The Worlds Biggest Sandcastle…

The main city in northwest Peru is Trujillo. It is an agriculture centre of a million people near the ocean. In order to rest up a bit after our grueling 47 hour trip (note to self, maybe not the best thing to do), we decided to head to the ocean for a couple of days of relaxation (this traveling can be really tough on a person).

We decided on Huanchaco as our temporary destination. It is a surfing town about 10 minutes north of Trujillo that attracts a different kind of gringo. These seem to be either retired American ex-surfers in their late 50’s who run many of the businesses, or a new breed of young surfer in his 20’s (Gen X or Y…whichever)…

In addition to the beach, surfing, and Inca Kola (a horrible bright yellow cream soda) one of the main attractions in the area is the pre-Inca city of Chan-Chan. At 20 hectares in size with 60,000 people, it was one of the largest cites of it’s time (mid-1400’s) and was completely made out of mud and adobe brick. Since the area is so dry, many of the walls still remain. While not to the standards, or “wow” factor of Machu Picchu or Pisac, it was well worth an afternoon tour.

After returning from Chan-Chan, we noticed a significant change in the number of people in town and on the beach and realized that it was just two days before the big Easter weekend Reggae festival and Haunchaco was quickly transforming into the traditional beach party town. So, after having our fill of over-priced drinks and average (at best) pizzas, we decided to hit the road.

This time we were heading back up into the mountains (only an 8 hour bus ride this time - supposedly) to Cajamarca. Our hope was to spend Easter in a colonial town and be able see what a traditional Easter celebration would be like.…we already had a pretty good idea what it would look like at party-central on the beach ...