Trujillo: Colonial Town, Ruins, Sand, Colombians and Hairless Dogs - Nov 6

From Chiclayo I went for hours across more desert. Instead of staying in Trujillo the first night, I followed the Lonely Planet´s advice (easy to take with a grain of sand here in the desert) and headed for nearby Huanchaco at the beach. Why wasn´t I surprised when the weather turned cold and windy. The town was pretty much deserted, so the next day I rode on to Trujillo proper.

Trujillo is another old colonial city, but this time there were some really interesting color patterns thrown into the already very interesting architecture. All in all, it´s a very pretty city.

The next day I rode out to visit Chan Chan, another old pre-Inca city. This one is different than most, in that it was build entirely of adobe (mud and straw), while the other ruins I had seen were stone. It is a huge complex, which they are working to resore.

Meet the Colombians

At Chan Chan I was approached by three Colombian guys and a Peruvian who asked me about my bike and my trip. Turned out the Colombians were also heading for Tierra del Fuego on motorcycles. Unfortunately, one of them had had one of his bags come open on the desert detour from Chiclayo and had lost all of his documents (passport, bike registration, etc.). As it turned out, he wasn´t able to get them replaced in Lima and had to go back to Colombia. The others went on, but we lost contact. Asi es la vida.

We spent the day and evening together and had a great time. We went over to the Peruvian´s (Talo) house, ate, and played around on his 4 wheel ATVs. Turns out his kids (ages 4 and 6) are absolute hotshots on these things. Yours truly, however, was not. But it was fun. You can never have too many toys!

Bald Puppies

Also at Chan Chan I met my first Peruvian hairless dogs. This is not a joke. These dogs are bald as a billiard ball. Friendly, intelligent, but ugly as sin. Kind of feels like petting a piece of leather, or cuddling up with an old football. It has been suggested that this breed would be the perfect First Puppy for Obama´s family since his daughter is alergic and they are hypoalergenic. But did I mention UGLY?

Next, on to Lima.