Goodbye Peru

After Huaraz, I had nothing else I really wanted to achieve in Peru. I could have hopped a bus straight to Ecuador, but there was a friend from Saskatoon I intended to visit. She had flown to Colombia with her bike and was bikepacking down through the Andes towards Lima. Finding a time and place to meet up was difficult, but seeing as I had all the time in the world we could make it work. The plan was to shoot for Cajamarca within one week, so I gathered my stuff, went around the town giving the dogs some goodbye kisses and started to pick my way northward.

Trujillo

I got into Trujillo in the middle of the night, without a place to stay. I asked the taxi driver to go to a cheap place near centro and he agreed. We drove down and he stopped at a hotel that looked fancy. Not fancy enough to host the Queen, but maybe one of the royals nobody really cares about.

Being a proud individual of substantial means I entered anyways. I made a good attempt at making an exit without seeming as though it was the cost that deterred me.

“I presume breakfast is included?”

“But of course sir.”

“Very good, very good. And of course there will be a jacuzzi in my quarters?”

“This is not a hotel for peasants sir, there will be both a sauna and a hot tub.”

“Hmm, and all water closets include a bidet?”

“No sir, but hygienic paper is included.”

This was the opportunity I had waited for. Turning my nose to the sky, I let out the most scoffing tut-tut I could muster and strolled out into the night.

Going out in the wee hours of the morning was a bit of a miscalculation. Nothing happened to me, but walking around with all my possessions on my back through abandoned streets felt less spectacularly liberating than I had anticipated. When I came across a hostel I knocked and hoped they would take me in. They did.

It was a fine place, but within my quarters I had to overcome my fear of spiders, and pretend I didn’t hear the scurrying going on in the thatch roof. The scurrying wasn’t too bad in the end, it’s easier to sleep with a little white noise anyhow! In the mornings I would enjoy some breakfast, coffee and pray my toes don’t get bitten off by the tortoise pet.

If you like colours, Trujillo is one location in the world where you can see some. The region encircling the Plaza De Armas has been sprayed with yellows, blues and reds. The best part however is if you happen to show up at the same time as the random Mariachi band.

Speaking of hats, lets go down a quick Peruvian cultural rabbit hole. We will return to Trujillo shortly. DON’T WORRY TRUJILLO FANS!

Interlude: The Many Hats of Peru

Throughout this rabbit hole, I want to clarify that absolutely no research was done. All I am offering is my opinion and observations. However, I would still consider you, dear reader, as being very lucky because I hold my opinions and observations in extremely high regard.

Every location within Peru has a different local hat for the women to wear. This trend continues into Bolivia, as me and Andrew saw our absolute favourite hats – tiny black bowlers that provided no sun shade or rain protection whatsoever – in the airport of La Paz.

It seems to me that the many hats are typically worn by the indigenous women. The hats are taken seriously, in the andes everyone had plastic hat bags that they would wear on their heads during rain. The hat didn’t come off, the bag went on.

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Like I said before, I have nothing to say definitively. All I know is that every city I went to had a predominant hat style, and they changed frequently.

Back to Trujillo

If that break in the narrative flow caused anyone anxiety I apologize. But life is full of twists and turns, so maybe it ended up being a good exercise for you. Trujillo has several ancient adobe building sites. Large complexes with intricate reliefs pushed into the mud.

Shockingly, my favourite site was not even a UNESCO world heritage site! Under normal circumstances this would mean I would never even consider going to it, but fate must have drawn me there. The reliefs were so amazingly well preserved, and had even predicted a pulp culture phenomenon well before its time.

This culture had successfully predicted the 2003 hit classic “Elf” with this early portrayal of the titular character amongst the evergreens. Other civilizations attempted to predict things (see “MAYANS” re: end of world) but came up short. Surrounding the elf character dragons make out and tongue each other, which of course symbolizes good luck and prosperity. Now consider this:

I came away from this place confused. The universe is large and full of mysteries, and I am but a humble observer. The ancients truly had a phenomenal amount of knowledge and ways of knowing we may never recover. In the words of Buddy the Elf: “You did it! Congratulations! Worlds best *prediction*! Great job, everybody! Its great to be here.”

Cajamarca

My amiga was nearing Cajamarca so it was time to leave. Having not learned my lesson I showed up in Cajamarca very early and with no place to stay. Cue knocking on places! This went on for some time, until one place let me sleep on their couch. This only reaffirmed in my mind that planning ahead was pointless.

While this was going on, storms were surging higher in the mountains, making it impossible for my friend to arrive for a few days. So I went about wandering, made some new friends and tried new fruit.

Interlude: You Better Believe its A Fruit Interlude

My new favourite activity is finding new fruit and trying them. I have no idea how they taste let alone how to even eat them. This usually results in me savagely tearing the fruit apart and trying to make do. Some favourites:

Finding fruit and going for it is a lot of fun. I like to post my eatings, especially because I have many Peruvian and Ecuadorian friends here and at home that like to comment and share their knowledge with me. I had just posted my latest fruit:

When I got the informative texts I had come to expect. “It’s called Pitajaya. Peel it like an orange, but only eat half, otherwise you will get diarrhea!” “Perfect! Thanks for the heads up!” I replied while finishing the last bite of the fruit. Luckily my stomach had strengthened a bit in the past few months. I was merely gassy.

Back to Cajamarca

Cajamarca is the scene of Peru’s biggest carnival experience, and the city was getting more and more ready by the day.

There is lots to do around the Cajamarca, but it is similar to Huaraz. Hikes in the volcanic hills, or enjoying thermal springs. Instead I just walked around and tried to get lost.

Me and my new Austrian friend took a day to visit Polloc, to see an interesting church filled with crazy mosaics and gold.

He believes that in the churches around here there is the inclusion of imagery from psychedelics. He said south america has a strange fusion of the Shaman/Drug type of religious experience and Catholicism. Kind of like the spiritual version of Tex-Mex. I am not sure where I land on his musings, but it would really help to explain the eyes of all these murals.

Finally the roads cleared and the fellow Saskatchewaner was able to arrive in Cajamarca. She too had made a new friend, so the four of us went on a long trek out of the city to an ancient funerary called Otuzko.

After that day we all moved on. My friend from Sask had a flight to catch in Lima, and my new Austrian friend was jungle bound. So I made an attempt to get out of there also. It was nearly unsuccessful, but eventually I found one seat with the last bus company I went to. It was barebones and too hot to sleep. To make matters worse, this was the day I had eaten the diarrhea fruit. I think I wracked up enough bad gas karma that I will spend my next life as a fart cloud.

I arrived in Chiclayo and somehow slept sitting upright on the floor in the middle of the bus terminal. Eventually I got kicked out and began my walk to the next bus terminal I required (Peruvian bus lines are all decentralized from each other). It was incredibly hot there, and my back sweat nearly destroyed my journal. I bought a ticket to Cuenca for later that day and went about killing time. There is really nothing to report about Chiclayo.

Conclusions

Peru is a great place. Wait for old friends, but make new ones in the mean time. Some background research into fruits you eat can pay dividends, sometimes not just for yourself. Pre-planning is for chumps. An ancient civilization predicted “Elf” and not enough people are talking about it.

Reid Patterson

Currently headed to Cuenca, Ecuador