Chiclayo, Pimentel, Lambayeque, Monsefú

After a long week of studying and two 'controls' (tests) I had to get out of Lima for the weekend. Hannah ran her finger up and down the map, I said stop and it was decided that we were going to Chiclayo which is a city up north.

Thursday:
Wednesday night I packed my bags and headed to class Thursday morning with my backpack to leave directly from school. I had class from 10-12 then studied all day for my linguistics control at 5pm. After my control I went straight to TESPA the bus agency and Hannah, An and I left Lima at 9:30pm. We bought the last tickets on the bus but had to sit at the back by the bathroom which smelled like poop/air freshener for 13 hours. On the bus we watch Dennis the Menace Christmas, and some crazy alien movie. Movies on the bus are always the most bizarre American movies from the 90's. The bus was fairly comfortable and I got a couple hours of sleep before we arrived in Chiclayo at 11:30am on Friday.

Friday:
Once we arrived we headed straight for the central market which was teaming with clothes, toys, herbs, meats, live animals, shoes, fruits, vegetables, dishes, cookware, fabrics, shoe repairs, it was a vary bizarre mix of things like in all markets in Peru. The raw meat area is by far the worst smell I have ever smelled in my entire life, followed by the fieldtrip to the sewage treatment plant in elementary school. There was beef hanging on hooks, full chickens, blood running down the drains, all kinds of fish, crabs, octopus, shrimp, fillets of something that was 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot thick. There was also an area of Shamans and we bought little bottles filled with herbs and weird things that were for good luck and health. The Shaman rubbed our hands, said a prayer, took a sip from some bottle filled with herbs and spit it on our hands, then we had to rub the vile between our hands and now apparently we have good luck and health. The whole experience was really funny because we just had no idea what was going on.

We left the market to go to Pimentel which is right on the beach where we wanted to stay that night. In our Lonely Planet guide they recommended this hostel with bungalows on the beach. It was a ten minute walk down the beach from the town and just appeared in the middle of the desert. When we got there it looked deserted but finally this guy showed up and gave us a room in a pyramid shaped building that has room for about 8 people. We walked back to the town to eat and there was this strip of restaurants and ladies would come out from each one and bombard us, flagging us down, yelling what they were serving and trying to give us "Menu Turistico" which is the tourist menu that always costs like 3 times more. Most places in Peru have a daily menu that’s between 5 and 10 soles which has a first plate, second plate and drink. After looking around for a while we picked one and just had the normal Peruvian chicken and rice. After lunch we went to the market to get some food for dinner that night and took a Moto rickshaw back to the hostel. There were 5 kitten, 3 puppies, 2 dogs, and some roosters and other birds in cages at the hostel so we played with the kittens and puppies a bit. We took a walk down the beach, roasted bananas over a camp and chatted with the two guys who ran the hostel. When we went back into our at night we found out that there was no electricity and had to use candles all night, also we found rats who ended up eating a bunch of the food we had during the night. I probably only got an hour of sleep at most between the rats and the dogs barking outside.

Saturday: We got up early and packed out stuff after deciding not to stay there another night. We went back into Chiclayo and found a really nice hostel with hot water, electricity, and even a computer with internet. This hostel was also 15 soles cheaper per person.
We took a cab from Chiclayo to Lambayeque where there is the Museum of Sipan. Sipan is an ancient ruin from people who lived way before the Incas. The museum is a replica of the ruins and starting at the top you go down each level and it shows what archeologists found when they dug it up. There were a lot of tombs and we say the actually human remains along with pottery, textiles and metal work. The jewelry was so intricate I couldn't believe that they had to tools to make such tiny detailed things back then, it was really amazing. They didn't allow photography but if you look up Sipan online you can probably find some pictures.
After Sipan we went to Monsefú which is an even smaller town but has a really nice artisan market. Each town is known for different handicrafts and this market has a lot of wooden tools and artwork. We got interviewed by high school students about out time in Monsefú which is actually the third time I have been interviewed here. The first time was a student learning English who tape recorded our conversation for a class project, and the second was a survey from a girl who had different sketches of clothes and I had to pick one or the other from about 30 pairs of sketches.
We returned to Chiclayo in the evening and ate dinner at a chifa (Peruvian Chinese food) but it was terrible. We got ice cream and just hung around for the rest of the night.

Sunday:
We got up and ate breakfast before going back to the Chiclayo market. We left all of our stuff at the hostel so we could explore the market with out having to worry about getting things stolen from us. The market is so chaotic and exhausting because people are constantly yelling at us to come look at their goods.
We went to catch our bus at 7pm; all of us were exhausted by then! There was this really weird young girl we met there who I’m not sure if she had some kind of social disability for was just very bizarre. She came up and started talking to us and asking us how to say things in English. She tried to give us these bracelets she had on but we would not accept and when her bus was leaving she just kept coming back up to us to say goodbye over and over again and her mom had to keep pulling her away from us. Once we got on the bus it was only 11 hours back so we were home at 6am Monday morning.