Chill Out, Not Burn Out

Close up

Hotel pet wandering around (they had two)

Ceviche de corvina

Sweeries street vendors were selling

Filled with dulce de leche

The day after the two girls, Lucy and Zdenek left as well, also to head to Mancora. It was sad to see them go, but at least it gave me an opportunity to avoid socialising for a bit and catch up on the blog. So that's what I did. That day I spent almost the whole day just sorting through the countless pictures from Machu Picchu and deciding which should be uploaded, only taking a break to eat ceviche at the restaurant next door again, this time trying another fish from their large selection. In the evening I had the entire dorm to myself, which would have been nice and peaceful were it not for a loud American couple Lucy had complained about the previous two nights when they had been playing loud music on the patio until really late. This time they came out to the patio, expecting to have it to themselves, but I was sitting there quietly blogging. They sat and covorted for a bit and the girl sang really loudly and tunelessly. When they realised I wasn't going to leave they eventually went back into their room, and when I played Fuck The USA by The Exploited as loud as my laptop could manage, they went out. I hope it was the reason they went out because when the returned later on she was still singing tunelessly at the top of her voice, eventhough it was after midnight.

Trujilleños have arrived

Meanwhile the town was getting really busy. Up until then it had been a really quiet town with very little going on, but now it was Friday, lots of Peruvians were arriving from Trujillo and the beach started to fill up with people playing games and drinking. Outside restuarants, people were leaving their car doors open while they ate, so that they could blast out their own (usually very poor) choice of music. Lucy and Zdenek had arrived on a Sunday and told me that it got really busy at the weekends.

Nice hotel breakfast

Beetroot soup

Weird vegetarian food

The following day was the same, with the exception that the noisy Americans left, singing tunelessly right up to the last moment. Someone must have told her she could sing at some point, but actually it was just really embarrassing. I blogged all day, this time having lunch at the vegetarian restaurant next door. The town continued to fill up with Peruvians and the beach was absolutely packed, and every resturant had at least one car outside with the doors open, blasting out music. In the afternoon I finished the blog up to the point where Joanne left. It was all very sad going over it again.

Another nice breakfast at the hotel

The next day I started thinking that I, too, should probably move on and realised that I didn't need very much of the South American guidebook anymore, so I ripped lots of pages out to get its volume and weight down to more sensible sizes. I started a new blog for me travelling on my own. Then went back to the ceviche restaurant for lunch. All week I had been waiting for crab, which they told me is only available on the weekend. I wanted crab but I wasn't sure whether to order ceviche or cangrejo reventado. I was still feeling a bit nervous about ceviche from things with shells, but wasn't sure what the other dish was; the dictionary on my phone said that reventado means "done in"! I ordered it anyway, and it was indeed "done in". It looked like the crab had been cooked whole then smashed up in the plate. It was actually very nice but a lot of hassle to eat.

Cangrejo reventado

I got some information about leaving and decided to go the following evening to Chachapoyas. I went into Trujillo to buy my ticket. I had been planning to go South again to Huaraz where I had heard there are fantastic mountains, but a few people at the hostel had come from there and told me the weather was awful, and I didn't have the gear for trekking in several feet of snow. My other choice had been to follow the others to Mancora, but it's just another beach town and I thought I had already spent enough time at the beach. It was going to be a whole week that I had stayed in Huanchaco, the longest time in one place of the whole trip, but I had really needed to relax for a bit after Joanne left, as we had been moving so fast to try and fit everything in before her flight. Anyway my "First Time Around the World" book advises that you should slow down and chill out from time to time or else you will get to stressed and burn out. We had been going fast for nearly a year and I needed a rest. Anyway I had to catch up on the blog. And this last day was because I needed to do washing!

Lobo de marina

Sunset

After disappointing sunsets for the whole week I was treated to an incredible sunset that night. I spent about an hour walking up and down the beach taking loads of photos. What a nice finish! And how lucky I stayed the extra day.

Sunset

The moon was out too!

Sunset

Potato snack from street vendor

Filled with delicious stuff

That night the dorm filled up with noisy Americans, who thought it was OK to put the light on and make noise whenever they wanted, as if only American interests mattered; a bit like their foreign policy, really.

Last nice hotel breakfast

The next day I sat and watched seagulls diving into the sea to catch fish. I felt recharged and not quite as miserable as when Joanne left. I had come to South America primarily for mountains, the jungle, and ancient sites, but the fact we had to move so fast meant that we had mostly only had time for cities, which aren't anything special. Now mountains looked out of the question because of the weather, but there were ancient sites near Chachapoyas and I was planning to meet up with the others again in Ecuador for a visit to the jungle, which we had heard was cheaper than doing it in Peru.

That night I got a collectivo into Trujillo and caught the overnight bus to Chachapoyas.

written by

The Happy Couple on November 30, 2009 from Huanchaco, Peru

from the travel blog: Michael's Lonely post-Honeymoon

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