High in the North

After our one full day in Chiclayo and Lambeyeque, we headed to Chepen (the aforementioned “ancestral” homeland of Cesar’s clan). We had a lovely visit in that city with distant relatives who demonstrated graceful hospitality even though our visit was a complete surprise. At 11pm we boarded a bus for the five hour trip to the city of Cajamarca in the Northern highlands (2800 meters a.s.l.), where the last Inca leader, Atahualpa, was captured by Francisco Pizzaro in 1532.

Hotel options are slim when one arrives in a town at 4am, but someone did respond to our banging on a door in the town square and we all flopped down for a rest in a hotel low in amenities but high in character. With rumbling stomachs we headed out for breakfast around 8am and managed to find some turkey sandwiches (turkey sandwiches are a typical breakfast in most of Peru, accompanied by fresh fruit juice or god-awful instant coffee). After admiring the graceful colonial Plaza de Armas with its intricate antique wooden balconies, 350 year old fountain and fantastically ornate baroque cathedral, we visited the infamous chamber where Atahualpa was kept after his capture. A red line on the wall memorializes where he reached up and indicated how high his subjects would fill the large room with gold and silver to secure his release. He was clearly a tall man. Sadly, despite the ransom treasure, Pizarro drew up charges against Atahualpa and had him executed anyway. The Inca Empire quickly toppled under cruel European domination.

From one empire to another: our next stop was a mind boggling example of the excess adornments of the Catholic Church. This particular church however is a museum now and not a working church controlled by the Vatican. Our guide also gave us a very educational tour of the church’s hospital, also restored, and a museum of the local Cajamarquina culture. Interestingly, after the municipality’s complicated and expensive renovation of this once neglected and ruined space, now extraordinary and well maintained, (the church courtyard was used as a garbage dump before the renovation), the Catholic Church wants it back.

After hearing of that dirty business with the Church, we needed a bath. A 15 minute taxi ride took us to Los Baños del Inca – sulphurous thermal springs where Atahaulpa himself took the healing waters. The water’s natural temperature is 78 degrees Celsius. To make the water bearable, some is cooled and then mixed in with the hot. We enjoyed a leisurely soak in our individual private baths and then went in search of typical Norteño cuisine. Peruvian cuisine is varied, interesting and always delicious. More on this subject later.

It was time to end our little excursion to the Northlands and return by “cama” bus to Lima.

Next... High in the South.

Escape from Lima

View from the mirador over the beach in the wealthy neighborhood of Miraflores, in Lima.

It had been 5 days since we arrived in Lima. True to form, we came to Peru with no set itinerary. We had vague ideas that at some point we would head south, or north, or whatever… So, on Wednesday at 3:30pm Cesar discovered there was an 8pm bus to Chiclayo, the capital of Lambayeque Department. Since the bus-ride from Lima to Chiclayo is 12 hours, we wanted to get it over with at night, so we could sleep instead of wasting a day on the long, dusty, Pan American highway through the desert along the Pacific. To my Norte-Americano friends and family – I know that the word “bus” in South America fills you with images of an ancient vehicle packed with sweaty peasants with their assorted farm animals. Sorry, folks. Buses in South America are incredibly civilized and a comfortable way to travel. This one had fully reclining “cama” seats that turn into beds. It even had meal service, movies a bingo game with prizes and a “urination only” bathroom policy.

So, that would give us four hours to get ourselves ready. No problema. No problem for Cesar’s dad either. To the three of us, simply say “vamos” and we’re ready to go anywhere. Cesar’s mom opted to stay in Lima. She’s a city girl.

By the time we had decided to go, explored other transportation options, and then finally bought our tickets, our four hours had been whittled down to one and a half, with just barely enough time to get from the bus depot, through dense Lima rush-hour traffic across town, back to our apartment to pack in five minutes, and back through the same streets to the bus depot. Thanks to a cab driver with uncanny navigation skills of back streets, we just made it. Looking out of the taxi window on the way meet our bus, I saw a colorful blur of row houses to my right – sky blue, ochre, mango orange, algae green and deep purple. This was nice, but looking right or left in intersections is another story. I don’t recommend it. You will see the onrushing flow of traffic coming straight at you. At night the lights of the cars headed for your side door are blinding. Cars in Lima don’t really stop for each other, they just all kind of merge in with the flow and fill in the gaps. Lines painted on the road are there for decoration only. At lights, taxis jockey for position to try to get a slight edge on the other cars they are lined up with. With much swerving, honking of horns, and sudden braking, we arrived just in time for our bus.

We arrived in Chiclayo at 8am and went in search of breakfast, which turned out to be delicious turkey sandwiches – fresh hot rolls with moist real roasted turkey - like the day after Thanksgiving but better. Then we found rooms and headed to a town to the north which houses museums of nearby archeological finds of pre-Inca cultures. We spent an hour or two in a dark and cool museum shaped like a pyramid. You start at the top and descend down, just as the archeologists did who excavated this particular find at a site called Sipan. It contained unmolested burial chambers of important Mochica leaders and priests, buried with huge amounts of intricate objects of copper and gold.

It was an interesting day for transportation too. We arrived in a luxurious bus, took a taxi to the town of Lambayeque to see the Museo de las Tumbas Reales de Sipan (12 soles for the 12 km drive), then after our museum tour went to a restaurant (for outstanding cebiche, and stewed goat and duck) by way of a taxi cholo – a lot like a rickshaw, but with a motorcycle converted into a three wheeled contraption with a long seat in the back, then another taxi cholo, which broke down on the way to our destination, then a collectivo which is the size of a VW microbus in which they cram up to 15 people. That ride, from Lambayeque back to Chiclayo was only 3 soles. The collectivos really are something. In addition to the driver there is an assistant whose job is to look for pedestrians in need of a ride. The assistant will hop out of the vehicle to shout prices and route information and generally try to get walkers to get in and take a ride. Then he’ll run for the already moving vehicle when it’s time to go and jump in. Ours was nearly left behind though because Cesar closed the sliding door just as he was trying to grab it. Cesar swears it was just force of habit that lead him to close the door. All of the passengers had a chuckle over that.

Tomorrow we’re off to Chepen, 40 km to the south to see Cesar’s ancestral homeland.
One of these days I’ll get around to posting more about our recent trip to Patagonia. For now I’ll try to keep up with our time in Peru.

Taxi cholo, taken from the back of our taxi cholo