.

They're completely different to anything we saw in Central America.  This should be obvious, since we are thousands of miles away, but it can be easy to conflate everything called Pre-Columbian into one.  Very little seems to be known about the people who made these sculptures, you can tell because all the information pretty much describes what you can see in front of one, which is an archaeologist's way of not admitting they don't really know.  But they are still amazing to see and we can make up our own interpretations.

Someone who tried to sell us a guided tour did try to say that the statues show clear evidence of contact and cultural exchange with India and Egypt.  It's not that this is impossible and obviously we're not experts but, they didn't really.  The one supposed to be an elephant (only according to this one guide) could just as easily have been a javelina or ant-eater with added fangs (and they were big into fangs the sculptors were).  It just seemed to be one of these theories that tries to make history more "exciting" and that we came across in a few places in Mexico and probably will again in Peru.  It's never enough to appreciate what we're sure of and that ancient civilisations really did, we have to imbue them with magical powers, 21st century knowledge, and ideally have it all master-minded by a race of white people from Antarctica (true conspiracy theory).

Tomorrow we set off on a wiggly route to Ecuador, hopefully they have beans.