Good things, bad things.

First I'll start with the good...

Overall the last 5 days have been fantastic. Last Wednesday I travelled to Kuélap, which is a pre-Incan walled fortress. It was amazing and very beautiful. It's situated in cloud forest so you can see bromeliads, humming birds and other lovely stuff there. We actually saw a baby hummingbird in it's nest which was really very cute indeed!

On the way to Kuélap we stopped at a restaurant to order our lunch, whilst there I got chatting to a really nice Canadian couple who were on a tour just behind mine. I talked to them more at lunch time and found out they were planning to travel to Cajamarca the next day. They also told me about the vegetarian restaurant below their hostel and said they would probably be there that evening. I then made my decisions as had been umming about whether to go to Cajamarca or Huanchaco and decided on Cajamarca. I was also ridiculously pleased to eat lots of vegetable at a vegetarian restaurant as my diet has been quite carbohydrate based in Peru.

The next day I was up before dawn to get the bus to Cajamarca at 6am, Vanessa and Remi rolled in just before the bus left. The journey to Cajamarca was beautiful and terrifying in fairly equal parts. We crossed mountain passes at an altitude of about 4000m first - I actually had to shut my eyes at this point as I was sitting on the wrong side of the bus relative to the side of the road. There wasn't much road and there were sheer drops from the road down to the valley, far, far below! 

Later we came into a really lush valley around a river; away from the river it was more like desert. We climbed higher, snaking around mountains, back to an altitude of about 3000m. Beautiful green countryside - thankfully not quite as scary as the ones earlier in the day. I managed to take some photos from the bus window which made me happy. We stopped in Celendin for an hour and found some lunch. Stephanie, who I was sitting next to (German), seemed unimpressed by the inefficiency of the bus and the number of stops - hahaha! I, however, didn't mind so much.

We eventually arrived in Cajamarca 12 hours after our journey had begun, by which time we had all decided to get a hostel together. Thursday night was very chilled, and Vanessa and I decided that a day relaxing at El Baños de la Inca would be perfect.

Friday came around and we headed for girly relaxation. Hour long massages followed by a soak in our own personal bath. Unfortunately the massage did not last for an hour - I complained and got some extra time. I think the guy may have been pissed off but he certainly found the crunchy bits in my back second time around. He also told me that I have problems with my sciatic nerve - this was when I was yelping somewhat. The long hot soak afterwards was most welcome.

On Friday evening, after some delicious pasta at Om Gri (promised the owner I'd mention him), we watched some crazy street performers. Afterwards we got talking to them and Vanessa and I went dancing with them. Who says white girls can't salsa? I certainly proved that they can, although it was helped by the fact that I had an amazingly good dance partner in Alex, one of the performers.

Hilariously, the music in the bar we were in was provided by a guy on a casio keyboard!

Our next location for dancing turned out to be on the streets! There are pre-carnival things going on here in Cajamarca and we found ourselves dancing on the streets with the locals - it was incredible. Such energy from so many people, and live music. I was so very happy, in fact Alex seemed amazed by how happy I am just from dancing! The only downside were the riot police at the end of the street - why is it that in most countries the police don't like to see a large group of people enjoying themselves?

When it looked like the mood could change we escaped to another club and stayed dancing there until about 5am. All in all a fantastic night and certainly my best in Peru so far.

Saturday was a very lazy day. Sunday however turned into yet another great day, chilling in the plaza with Vanessa whilst Remi played Chess against Alex. An old local guy also came to join the chess tournament! In the evening Vanessa and I met up with Alex, Liam, Liam's dad, Carlos and Su. We ended up chilling with them at their hotel which was really nice and there was a lot of laughter.

Many good things, now on to the bad things...

• I have been overcharged on my credit card by two airline companies - this amounts to over £500. It will get sorted, but I'm still waiting for a promised phone call to be returned.
• I am being charged for $300 that never came out of a cash machine in Cumbáya. Again I will get this back, but it's going to take time. I also need to find somewhere with a scanner so I can email the form. (Hoping my hostel in Rio will let me do this.)
• My ipod is dead.

I know that all of these things can be fixed, but it's annoying and takes time and thought. However at the moment, I'm fed up of waiting for the return call and am going to find some lunch.

PS Promise to post some photos soon.

El Señor De Sipán y Pyramides de Túcume

After the fairly crappy day which was Saturday I headed out on my guided tour on Sunday. I have to admit to being fairly excited about the prospect of having people to talk to after two days of my own company in crappy hotel rooms.

Arriving at the tour company I got told off for not waiting for the transport from the hotel. I had had an attack of insecurity that the transport wouldn't appear and decided to walk to the office. I tried to communicate this to the receptionist at my hotel, but obviously didn't make myself clear enough. 

I was extremely pleased to meet a Japanese girl and an American woman whilst waiting for the group to arrive, wasn't so happy when I was told to sit in the back of the bus because I'm 'bigger' than them! Great way to help my ego after a day of feeling fairly low.

The tour began in Sipán where we mostly learnt about El Señor de Sipán and the way in which he was buried. Our guide worked very hard to keep us all together and impart the information in both Spanish and English. It was all very interesting, however I tend to like wandering in museums and taking the information in at my own speed - usually much faster than the guide! I won't bore you with the details of the relics, you can follow the links yourself if you want to find out more. The information that has stayed stuck in my mind, is the fact that in one of the tombs (sorry, can't remember which one), is the body of a woman who had been made to drink poison, then pushed into the tomb where she died and was then buried. My American friend and I decided it would be nice one day to find a tomb of some ancient civilization where it was the woman who died of natural causes and the men pushed into the tomb!

One hilarious part of the tour was definitely the guide, he was most insistent about where the best places to take pictures were and several times told us we should take photos of the printed information so that we would not forget!

During the tour I started to chat to a Peruvian guy who lives, and grew up, in Sweden. I thought he was a bit annoying at first but as the day went on realised he just enjoyed taking the piss out of everything. My kind of person! On our way to lunch we were joined by a German guy.

Did you hear the one about the Swedish Peruvian, the German and the English girl? 

Well, at museum number two, where the original artefacts of El Señor are held, we all started to mess around a bit. Our poor guide was working so hard, but we kept wandering off. The majority of the information was a repetition of what we'd learnt in the morning. Additionally, the artefacts are incredibly beautiful and I just wanted to enjoy them. German guy kept telling me off - in a jokey way. I told him I was trying to incite some anarchy!

The last visit was to the pyramids of Tücume - which was the place I really wanted to see, from a photographic viewpoint. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told we were too late to go into the museum (even after trying to bribe the guard!). However, luckily, we adopted a new mini guide called Junior, who snuck us in round the back. We had to turn right by the cows; traverse the dung heap; through the trees; lo and behold there were the pyramids.

They really are an impressive site as at first glance they look like mounds of earth, then you realise that they have been constructed with adobe bricks. They are huge! It was also really cool to find out about these amazing pre-Incan civilizations. Normally when you think of Peru, you think Inca. Yet there are so many more archaeological sights dating back long before them.

Having spent a great deal of the day laughing and joking with my two amigos, I decided to delay my onward journey to Chachapoyas by one day so that I could go out and drink some beers with them in the evening. Antonio kindly helped me get a room at his hotel and we went out later to meet the German and surprise him (he didn't know I'd decided to stay).

A great evening ensued. We couldn't find a bar at first so we bought some beer and sat drinking them in the town square. Later on we went to a bar/club - it wasn't very busy, but they served good mojitos! I enjoyed dancing with Antonio - he was definitely up for ridiculous dancing and it's always entertaining to see the Latino reaction to a white girl (or gringa) shaking her stuff on the dance floor.

Eventually the night came to an end and we all departed to crash.

Yesterday I hung out with Jan (the German) until I got my bus to Chachapoyas in the evening. I thought I'd been very clever ordering a vegetarian meal for the bus, but no, not that clever, they didn't have anything vegetarian. Had a wonderful meal of carbs - rice, potato and yuca, avoiding the meat content. 

My neighbour on the bus was a rather large Peruvian gentleman, who squished me somewhat once he fell asleep. Note to self - make sure you ask for a seat next to another female type person.

I arrived in Chachapoyas at about 5am and for once didn't have to argue with a taxi driver about the hotel I wanted to go to. After a wait of about an hour or so, I had my own room with a choice of two beds, tv, table and chairs, bathroom and a balcony with a view over the main square. Perfecto! 

I've had a very chilled day thinking about where I want to go and what I want to see over the next few months - it's been really lovely to be in a space where it's been comfortable to do that.

Tomorrow I visit Kuélap.

Canoa to Chiclayo

Just over a week ago, Friday 11th, Jake and I arrived in Canoa to celebrate his birthday in a suitably debauched manner. This was certainly achieved on Friday night, when amongst other things, we were served disco shots. I've always thought that drinking blue drinks is wrong, however when there's a gorgeous Swedish guy making them and encouraging you to drink them, it's sort of hard to say no. Getting up on the bar to dance straight after two of these shots may not have been my best ever idea, but luckily I didn't fall!

The other main activity of the night was watching people getting tattoos - The Surf Shak now has an amazing Lithuanian tattoo artist working there. Most of the tattoos were incredibly beautiful, however one, was much less so. A design of a pig around an 'outie' belly button, the 'outie' providing the pig with his snout. Of course on Friday night whilst drunk this seemed like an awesome idea, not so sure the wearer of the pig was so convinced on Saturday morning - although he quickly had to accept it as he has no other choice.

Saturday was fairly uneventful and luckily not hungover!

On Sunday we went over to Pete and Maija's where I cooked curry for everyone. Really enjoyed cooking, but unfortunately whilst cooking I lost sight of my clipper - serves me right for being smug about having such a good lighter all the way from home. I hoped it would come back to me before I left Canoa, but sadly no. However I do now have a particularly ugly brown lighter which belongs to the main suspect! (I know the traumas I have in my life - hahaha!)

Jake left on Monday which was horrible from my point of view, but he has promised to come and see me in Vietnam.

Tuesday and Wednesday were good days, spent a lot of time with Pete, Maija and the Swedes (the guys who bought Frans' share of The Surf Shak). One of said Swedes is particularly gorgeous, but no luck there unfortunately! Nice to have some decent eye candy though - haha! I'm hoping to catch up with all of the Surf Shak posse in Sweden for midsummer.

On Thursday morning I left Canoa and headed to Guayaquil to begin my journey south to Peru. I was really sad to leave Canoa after yet another awesome time there. Particularly hard knowing I may not get back to Ecuador, felt like I was leaving home all over again. Luckily I had company en route which made it a little easier.

Guayaquil was hot, sticky and not exactly overwhelming. I have never had the urge to visit it and probably wouldn't again. We saw a shopping mall, where I managed to get some cream for my poor feet that have been dinner for a lot of mosquitoes in Canoa, but that was about it.

I left Guayaquil early on Friday morning on a bus heading to Piura in Peru. I had been feeling nervous about crossing the border into Peru for quite a while and was pleased that it all seemed to go smoothly, yet became somewhat baffled when the bus with my main rucksack in drove away. Thankfully the guy who was sitting next to me on the bus started chatting to me and reassured me and after some time the bus returned - still don't understand why it didn't wait though. He pretty much took me under his wing and made sure I was okay at the Peruvian border too. With hindsight I'm glad I did the crossing in the day time, as I think I would have been more freaked out at night.

I finally arrived in Piura about 12 hours after I left Guayaquil. Bluntly the place smelt of shit, due to burst sewers, and I really didn't want to stay. Two Chilean lads were very sweet and tried to help me get a bus to Chiclayo, unfortunately, by the time I got there I was too late and my only option was to spend a night in Piura. My taxi driver took me to a hotel he knew and I was too tired to argue. The room was small and stuffy, but at least clean and had wifi.

At 5am this morning, I got on yet another bus to Chiclayo. Again I was in the hands of a taxi driver to find somewhere to stay. We tried a few places in my guidebook, but they were full or seemed expensive. He brought me to the Tumi de Oro - it looks nice from the outside and is cheap, but honestly, the room I'm in is grim. I will be testing my silk sleeping bag liner tonight as I'm not sure how clean the sheets are.

When I got shown the room this morning, I was on the verge of tears. I know this was partly because of tiredness and a need for food. I also know it's due to feeling homesick and lonely having left Ecuador. Luckily Adri and Lou were online to talk to.

Chiclayo is a busy town, but I didn't see any other backpacking type folks till this evening. I have also been on a bit of a bungee rope to the hotel, as I've not been entirely convinced that my goods and chattels would still be here when I returned. On a brighter note though, I have organised a tour to see Sipán and the pyramids of Túcume tomorrow. This will keep me busy all day and then afterwards I'm going to get a bus to Chachapoyas where hopefully there will be nicer hostels and some people to meet!

Fait Accompli

I have accepted the job in Vietnam today, now awaiting further information!