Rambling Robert's Travels

This blog chronicals the travels of myself, Rambling Robert, on my next adventure to South America.

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I am a world traveller. I do not work as such. I have been homeless and unemployed since 1October 2003. I worked as a chef for 30 years in America.

Monday, June 20, 2005

travel update from Trujillo Peru

Hola Amigos, Que Tal?
Well lets see...Its monday the 20th of June. I have been in Peru a month and 2 days and I am in a northern city near the Pacific Ocean called Trujillo. I have come to check out the pyramids at Chan Chan and Moche.
The last two days I was in Casma. Now we are out of the tourist loop and off the gringo trail. About 180 km south of Trujillo. It is a small provincial town with some interesting ruins about 5 km out of town called Sechin. No one I have met here has heard of Sechin or Casma. I was the only gringo I saw in town for two days. I was the only gringo in my hotel and the only gringo at the ruins. I liked Casma. It is not a "doing" place. It is a "being" place. I didnt really do much there I was just kind of being. Its cool for me to get off the track and just hang out in a place where there arent any extranjeros. Just hanging out in the plaza or drinking nescafe in a little jugoria. Watching the people shop in the market. Eating Ceviche in the street on a plastic stool off a chipped wooden counter with everybody looking at me and saying "Que Aproveche" and the cook explaining the recipe too me. The peruvians are friendly when you get off the gringo trail. But of course, the gringo trail goes through the nicest parts. Casma isnt really pretty. Oh no. its dog ugly. but its kindo of cool its just small town home town Peru. Its where the people live. I ask someone how to get to the ruins and he asked what ruins? Not really a tourist attraction.
Before Casma I stayed in Miraflores, which is a posh neighborhood in Lima. I was only going to stay for a day or a couple of days at the most, but I wound up there for 6 days. I was in a most excellent hostal called Home Peru. It was such a cool place and I met such cool travelers that I stayed for almost a week! Miraflores is a really nice part of Lima. Lima is NOT one of the worlds great citys. Nahh sorry mate. Not in the top 10. But Miraflores is fun in a boring kind of way.
Nasca was the stop right before Lima. Went to see the famous Nasca lines and the open cemetary. The lines were a let down to be honest. The deserted open cemetary is a trip. There are all these old bleached white human bones strewn around everywhere. Just the way grave robbers alegedly left them. It was a pretty goulish experience.

Huacachina is a cool little place. An odd little place. It is in a sand dune dessert and in the center of this tiny town is a beautiful little lake. A true dessert oasis. I stayed in a great little place called Arena and just hung out at the pool for three days and did NOTHING!! It was great. Huacachina is just a couple of kilometeres from Ica which is also NOT a tourist town. Just a big, crowded, dirty, sprawling, totally Peruian, town. But Huacachina is special.I am glad I went to Huacachina. You can skip Ica all together.
PENGUINS!!! PENGUINS yes I went penguin watching again, this time from the Belestra Isla off the coast near the city of Pisco. Humboldt Penguins are seen here. A rare and endangered species of Penguin.There are only 3500 of them alive in the world. I was grateful to see them. I spotted about a dozen, I went on a little boat tour and saw a bazillion sea lions and peruvian Boobys and cormorans and pelicans and seals. Of course for me the highlight was the Penguins.
So now I am in Trujillo. I will be in Peru for about another week or two and then I will cross into Ecuador. Next update from Ecuador.
Peace to All
Rambling Robert.

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