November 10-12, 2016
After our beach time we started our two days of travel to return to our ‘other’ home in San Carlos Mexico.
What happened…
Amanda writes: Our friends in San Carlos contacted us and asked if we’d be willing to return for six weeks to take care of their two dogs, Lefty and Rex. You might recall how amazing those those two are from a post early in 2016. Rex and Lefty are family to us and since we knew we were going to have to burn some time to avoid the rainy season in Peru, it just all made sense. And so we started to make the lengthy trek back to North America to see our family in San Carlos.
The first day included a bus ride from one beach community to another; Pacasmayo to Trujillo. We had decided to take a fairly early bus so we could take in the sights in Trujillo which is a larger beach city with an international airport. After checking into our hotel and enjoying some lunch we walked to the main city centre and followed our guide book of beautiful sites. It was almost like there were 3 blocks totally cleaned up and ‘westernized’ for the benefit of tourists. Everything outside of those three blocks was pretty run down. In some ways it was nice to see an area totally cleaned up after being on the heels of traveling through a very dirty and what seemed poverty stricken area around Pacasmayo and the outskirts of Trujillo. Before entering the city, Trujillo was nothing but barren desert littered with endless garbage. So much garbage it reminded me of many parts of Mexico. The landscape was completely flat with endless sand … and garbage. The homes along the road were in ruins. The road and area looked like it would be incredibly unenjoyable to ride in and it was so drastically different from the Andes region in Peru. It just seemed like a different country. The houses were all so beat up and except for the two to three blocks in the city centre, Trujillo just struck me as a big dirty city.
The statue represents the proclamation of the independence of Trujillo, the commemoration of the Battle of Junín, and the the Battle of Ayacucho.
After our day of sightseeing in Trujillo we set off to the airport the next morning. We then flew early in the morning to Lima where we had our biggest layover of our trip yet. A 12 hour layover to hang out at the airport. We had contemplated taking a tour for the day as it was our wedding anniversary but after our experience in Trujillo we were just as happy to hang out at the airport. We also figured when we returned to Lima we could check it out then. And so our day was spent people watching and relaxing. Andrew played video games for the entire day and I read my book and walked around observing the buzz of the airport. I actually thought the airport would have more facilities but it was pretty small. The highlight for me was when the Peruvian National Soccer Team arrived after beating Paraguay 4-1 the previous day. So many fans and loud cheers and so much pride. It was great to see the enthusiasm for the sport.
A look at traffic passing through the tourist square.
Just one block away from the tourist centre, the rest of the city looks similar to this.
Then we took a red eye flight to Mexico City with a layover of a couple of hours and then one last plane to Hermosillo in Northern Mexico. After that we took a taxi to the bus station and hopped on a bus to Guaymas where our friend Jennifer picked us up and drove us the final leg to San Carlos. Such a long trip and so worth it; it was great to see Jennifer, Rex and Lefty. After trying to hold a normal conversation with them; we went to bed and slept for many hours.