Trujillo

Although I got off to a bad start in Trujillo, arriving at a ridiculous 4.45am, waking up the poor hostel owners and then sleeping on their couch until the more reasonable hour of 7am to check in, I actually really liked it. The colonial city centre is really pretty with a fabulous yellow cathedral and I felt much safer exploring the city than I had further South.

A small part of the huge citadel of Chan Chan

Bird motifs at Chan Chan

But probably the best thing about Trujillo is how easy it is to access lots of sites in the nearby area by yourself, with 2 completely different pre-incan ruins just a few km's out of town.

In a couple of days, and with advice from the very helpful owner's of the guesthouse I was staying in, I'd taken local buses to the Chimu citidel of Chan Chan and the Moche sites of Huaca de la Luna and del Sol without any need to go on expensive tours.

The largely unexcavated Huaca del Sol

Both sites were really interesting but seeing the vividness of the colours still present in the wall paintings in Huaca del Luna was a real highlight.

Wall paintings on two storeys of the Huaca de la Luna

It was then time to take another overnight bus journey (13 hours
this time) inland to Chachapoyas.

An outer wall at Huaca de la Luna

Huaraz, North Peru

In my first few days in Peru I took 2 overnight bus journeys broken up by a night's stay in a lovely hostel in Arequipa and a night in a pretty horrible hostel in Lima before finally arriving in Huaraz, a very small city nestled in the mountains in North Peru. Exhausted, I spent two days recovering before I felt ready to tackle the day hike to laguna 69 in the Cordillera Blanca which started with a 3hr bus ride at 6am.

The start of the trek to Laguna 69

The stunning Laguna 69

At high altitude (~4000m) the 3 hour trek up to the lake and 2 hour return was sometimes hard work but completely worth it for the amazing copper sulphate blue waters surrounded by snow capped mountains at the top.

The following day, in need of a later start and a bit of a rest, I took a very touristy bus tour to the Pastorori glacier. The glacier itself was great, standing at 5000m and less than an hour's walk from the road.

The Pastoruri glacier

Unfortunately a bus tour with 30 other tourists, many Peruvian families, wasn't the best way to see it but with a 3.5 hour journey from Huaraz and very limited public transport there wasn't much choice.

En route to the glacier

Back at my hostel that evening I grabbed a shower and dinner before taking yet another overnight bus further up North to the coastal city of Trujillo.