Today is an odd port time day. We are here from 11 to 5, so at least there is no rush off the ship in the morning. We leisurely have breakfast in La Cocina, then get ourselves ready to head out.
We actually arrive a little early here in Salaverry, and are off the ship pretty quickly. We can walk out of the port, or take a shuttle to the port entrance, which we decide to do and that goes fairly quickly. Once at the port entrance, there is a queue and loads and loads of taxi drivers and tour hucksters. It’s crazy – and to add to the mess – we have to give the security guards our ship cards, and he writes down each of our names as we leave. Ugh. This will take a while for the others behind us.
Our plan for the day is to simply get a taxi into Trujillo, a colonial city about 7 miles from here. Ed has read somewhere that there is a shuttle going into town, so we head out into the taxi driver melee to look for the shuttle. No can see. There is a bus in the back of this chaos with a sign, but it says tour. So, we try to negotiate with a taxi driver who wants 50 Soles to go into town – that’s $15US which is really steep in our minds. Then another driver comes by, and they get into a discussion and this other guy says $20US. I of course argue and say no, 50 Soles is $15US. They shake their heads, but then they sort of agree. But we’re still not paying that much to go into town. So we are sort of at a loss.
We spy the bus again, and walk over to check it out. There is a handwritten sign on yellow construction paper that says “All Day Tour – Chan Chan, Sol & Luna, Main Square, Huanchaco beach – $20.” Well, what the heck? Sure beats $15 each way to Trujillo. So we try to talk to the driver (who actually was the first guy who approached us at the port entrance), who speaks no English. We eventually confirm $20, all those sights, back at 4pm. We’re adventurous. We climb aboard and take our places behind the driver.
Then comes the wait. The other guy is out in the crowds trying to get people to come join the tour, and there are no takers. And I mean none. We sit on the bus for watching everyone come and go, hopping in taxis, but no one will join us. We even start getting off to try to talk people into joining us. But it’s not happening. So, we sit, and sit, and sit. We finally say we’re giving up at 11:45 and will just pay the highway robbery into Trujillo – but then I get antsy at 11:37 and say let’s go. We hop off the bus and start to try to find the driver guy, when I turn around and see he’s got a group of 8 following him to the bus. Yes! Let’s go.
Turns out this is a group of 8 Argentinians, most of whom speak absolutely no English either. This will be fun! Our cute driver now rips off the $20 at the bottom of the sign (what does that mean?) and we start to roll out of the port area, honking at people walking on the street and yelling to them to hop aboard. This is too fun. We actually pick up 1 single German traveler (who speaks no Spanish and only a little English) and 2 Australian women. And that’s it – the 13 of us are off on this adventure in Trujillo.
The drive into Trujillo is really interesting – desert like surroundings, not too much green, and desolate landscape at the port turns into green farmland and typical adobe type brick built houses lined up along an irrigation ditch with concrete bridges that allow you to cross over to the homes and/or shops.
We drive through little bumpy streets toward our first stop of Sol y la Luna, the archeological site that contains adobe brick temples dedicated to the sun and the moon. We can start to see the excavation and some of the archeological finds as we approach the complex.
We stop outside the actual complex first, at some little artisan place. As it turns out, one of the Argentinians speaks pretty decent English, so he sort of translates a bit and lets us know we can get out to look here. So we do.
As it turns out, it is a traditional potter who lives (or at least works) here and the driver gets him to show us how he makes his pottery with molds and clay.
It’s very interesting, and the Argentinians decide we should give the guy “propina” or a tip. So we give him $1 each, and he seems embarrassed or something. Then he says he has a gift for me (why just me, I’ve no idea) and he proceeds to climb through the window of the house (the one pictured above) and comes back with these 2 pottery pieces that he then tries to sell to us for $3 more. We say no, and walk away sort of disgusted, but then he gives the guys this little Peruvian face thing and they give it to me as my gift. Well, neat. It’s really sort of cool looking – and I find out later it is actually a flute type musical thing you can blow through to make sounds. Aw, even better.
But, we spent a little too much time there, we think, so when we get to Sol y Luna, we only have 20 minutes (veinte minutos – at least we know numbers!). Not happening. Just to get up to the excavation site is a hike up this huge hill – so we ditch it and wander around the complex at the base of the hill, leafing through a photo book that describes the paintings and hieroglyphics found in the temples. Then we shop around the little artisan market and end up with a great pair or earrings and a cool silver and leather bracelet. $5.50 for both. Not a wasted stop, if I do say so myself.
Back on the bus we have stragglers. Bummer – we really thought we’d all be back on time, especially since everyone was in the market with us. Sigh. But stragglers, they are, and it takes 10 more minutes for all of us to be back aboard before heading into town. We take this little dirt road where the bus alone can barely fit, but then 2 cars come toward us and just barely pass without falling into the irrigation ditch. Solo en Peru.
It takes about 20 minutes to get into town, and the Argentinian woman in front of me wants to chat. I’m brushing up on my Spanish now – I finally figure out she wants to know what I bought, so we compare our treasures as the bus passes by fields and an industrial area, and then into the town where the streets get more commercial and more busy with lots of traffic and people. This is not at all what we expected. It is much bigger and more commercial – we expected a little sleepy colonial village and got a big city instead. The bus drops us off right in front of the main cathedral (which isn’t open, but I still get some good shots through the gates) and across from the main square.
We have close to an hour to explore here, so our first stop is the square, covered in some sort of tile that makes it look wet. It is a pretty open space with an incredibly massive marble sculpted statue in the middle. The statue is fantastic, and we spend a few minutes wondering at the sheer size and artistry, but there isn’t really a lick of shade in this plaza, so we take a few pix and then quickly head off in search of food.
The streets are crowded, the temperature is rising, there aren’t any restaurants on this little pedestrian lane we walked along – and the restaurants we saw from the bus are a few blocks away. We turn and head back to the square where we find our driver talking to some other guys. We ask him for a quick restaurant – he doesn’t get it, but finally we land on rapid food – and he says ah! And turns us around, we are right in front of a little restaurant where he says there is Pollo Asado. Perfect! It’s right here near the bus, and the driver/guide knows where we are if we run late.
Called Plaza Chicken Grill, it’s a small little diner type affair, with a menu, but also the menu selections written on a sign above the counter.
We chose Pollo a la Brasa 1/4 each which comes with salad and the ubiquitous papas fritas! I wanted to try the Pollo a la Broaster (no clue what it was, but thought we’d experiment), but they didn’t have any – just Brasa, so that’s what we had – along with the truly local beer: Trujillo.
It’s a feast. And oh so good. The chicken is cooked perfectly – Peruvian chicken – what’s not to love? The salad is surprisingly good as well, dressing is excellent and fresh beets to boot. And all for the low, low price of $4.50 US each. You can’t beat that. Plus, they have decent bathrooms. Always a bonus.
We’re back outside and to the bus right on time. So is the rest of our crew, who are looking a bit wilted and hot. I’m guessing they didn’t stop somewhere for sustenance or to cool off. But we are all here on time, so off we go to Chan Chan (which Carlos says is the best place to go, and not to bother with Trujillo).
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