Semana Santa

Semana Santa is the Peruvian equivalent to our Easter break. So, what better to do than have a little adventure? My Peruvian friend Alfredo (or as I call him, Sauce) has a beach house just outside the border of Ecuador in a tiny town called Colán. So logically we gathered an army of fifteen to share this tiny house for 4 days, which would turn out to have no running water. But let’s start from the beginning:

My roommates Carly, Monica, and I raced home from school Tuesday (okay, this was a while ago so it was March 30th) in order to chow down some dinner, pack, and taxi over to the bus station by 7 p.m. Per usual we cut it close. We grabbed a taxi around 6:45. Sometimes you get silent drivers and sometimes you get the chatty ones. This was a chatty one. We learned his life story, got his business card, and basically became best friends by the time we arrived at the station. He got out to help us with our bags and walked us to the door. Nice guy, right? No more than 5 minutes later he comes storming up to us with a security guard demanding to search our bags. According to him, in the minute between getting out of the taxi and stepping into the station we stole his radio. FIRST OF ALL do I look like I know how to remove a radio from a vehicle? Uh, I can barely figure out my seatbelt let alone stealth an entire radio out of a car in a minute. This guy gave us way too much credit. After searching all our bags, the driver finally admitted defeat and returned to his now radio-less car, the security guard apologized repeatedly, and I gave mad props to the person who did have the skills to sneak that radio out of the car. First adventure, check. (And we hadn’t even gotten on the bus yet)

The bus ride to Chiclayo (a town ¾ of the way to Colán) was 12 hours and it was pouring rain when we arrived. It was the first time I’d seen rain since I got to Peru. The group was tired and cranky so we stopped at a hostel to lock up our goods and eat breakfast. With a whole day ahead of us before the second bus ride, we decided to visit a museum outside town. Turns out it was the site of a mass tomb of some Incan ruler named Señor de Sipán. We saw gold, we saw bones, it was great. A little backstory: When Señor de Sipán died his most valued things were sacrificed and buried with him. He was buried in the center of the tomb and surrounding him was a priest, the military leader, his wife, 2 other women, his son, assorted llamas, and SO MUCH GOLD. This guy was flashy.

Post museum most of the group decided to shower/nap, but Carly, Monica, and I headed a few blocks away to a giant outdoor market. This place was out of control. There was no organization. The hat stand was next to the juice stand, which was next to the pirated DVDs, which were next to the fresh fish stand. Let me tell you, there were some crazy smells happening in that market. But this was no ordinary market. Past the stinky fish and Disney princess underwear were the witch markets. Not just hocus pocus, I met some legitimate witches/wizards. There were jungle beads and love potions and monkeys and voodoo dolls and mystery powders and all sorts of crazy juju magic. I wanted to buy the monkey, but they said no no gringa, so no voodoo juju magic for me. 6 p.m. finally rolled around and we caught another bus to Colán. Unfortunately, Peruvians are not great planners. Also they aren’t so efficient. Therefore, it took us 2 more hours in taxi to get to the beach house because Sauce forgot where it was and didn’t have the directions with him. Ooooooh I was cranky by the time we got there.

The next four days were basically some combination of beach, eat, nap, repeat. We were in a tiny town where there was only one restaurant. Luckily, Peruvian food is fantastic wherever you go. I ate so much ceviche (fresh fish in lima and cilantro), lomo saltado (white rice with beef, tomato, onion, and fries), and chaufa con langostinos (SPICY Peruvian shrimp fried rice), all very popular Peruvian dishes. When we weren’t eating we were splashing in the Pacific and avoiding the stingrays, which are everywhere. When we weren’t swimming we were piled in one room napping since there was only one fan and it was close to 100 degrees and sunny every day. The downside to this trip? NO RUNNING WATER. This meant no showering. For six days. Let’s just say that house did not smell so great.

Sunday we took a 16 hour overnight bus back to Lima. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be back in a real bed with a real bathroom. Unfortunately, being back in Lima meant going back to school and of course the week after break I had 2 exams, which turned out to be in class essays…in Spanish. Ew.

So now I’m in Lima for a while. The trips are on hold now that school finally requires brainpower. Luckily, Lima has plenty of festivals, Incan markets, and art museums to keep me occupied and out of too much trouble for a while.