Well this is nice little town

  Chiclayo, Peru Sunday, January 3, 2016

We were at the Mancora travel shop by 8:30 am today as we are heading to Chiclayo. It was already very hot and we were on the bus by 9am but for some reason they kept us on the bus until 10am as they didn't want to leave until it was full! Cheers amigos - we will just sit here and sweat for an hour whilst you round up a few more passengers! Never-mind - we were out of here - Mancora "eat our dust!". The drive to Chiclayo was to take about 4 hours and at last we would get to see some Peruvian scenery today. On the way we went through the town of Lambeyeque which had a huge sign at the entrance - inviting you to visit their ancient temples. We noted it for later and drove on through the desert.One of the things we found quite shocking was the sheer amount of rubbish littering the sides of the road. We were on the PanAmerican Highway again and it was shocking just how much litter there was. We certainly didn't expect it - even through the desert where there are no people. Quite sad! The actual scenery was quite striking though. Very barren but with the mountains always to our left, they were the perfect backdrop for the bare desert. A few communities also lived in the desert and life there looked extremely tough. It was extremely hot this day and the bus didn't have any AC so we had to have the windows open the whole way. Trouble is we crossed a desert and it was so dusty. We were filthy when we arrived at the bus terminal in Chiclayo but there was no way we could have shut the windows - we would have melted. We grabbed a taxi driver to take us to our hostel - we had pre booked again hoping it would be better than the one in Mancora. The taxi driver was mental!He was driving on the wrong side of the road and nearly hit a motorbike. When the biker gave him a one fingered salute, he stopped the taxi and was going to chase the biker and punch him! We got a bit stroppy with him at this stage and eventually we made it safely to our room. Our fears were unfounded as we had a lovely room and the people running it were really friendly and homely. Not like the battle-axe running the last place. Witch! Chiclayo turned out to be a really lovely, friendly, modern town and we felt very comfortable walking around here. It was a nice temperature if not a little too hot during the day but the evenings were perfect. Around 20 degrees we'd say. The town itself was easy to walk around and nothing was too far away. Ten minutes walk in one direction was a very modern mall and 10 minutes in the other was the town centre. There are lots of nice places to eat and lots of nice streets to explore too.We found it funny that the town square in the centre had a christmas display with snowmen again. Even in the soaring daytime heat, these snowmen stood their ground and refused to melt! Jody got playing with a few cameras at the mall. The choice is ten times better than it was in Ecuador so replacing the broken one is a real possibility now - we just have to find the right one. On the 6th, we finally got our act together and took a trip to Lambeyeque and it's ancient temples. This region has a very ancient history that predates the Incas by about 1000 years. Most of their buildings were made from mud bricks so not everything has survived. But a lot has and the ancient Cipan tribes have left a lasting legacy here. A lot of the ancient sites in Peru have been plundered and robbed over the years. But these ruins were only discovered about 30 years ago and everything inside was intact. The gold, the pottery and the bodies. All lying there for a 1000 years undisturbed - until now. However once discovered they really couldn't be left there as modern plunderes would soon be in there robbing it and selling all the ancient artefacts on the black market - which is where a lot of it ends up.So the museums they have created are truly beautiful. So beautifully laid out and very tastefully presented. You really felt like you were in a modern art gallery not a museum of ancient stuff. That too is down to the quality of the artefacts and that they have only recently come to the surface so they are beautifully preserved. There was an English couple on the bus - from Reading of all places - less than an hour down the road from us. It's a small world. So it was good to chat to them as they were well travelled too. It's always great to swap stories with other travellers. The ruins were very hot to walk around but it was great to see the excavations going on and even now more artefacts are being found. It is amazing how considering it was all built from mud, that it has survived too. The only disappointment with the day was that the final museum - the biggest one - refused to let guides give the information in two languages - English or Spanish but as there were only 4 English speaking people on the bus, then it was Spanish for us. Unlike the other museums, they did not have the stories translated alongside either so it was a double hit for us. All politics we were told but we were the ones who missed out because of it and we told them so in the visitors book at the end. Such a shame as they have a great museum there.We have enjoyed the town of Chiclayo very much. We loved the fact that our hosts brought us breakfast on a tray every morning as they didn't have a restaurant on site. We loved the town itself and the people here have been really lovely too. Bus tickets in hand though, it time to leave and get to Huanchaco. We have been planning this next stop for 4 years - ever since we got back from our first epic world adventure. We are excited but apprehensive at the same time. We are not used to staying in one place for very long always moving on when we get fed up. Lets hope Otra Cosa Network have plenty arranged to keep us occupied - we are sure they will have. Well we will find out tomorrow!   [gallery columns="4" ids="13952,13958,13964,13968,13973,13976,13978,13984,13991,13997,13999,14002,14006,14010,14013,14020,14024,14026,14032,14035,14039,14045,14049,14051,14059,14063,14066,14070,14075,14080,14088,14093,14097,14101,14108,14113,14118,14119,14123,14126,14131,14137,14139,14141,14144,14148,14153,14156"]