The week that was

It has been almost a week since I said goodbye to my American comrades... I've had to learn some new phrases because 'open your mouth' and 'do you have tooth pain' doesn't quite cut it when booking bus tickets... The busses have been interesting and I've got quite the knack for finding myself sitting next to older men. One wouldn't stop staring, one wouldn't stop taking and yet another wasn't supposed to be sitting there!

I have made my way from Quito to Cuenca, crossed the border and stayed in Mancora then Chiclayo and now Trujillo... I've elected to spend a bit of time getting down to Lima and although it means that I will see very little of Lima itself I think I have been able to get a bit of a taste of northern Peru... 

Here are some pics from the journey so far...

A little old lady dressed in the traditional dress of the Cuenca area... Looks soo cute but smells so bad. They don't like washing because they think that exposing their bare skin to the air will make them sick!

An inca mask recovered from a royal tomb. I tried to consider what was the modern-day equivalent of dressing in a mask twice as big as your head... I guess the mask these days is your social network of choice and the optical illusion can be created with any number of digital up enhancements!

A view of one of Ecuador's volcanoes during the flight from Quito to Cuenca

Men hard at work. This picture was take in the late afternoon in suburban Chiclayo

The churches and cathedrals here are intense! I've been to the Vatican City but this is different! I think it is the spanish influence and their obsession with gold but it feels like a cross between a cathedral and a 'Wat'. Instead of Buddha at the front of the room we have Jesus... Haven't seen a room full of reclining jesus's yet though...

A view from the bus... The sand dunes are remarkable and there seems to be a lot of abandoned brick structures peppered along the side of the road.

Cajas national park was pretty amazing, I wish I could have spent longer in this wonderland... High altitude though (over 4000m) so even the couple of hours I did spend stroling around was a work out! 

This is the Peruvian version of a surf-ski... This waka will help you catch you a mean feed of fish if you're Keen! Sweet as... Just make sure you got some teef to eat it wif! Otherwise your're stuck with plankton