We caught the 7am early morning from Cajamarca to our next destination, Chiclayo. Our crew was intact with me, Sasha, and the newest addition to the team, Matty. It was a beautiful 6 hour ride as we descended from the towering Andes into the coastal desert of Peru, which runs through the whole coast of Peru.The desert is how you would imagine it . . . lonesome, dry and empty except for the giant piles of garbage which create their own "havens" and break the peace of the desert. And it seems like it goes on forever. Little rivers snake through it, run around little "dams" made by farmers and feed their fields. Outside of the small green squares which grow rice, corn and the like, the desert is waiting with the patience only it has waiting to swallow up the green fields at first sign of drought. We however, drove past this lonely scene as we made our way to the coast.
Chiclayo is said to be a modern city, the commercial center of northern Peru. Really it's just another almost big city with its street markets, it's Plaza de Armas, the church looking over it, the bodegas, the crippled begging on the sidewalks, the rotisserie chicken joints on every corner, tiny combis (little buses which pack too many people in them) with guys screaming out destinations onto us, and the Peruvians going about their business.
We stepped off the bus ready to be courted by the local taxi drivers. Probably about 90% of the cars are taxis, all fighting over you. And all the taxis have their own personalities. Some with zebra designed seat covers, some with leopard ones. Some with neon lights inside and of course outside of the car. In fact some of the decorations would make you feel like being in a rap video. All I felt I needed was a bottle of Crystal and a feather in my hat. Pimpin' ain't easy!
Finally after travelling for what seems like ages, we have reached the pacific coast in a small town called Pimentel. 
And of course there was a welcoming committee waiting for us...
The coast was not how I imagined it. Cold, windy, and empty just like the town. It felt like a plague came through here before us and took everyone except for the dogs, the little kids selling keychains and the angry Argentinian bum who cursed at me and Matty with every bad English word he had in his vocabulary. But here we are finally across the continent. It means a lot because almost the whole way for months, we took boats, smelly overpacked buses and horses to get here. Wow!
Really, Chiclayo is most famous for a recently found Moche Tomb of The Lord of Sipan. You see, back in 1987 there was an unusual amount of gold and other cool artifacts on the local black market. I personally couldn't find this market. It sounds like it would have a lot of cool stuff for sale. But no, no sign of it. Well, through some investigative work, the authorities discovered new tombs that we're getting robbed. Needless to say they stopped that, dug everything up and put it into a state of the art museum.We checked it out of course. It was an amazing museum with lifelike wax figures of warriors and jewelry on display. We weren't allowed to bring any cameras, but me and Matty being rebels and all brought ours in. Here are some pics before I got caught with my camera and got escorted out:
Its an area of about 50 broken down pyramids which look more like big sand bumps in the ground. Those ridges below are the pyramids. Peru is so rich with archaeological sites that very little work is being done at this place. The grounds are littered with broken pieces of pottery, human bones, etc. Of course this is in places that tourists are not allowed to enter, but we helped ourselves there. I don't intend to make us sound like a bunch of misfits, but our curiosity gotten the best of us. We were like little kids filled with adventure stories wandering around the site.
We climbed the mountain in the middle of the ruins and got to enjoy the incredible view.
Also after all of our adventures, we found an awesome little taco place in Chiclayo. Sorry, no pics.Anyway guys, I'll talk to you later. Gotta get back to the video game on the computer. Peace!
Oh, I will leave you with Matty rockin' out his Spanish with the taxi driver before the guy tries to rip him off...
The small Spanish troop of 170 "conquistadors" outsmarted and defeated an army of 80,000 (by promising a peace ceremony in order to lure 
This room is the only remaining 
Finally, of course, the Spanish killed 
(Actually, the Incas believed that the soul could not have an afterlife if the body was burned. So there you have it.)
. . . it has its bars, restaurants, churches (not in that order) and it has its markets.
(they happened to be wearing clothes this time) and they helped us find a cheap hostel in the area . . . sure there was no hot water available for most of the day AND the mattress felt like a box-spring! But it was cheap . . . and just what we were looking for.
The famous 
(don´t touch the water, don´t cross the walkway, don´t try anything other than taking a pic!)
Why fix it if it 
Thank you 
Before heading for the coast, we decided to check out the 
Armed with sandwiches and strawberries, we had a picnic while reading "The Alchemist" aloud and pondering the afterlife. 
Word to the wise: Peruvians love to plant cacti around their territories...so if you decide to climb over, be very careful! The cactus poison can hurt for days, in you joints! Very painful! Wink wink 
Celendín is a small city in the Northern Andes of Peru, in the department of Cajamarca. The market was a noisy little place with people haggling on every corner and bargains being made every few steps. We found a lot of people here, called compesinos, wearing the traditional clothing topped with a handmade sombrero . . .
. . . locally made of course, an old tradition of Celendín. 
The main plaza called -wait, can you guess- Plaza de Armas and the surrounding streets is inhabited by most of the city´s 15,000 people and is uniquely colored 
This performance was by far my favorite! Those boys might be stomping up a storm but those ladies! They´re working out there! It was a hot day, just so you know, and those girls worked it out there!
Matador: Andes Ruiz
and his colorful possie . . . 
of incompetent fools!
I mean really, how many people does it take to take down a bull . . . because yes, they KILL the bull! This poor bull didn´t have a chance! I mean first, they play around a bit -- fooling the bull to follow their pink capes. They start jabbing him with these colorful peppermint-candy looking daggers that hang off of his back, tearing at his flesh. Then, when they feel like he is losing his energy and enough blood . . . 
that is when they surround the bleeding bull, all 3 or 4 matadors flashing their pink, making the bull dizzy and distorted. Then some really brave ol´chap goes in for the kill with a sword . . . and FINITO! They carry the bull off by the horns after giving him a final blow to the skull with a knife. A valiant death . . . just marvelous don´t you think?!
But it turned out to be great! whew . . and of course there´s
