We arrived to Chiclayo, Peru with the intention of meeting the family of some Peruvians we know in Quito, Ecuador. They would show us around a day or two and off we go. BUT our new friends were so nice, we stayed a whopping 9 days. Honestly, there´s not that much to see in Chiclayo, but the people are very nice, at least our friends were. Here´s a quick run-down of what we did!
Sunday - arrived at night, met our nice friends, ate chicken, told funny stories, arrived to our Mexican nunnery hostal, said "Phewf!" that our new friends were totally cool, sleep. Were introduced to Cumbia music (a popular type of music) and Grupo 5 (a cumbia band popular in all of Peru, they are from Chiclayo).Monday - visited the central market where a man tried to sell us a potion for 20 soles that would give us good luck, good health and good love... and lots of money. I tried to tell Lori it was a bargain. She´s so unrealistic! :) We ate the most delicious Peruvian ceviche in existance and finally a bird pooped on my head (don´t they say it´s good luck? I didn´t have to pay 20 soles for that). South America has made us so sceptical, I mean when a bird poops on your head is it normal to think immediately "Someone must be robbing me!"
Tuesday - visited a festival in our friend´s hometown, just outside of Chiclayo. Visited a house made completely out of rock and finally, partied to cumbia music and Grupo 5 until 6am. Are we still in college or something?Wednesday - slept all day and practiced our arabic dance show in the park with lots of support from passersby. Danced to Cumbia music and Grupo 5 all night. Are we in Peruvian college or something?
Thursday and Friday - we continued practicing in the park with various audiences (mostly elementary school kids). Most everyone watched our talent and then wanted to share theirs. We had traditional Peruvian dancers, a flute player (where did he pull that flute out of?), stilt walkers, some clowns dressed as woman etc. Friday night we performed for a group of Engineers in Chiclayo. We´re still trying to decide if their silence meant they enjoyed it or were horrified :)
Saturday - we (finally) put on our tourist shoes and visited The Museum of Señor Sipan. Señor Sipan was a king of the Mochicas in the year 600ad. The Mochicas had their empire right outside of Chiclayo. This museum is dedicated to all the archaeological findings in his tomb. It was absolutely amazing. These people had more gold than they knew what to do with. Lori, Martin (our friend) and I were wowed. At night, more discos with more cumbia music and Grupo 5.Sunday - we visited a beach near Chiclayo, Beach Pimentel. It was chilly and had some cool fishing canoe things where people were selling fish. Can´t get much fresher than that! It´s a shame South America doesn´t value a good clean, trash free beach. Other than that, who doesn´t love the beach?
Monday - still with our tourist shoes on, we visited that actual archaeological site of Señor Sipan where you can see where his tomb and others were actually found. We met a nice Peruvian American from New York. We knew we would be friends because when the men operating the bus gave it a running-pop-the-clutch-start, our soon to be friend told us "That´s the Peruvian way" which conveniently is also the Ecuadorian way and probably the Bolivian way and the Chilean way... etc... :)
Tuesday - we visited a museum that has a little bit of history from each empire that inhabited Peru at one time or another with our friend Cesar. With beautiful photography (see black and white photo to the left... the crazy looking one is the founder of the museum :) and enough 2,000-year-old ceramic pots to fill a swimming pool, we´re experts on Peruvian history :) Come on, try us! We also witnessed a little boy fall in the street. His dad helped him up and I started dying laughing. Lori looked at me like "I can´t believe you´re laughing at that little boy!" After telling her he had slipped on a banana peel (which I thought only happened to elephants in cartoons) we both practially peed our pants.
Wednesday - we said a teary goodbye to our good friends, the dog (Mocha) from our hostal that we had grown to love (the fact that she scratched on our door daily to say hello, told us we had probably been in Chiclayo, the City of Friendship, too long). I believe cumbia and Grupo 5 were playing in the background. :)Chiclayo, we love you!
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