Showing 1-14 of 14 results
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Thousands of Years of Peruvian Culture and Not an Inca in Sight
Blog: Hole In The Donut - 12 March 2012
Mention Peru and most people immediately think Inca. The iconic image of Machu Picchu‘s mystical ruins has invaded our collective psyche to such a degree that we tend to associate the country solely with the ancient Inca culture. Unquestionably, the Incas were a force to be reckoned with but they were by no means the [...]
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From Peru to Ecuador via the Macará border!
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 31 January 2011
After trying to do a fair amount of research on border crossings we found that little information existed about the Macará border crossing. Plenty of information exists about the Tumbes border crossing, in the far north west corner of Peru, but we didn’t want to travel in that direction. I think it is only a [...]
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I Must Go Down to the Sea Again…
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 26 January 2011
Knowing that Trujillo wasn’t a city to hang around in, on arrival from Ica (via Lima) we picked up a taxi and headed straight to the nearby coastal town of Huanchaco. We shared the taxi cost with another couple but the total came to 15Sols (US$5.40); it should cost you no more than this for [...]
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Chan Chan – Back to the Mochicas
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 8 April 2010
Ah yes, the other reason for heading out to Trujillo and the surrounding areas: Chan Chan. Actually, this whole region, the northern coast of Peru, is full of old pre-Incan ruins. The coastlines were controlled for trade and military reasons, and as such there are tons of ancient cities that have been eroded but not [...]
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Huanchaco – Beach!
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 7 April 2010
So yeah, back to sea level. We were heading to Trujillo, a fun six hours on the bus, winding our way down from the Andes through some absolutely gorgeous scenery, and past a reservoir. If you go up to Cajamarca (and back down), sit on the left going up and the right going back down [...]
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Sipan and Tucume – Discovering The Moche and Sican Culture
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 6 April 2010
Latin America has had tons of indigenous peoples running various bits of it at different points in time. One of the slightly less well publicised of these is the Moche culture, the people of whom and their modern-day descendents are known as Mochicas. And it seems that they were every bit as important and mega [...]
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Chan Chan
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 1 April 2010
On the road between Trujillo and Huanchaco is the huge ancient ruins of Chan Chan. A bit like the pyramids in Mexico, or the volcanoes in Central America, visiting lots of ancient ruins makes me become a little blasé and under whelmed at the thought of seeing another. In fact, I was tempted not to go to Chan Chan, but to break up our lazy beach days, we did. And I’m so glad we did. After all, it’s the largest adobe city in the world – to quote another statistic from our book – so it is bound to be good.
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Chiclayo – Very Cool, And They Love Their Salchipapas
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 1 April 2010
Salchipapas is another way of saying a plate of sausage and chips, lovingly bathed in oil. And I mention it because it seems to be a favourite dish here, and now rather than attributing the overall build of the people in this part of the world to their love of all things fried, I am [...]
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Huamchaco - a surfers spot, don´t you know?
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 31 March 2010
We had a dramatic start to our time in Huanchaco. Arriving in Trujillo, seven hours after leaving Cajamarca, we decided that we would go a further twenty minutes onwards to Huanchaco, a quiet beach town. It seemed a more inviting prospect than another city stay.
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Sipan and Tucume
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 23 March 2010
Peru isn’t just all about the Incas, I’m discovering. I’m looking forward to Machu Picchu further down south, but in the meantime there are some things to explore made by some folks who were around a little earlier, namely the Moche people – 100-800AD. These guys were big on diverting river water into canals for irrigation and well known for using mold technology for their pottery, if you didn’t know. From Chiclayo you can visit the archaeological sites of Sipan and Tucume that have been excavated for the past twenty-five years or so.
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Chiclayo - Peru
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 20 March 2010
As soon as we left the bus station I was struck by the energy of Chiclayo. Forget being awake all night on a bus, I felt ready to go for a plod around the city. Perhaps a shower was in order first though!
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To Peru!
Blog: A Travel Diary from Mexico, Central and South America - 17 March 2010
First a word on Loja. We decided to break up the journey south with a stop off there, in southern Ecuador. While it has some pretty enough sights, there really isn't much to do there. Looking at the photos I took now makes me think we got to stay somewhere quite cool for a night. It really didn't seem cool at the time. There just wasn't a great lot to do there.
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I see dead people
Blog: Hecktic Travels - 4 March 2010
Onward from Trujillo, we took a quick bus to pretty Chiclayo with our new UK friends Fran and Ross. Being the savvy travelers that we all are, we actually booked to stay in Lambayeque - a smaller town nearby and closer to the ruins that are the main attractions for this area. Or, so we thought! We quickly found out that being in Lambayeque put us closer to the museum, but farther away from the ruins. Well done. No worries though, we checked into our beautiful hosteria (with a pool!) and to enjoy some relaxation for two nights.
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Some ole stuff
Blog: Hecktic Travels - 28 February 2010
As Pete reported on our last blog post, we have logged MANY hours on many different buses throughout this journey! And most times, when we have the option, we take the night bus - it saves on money (one less night in a hostel!), and it is kind of nice to just wake up in the morning in a brand spankin' new location. We have gotten so used to opting for the night bus that we usually don't even consider the daytime option.
Showing 1-14 of 14 results
