We had to see the 1/3 mile long sugar shipping pier.

Dear Family and Friends,

As I explained yesterday, even though the coast of Peru is desert, around the river deltas the ground is fertile.  In ancient times cotton was grown here and the people were master weavers.  Since the Spanish arrived this land has been used to grow sugar cain and rice.  

Before we left on our trip, we watched YouTube videos about what to see. One thing we were very interested in was a pier that was built at the turn of the last century.  It is 1/3 mile long and has a railroad track running the length of it.

The purpose of this giant pier was to bring sugar from the mills by train to load on to large sea going ships.

Today's pictures are about this pier, which is no longer used for its original purpose, and what it is used for today.  Also there are a couple of pictures of the beach.

Here is Chuck posing by a huge tricycle sponsored by the Lions Club to encourage putting plastic in the attached container. 

This is the pier that has a railroad track running the length of it.  

There is a nominal fee to walk the pier.  Here is Chuck reading about the building of the pier. 

These large carts are used to take things out onto the pier.  For example we saw a boat being loaded with supplies for the big fishing boats out at sea.

Looking down on a sand bar that separates the ocean from a calm pool of water for kids.  

Quite a few people were using the pier to fish.

But not all had a fishing pole.  This man just drops a line with bait over the side and fishes that way.

Cormorants drying off.

Pelicans galore.

Remember when I mentioned I would tell you more about these reed boats when we got to Chiclayo?  

These fishing boats are ancient.  They are made from reeds because that is what grew in this river delta area.  I even saw a piece of ancient pottery at the museum depicting a man riding a reed boat.  They were used for fishing and today it appears they are also used for sports.  

We walked along the boardwalk to find a place for lunch.  The beach is nicer than the one in Trujillo.  Not as nice as the Gulf Coast, but we can't all have paradise.

We scored big time on our lunch.  We got a mixture of fried seafood, fish, calamari, and shrimp.  We ordered a large order because we were sharing it.  It turns out we could not begin to eat it all.  It was delicious though.

While on the pier, we watched guys loading 55 gallon drums of fuel on to a boat to be taken out to sea to supply the large fishing boats.

I filmed some of the action and if you are interested, you might get a kick out of watching these Peruvian longshoremen.  Click the link to see it in YouTube. 😄Be sure to have your sound on. 

https://youtu.be/ciHJtRZWhx8

Tomorrow I will show you pictures of the market.

Love,

Nancy

Peru, the Egypt of the Americas

Dear Family and Friends,

Today, I will explain some things to you about this part of Peru and why Chuck thought it was important for us to visit.

Have a seat boys and girls we are going to talk about things you never studied growing up in North America.  

The coast of Peru is very dry.  It does not rain except when an unusual event occurs in the weather cycle.  It can go decades without a single drop of rain.  Now what you may not know, I certainly didn't, is that this coastal region of Peru is the Egypt of South America.  

We all studied in geography how the Nile River flows through Egypt and forms a delta as it empties into the Mediterranean Sea.  Egypt is a sandy desert, receiving little to no rain, but the Nile River floods and makes the ground very fertile.  It is because of the Nile River that a great civilization emerged in this part of Egypt.

Below is a map showing the Nile river delta.

The coast of Peru, like Egypt is sandy desert.  Instead of having one mighty river form a delta at the coast, Peru has several rivers running from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

In the map below you can see the deltas formed by rivers as a darker green.  It is in these areas that the earliest civilizations appeared.  They were located all along the northern Peruvian coast.

I have been doing research and now that I actually know the magnitude of this region, I have to share this with you.  I made light of the pyramids that were built out of adobe and are now eroding away.  Actually these people were far advanced and very similar to the Egyptians that we all learned about.  The cultures are very similar even though they were thousands of miles apart.

I have a couple of links to share.  One from the History Channel and another a paper written by the NIH National Library of Medicine.  

Is Peru the cradle of civilization in the Americas?

NIH compares early Egyptian and Peruvian cultures.

It seems that in Peru, the Incas are the most known culture.  Actually the Incas were the last culture before the Spanish arrived and conquered them.  They might be considered a modern culture compared to the cultures in the coastal Peru. They were a great culture no doubt, but they certainly were not ancient.  

As I have said before, this is a part of Peru very few North American tourists come to see.  North Americans come to Peru to see Machu Picchu, because they know of the Incan civilization. 

Even if North Americans wanted to come here to visit, they would find it difficult unless they spoke Spanish.  The accommodations are not up to North American standards. Chuck was able to find Wyndham properties for us to stay in.  

All the tours are done with a Spanish speaking guide in 12 passenger vans, usually full of people.  Unless your Spanish is top notch this would be very difficult to understand.  It is possible to hire a private car and guide who speaks (sort of) English.  This is what we did.

If you find this interesting, I highly encourage you to click on the two links above. They will open your eyes for sure.

At least now you have some cocktail party information to share that most folks do not know. 

Love,

Nancy

A Visit to the Pyramids!

Dear Family and Friends,

Yesterday Chuck and I took a tour of a Pyramid City. Yep, that is what it was called.  This city consisted of 26 pyramids. Before you get too excited let me explain that we are in one of the driest climates in the world in this part of Peru.  

My vision of pyramids was some tall structures made out of stone.  The pyramids of Egypt or Mexico for example.  

It turns out that the Pyramid City (Tucume) was built of adobe brick.  Dried mud blocks!  

This was not a big problem until El Ninos occurred from 950AD until 1200AD.  Yes my friends, climate change destroyed the Pyramid City.  The rains destroyed the adobe bricks and started mass erosion of the mighty structures.

This is the view I had overlooking the pyramids.

You can only imagine my disappointment.

The only evidence to me that these pyramids ever existed is from the results of the archeological digs.  

I will share with you what I learned in the near by museum.

First of all, this area was not even of interest to archeologists until 1987 when a Norwegian explorer became interested in the area.  It does not surprise me that the area was unnoticed.  

This is an artist concept of what one of the pyramids looked like when it was first built.

This is that pyramid today.

Another pyramid before

How it is today

The most interesting part of the museum is all the items that have been found through the archeological exploration.  I will share a few of the mostly copper, silver and gold items.  Quite impressive artwork for thousands of years ago.

This is an ear ring worn by the elite men.  It is huge and below is a picture of how it fit in the ear lobe.  

For my Georgia family and friends, this is a peanut necklace made out of half gold and half silver.

Another gold object.

Quite impressive that he can stand upright holding all the weight on his head and body.

This is an artists idea of the leader and his subjects. 

 

This was a four hour tour.  We came home exhausted but at least now we know what happened to those pyramids and just in case this was high on one of the things you needed to know....well, now you know.

More coming tomorrow.

Love,

Nancy

Indoor/Outdoor Mall in Chiclayo

Dear Family and Friends,

We took the bus from Trujillo to Chiclayo.  It was a direct double deck bus...very comfortable.  Comfortable to enjoy the ride but very bad for taking pictures.  I was shocked and appalled by what we saw but could not photograph it because our seats were not in a good place.  

Today we went to the bus station to buy our return tickets to Trujillo and we picked out special seats that should allow me to make pictures and let you know a dirty reality of Peru.

For now we are in Chiclayo, the fourth largest city in Peru.  

When traveling we like to shop at grocery stores to see what foods the people that live there eat.  

Today we went to a nice indoor/outdoor mall.  A very unique place.  I was surprised to find that many stores in that mall were name brands that I recognized.  Unlike in Ecuador where the stores are not the same brands as in the USA.

Here are some examples:

All of these stores were located in this shopping mall.  I was surprised to see an ECCO shoe store.  I went inside and I noticed the shoes did not have ECCO inside them but another name.  Uh Oh.  Not sure what is going on but I bet ECCO does not know about this.

Here are some US eateries in their food court.

We tried the Popeyes.  Wo ordered chicken and coleslaw.  The chicken was good, but the coleslaw was wicked.  Too runny.  I must say, I am not a lover of Peruvian food so even the wicked coleslaw was a nice break.

Here is the outside part of the mall.  

A very nice layout.  We enjoyed seeing how these people shop.  I think they enjoy US foods.  The lines were longer at USA eateries than any of the others.

More tomorrow.

Love,

Nancy

Covid Restrictions in Peru

Dear Family and Friends,

Today I will share with you about the Covid restrictions that are in place in Peru at this time.  They are quite strict here as I found out.

In order to arrive in Peru by Airplane or Bus you must fill out a Health Certification Form. When we flew here we had to fill this out so that our results were available on our cell phone.  

When we bought our bus tickets to Chiclayo we were given a copy of the Health Certification Form to fill out by hand.  

At all times the KN95 mask is required.  If you do not have a KN95 mask, then you must double mask.  Everyone we have seen here in Peru is following the mandate.  When we boarded the flight from Quito to Lima the flight attendant was handing out extra masks to those passengers who had on a mask that was different from the KN95 mask.

One thing that I was not anticipating was that we would be required to show our vaccine card to enter any establishment in Peru.  The reason I did not expect this is because in Ecuador this hardly ever happens to us these days.

My original vaccine card is tucked safely with my passport.  Of course, I never walk around with my passport.  

When we went to a small grocery store and I was asked to show my vaccine card I did not have it.  Chuck pulled out a printed copy of his and we went into the store.  The first night we went to the casino, I do not remember being asked about my vaccine card.  Chuck said I was asked and bluffed my way in.  I do not remember that happening.  

The next day, when we returned to the same casino, I was asked to produce my vaccine card.  I told the guard that I was there the night before and did not need one.  His reply, "SORRY SISTER, you can not come in!!"  

I was devastated!  I had made money on the machine I was playing the night before and I was eager to give that machine another go.  

Chuck suggested we go back to the hotel and get my card.  I said no, it will take an hour to get there and back.  

Remember, not that many North Americans come to this part of Peru.  No one we encountered so far understood English.  So, I had the a clever idea.  

We walked to the next block and found a place to have a copy made of Chuck's copy of his vaccine card.  I had it made in black and white so the red ink on Chuck's card would not be on mine. Then just a few steps later we found a place to buy a plastic sleeve to hold the new copy.  I then attached it to a lanyard that holds my cell phone.   

We went to have lunch to let some time pass.  

Then we went back to the casino.  As I approached the same man, I lifted the plastic holder with a big smile on my face.  He looked at it and nodded and waved me in.  He checked Chucks and let him in.  

Now I am touring Peru on Chuck's vaccine card.  

I am not suggesting that anyone else do this because it may backfire on you.  It may backfire on me yet.  

If you do not see anymore posts to the blog about our trip, I am probably in a Peruvian prison for counterfeiting a vaccine card.

Love,

Nancy

Trujillo, Peru - Morning Surprise, Basilica Cathedral and a Beach Visit.

Dear Family and Friends,

This is our hotel in Trujillo.  Unfortunately it is not near the city center so we have to have a taxi to take us to town.  It does have a nice pool, but in my opinion it is too cold to use.  

We slept sound our first night in Trujillo.  After waking and getting dressed we headed to the restaurant for our breakfast.  As soon as we were outside, we saw these two characters munching on the shrubbery.

I am pretty sure the beige one is an alpaca, the white one a young llama.

Isn't this the cutest thing you ever saw?

I put my arms out and smiled at him.  He came right over to me.  What a thrill.  Such a sweetheart.

Unfortunately I was not able to pet him and take a selfie at the same time.  Chuck could not get his cell phone camera to work before the magic encounter was over.  Such a special moment for me.

After breakfast we took a taxi to the central square called Plaza de Armas.  All central plazas in Peru are called this.  

We toured the Basilica Cathedral of Saint Mary, which is located right across the street from the plaza.

This painting is just inside the door.

The sanctuary.  Notice the ceiling.

Here is the ceiling over my head.  Notice the bright colors, unlike any I have ever seen before in a cathedral.  I am not sure when they were painted, but they a bright and beautiful.  It looks like they were painted just yesterday.

This is the view from inside the cathedral looking out the main doors to the plaza across the street.

After touring the cathedral, we decided to take a taxi to the nearby beach.  For a southern girl who's idea of a beach is the gulf coast of Florida with white sand and beautiful water, this beach left me underwhelmed. 

The sky was very overcast, not unusual for this part of Peru.  The sand was brown and the ocean looked grey.  The water was high and the waves large.  There were a few folks out surfing.  

Chuck is on the boardwalk area. 

Here he is beside a reed fishing boat.  I will discuss more about them when we get to Chicalyo. 

A small place to have refreshments on the beach.

and of course souvenir stalls.

The day was so blustery and cold that there were no tourists at the beach.  Well, except a couple of old farts who happened to show up.  In Peru, the seasons are the exact opposite of North America.  Peru is in fall, heading into winter.  

What will we do tomorrow?

Whatever it is, I will share it with you.

Love,

Nancy