huanchaco

huanchaco is a what used to be a small fishing village on the coast of northern peru, and is now it is a surf town, though it retains its fishing roots.  we spent five days here relaxing and it really felt delightful to do nothing!

we stayed at a hostel called 'frog's chillhouse' which was not in the slightest bit peruvian and we felt like we could be in a surf-town anywhere......though in it's favor it was very 'chill'.

the kids did a fair bit of this....

the adults did a fair bit of this...

todd and i also managed to have a cocktail together which made it feel all the more beachy!

we spent our days playing games of family soccer on the beach,  taking walks, and wandering down to watch the fisherman come in on their traditional reed boats....

we enjoyed the marine wildlife and views off the pier...

i don't think the pelicans are quite this big in the northwest!!

we ate our favorite lunch of papas rellanos which we bought from the beach stand lady every day.

and we watched the beautiful sunsets every evening........

we did not end up learning to surf in this surf town.  the shore was fairly rocky and the water was pretty cold, such that one needed a wet suit.  we decided that if the kids wanted to try surfing we'd wait until ecuador where the beaches are a bit nicer and the water warmer (or so we've been told).

very close to huanchaco are these pre-inca ruins called 'chan chan' so we did a day trip to check them out.  these ruins are sooooo interesting and like nothing we've seen so far.  built by the chimu people, eventually conquered by the incas and ultimately pillaged by the colonials......however mostly destroyed by erosion and the elements.  amazing to walk around ruins that date to 1000 yrs ago.

on our last day in the area we stayed in trujillo, which is actually a decent sized city about 20min inland from huanchaco.  the colonial buildings of trujillo are very colorful and worth a stop.... though i am glad that we spent most of our days in the beach town of huanchaco.

in trujillo we stayed at the hotel colonial which is an old mansion turned hotel.  it was beautiful.  i am a sucker for the old colonial manses.  part of me wishes i was a richie rich back in the day and could have lived in one of these places........minus the lack of women's rights and increased mortality due to poor healthcare of course.

tomorrow we head a bit more north and back into the mountains for another volunteer stay just outside a city called cajamarca.  this will be another farm where we will help out doing a little of this and a little of that.
hasta luego!