Beach Bum

Friday, October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween! I´m here in the awesome beachside town of Huanchaca. It´s kind of rainy here, which is unfortunate. We were going to try and surf today, but too cold. So we just walked along the beach instead, met some nice people, got our feet wet, all that good stuff. I bought a purse from a little market. It´s pretty cool. I also washed some clothes, cause I was running dangerously low on underwear. That could have been bad. Monica and I split an Inca Kola, a soda that kind of tastes like yellow bubble gum and is only made in Peru. I wasn´t such a big fan. What else...Oh, we played with the turtle in our hostal´s courtyard. Fed him a banana. Our hostal is really nice, $5 a night, internet, really cute. And it´s right on the beach, like open the door and there it is. It´s really nice, it´s fun to sit and just be on the beach. Kind of a relaxing few days and it´s so nice to not be on a bus! Tomorrow we´re gonna try the surfing thing again, hope for better weather.

New Word of the Day: disfraz (Halloween costume)

Thursday, October 31, 2008
We´ve now left Chiclayo, Peru. Stayed in Hotel Residential, which was an okay place to stay. Nice and clean and friendly. There was a barking dog and a bell going off at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. But it was nice. We split the room with our Ausie friend, so it was pretty cheap. There wasn´t anything to do in Chiclayo, it was kind of a disappointment. The beach was a lot further away than I thought. Bummer.

Tuesday Monica and I bummed around Cuenca some more. We looked for a hat museum, but got too lost and couldn´t find it. It was a little embarassing. It was fun to just walk around, though. Left Cuenca in the afternoon for Loja. They played all four Rambo movies on the bus. In Spanish. Luckily it´s not exactly a complicated plot line, so it wasn´t too hard to follow. There was a guy who introduced himself to us by saying he was from Columbia but not to worry, he wasn´t a terrorist. Ohhhkayyy. Stayed in the Loja bus stop for a few hours until 11 pm when our bus headed to Piura. While we were in the bus station we were interviewed by a bunch of Ecuadorians taking English classes, which was interesting. Also met a nice guy from Israel. The bus ride wasn´t too bad from Piura, I slept so it can´t have been too bad. The border crossing took forever, but went off without a hitch. Had to show my passport at three differnt stations, a little annoying but good spanish practice. We crossed at about 3 am, I wondered what it would have been like during the day. Got into Piura at around 7 am then hopped another bus to Chiclayo with an Australian friend Johno. Slept on that bus too, but I did manage to see that most of the land we were passing was desert. I didn´t know that northern Peru was a desert, there´s really nothing there. There were people who wandered on and off selling their wonder drugs. We finally got to Chiclayo Wednesday morning and went to a hotel our taxi recommended. Walked to the Plaza de las Armas and found a place for lunch. Not great. And that pretty much sums up my travels over the last few days!

New Word of the Day: peregrino (pilgrim)