11/07/2019 – Travel day, Chiclayo to Huanchaco, Peru

We got up at 08:00 and our breakfast was delivered to our door, this time humitas (corn flour cake things steamed in corn husk) bread and coffee. We got packed up and wrote our positive review on bookings. The hostel host helped us hail a taxi and negotiate a good price to the Emtrafesa bus station. We bought our bus tickets (25 Sol, about £6), and only had to wait half an hour until we departed. Our luggage got tagged and loaded for us, some boxes of alive chickens going noisily under the bus alongside the luggage! We were on the top deck at the very front of the bus with extra leg room and a panoramic view. It was super luxurious, I think it is a company that does a lot of night bus services so they are extra large seats, like cinema seats that recline and have a flip down leg rest too. As we set off there was a cabin crew lady that served us complimentary coca cola and a little packed lunch box. We both took some time to draft some whatsapp messages before falling asleep. The scenery was dry, barren, flat land interspersed with small groups simple hut houses. About 4.5 hours later we pulled into the bus station in Trujillo. We got our bags and into an unofficial taxi to Huanchaco. For some reason, that we haven’t quite worked out yet, no one here ever has any form of change so it is always a palava as the ATMs always give us large notes! Also the taxi drivers never actually know where they are going so we usually end up using our mapps.me app and navigating ourselves there, which is quite amusing! We drove out of Trujillo (3rd largest city in Peru) and into the surf town of Huanchaco. The waves were rolling in and we felt much more comfortable and at home than in the big city. After driving up and down the same road a couple of times, and asking the few people we came across, we knocked on a door, and got introduced to our host. We are in a little homestay called Bamboo lodge, in a double room with en suite. There is an outdoor living area (t.v. and sofas under a tarpaulin roof) and an outdoor kitchen, I guess it can’t rain here too much. There is also a roof terrace with a sea view. We got settled in and then took a stroll to get some food and coffee. We found a vegetarian café ‘Otra Cosa’ two blocks away on the sea front, and recommended by the lonely planet. We got a coffee and then spoke with Sol and Alex on FaceTime, it was really nice to catch up! We then got ourselves a vegetarian lasagne dinner. We strolled along the seafront to the pier and back, and picked some bits for breakfast tomorrow from the mini market. We got showered and into bed and watched some Stranger Things and Greys Anatomy in bed.