We found an apartment

We saw some signs going up for an apartment for rent, and they said that the landlord is European, so we decided to try calling the number. It took a while for us to figure out how to use the phones here, but once we got connected I got to have my first Spanish phone call. I got the address of the place, so we wandered over. The negotiation went down in a multilingual mess. Spanish was our only common language , the tenant and I could communicate privately in Dutch, and we could say phrases from TV in English and everyone would laugh. Here's a handy chart of who spoke what:

Language Skills Rated 0-4

	Dutch	English	Spanish	Italian
Landlord	0	0	3	4
Me	3	4	1	0
Tenant	4	3	3	0

In summary, this place is loads cheaper than staying in a hotel, which means more cremoladas and porn popcorn for me.

A healthy dose of culture

So, along with the Surfing Mundial this week, there is Huanchaco Culture Week. There are lots of events going on that have cultural significance, such as: Danzos de Huanchaco, Orchestra de nuestra senora de Socorro, Caballittos de Totoro races, and a Chinese Dragon.

Unfortunately we missed the orchestra last night because the lights went out and it was at night and we figured it was cancelled (but we did hear music coming from somewhere). We did make it to the Danzos de Huanchaco. Those were great; Well, some were weird and some were beautiful. "Los Negritos de Catambla (last picture)" and "Los Diablos de Huanchaco" were definitely the weird ones. I wish I could perform them for everyone. The other dances looked like traditional spanish dancing and it was beautiful. The chinese dragon thing we ran into on the beach last night and we got a truly horrible picture (because like I said the power was out, so no street lights) that I am posting anyway (first picture). The pictures of Brian and me are out on the muelle, but those are horrible too. Tonight is the "Escenificacion de la Llegada de los Dioses Moche" (or staging of the arrival of the moche gods). Follwed by fireworks and a performance by the band of the navy of Peru (rough translation). Super excited for fireworks!

Porn Popcorn and Zombie Dogs

 

 

The Burger

I decided to take a chance and order a hamburger at this gringo place called "My Friend" because I heard that they had big burgers that were decent. Now, I usually am left hungry after a meal here because Peruvians are half my size and eat proportionally less. I was very pleasantly surprised when this arrived at my table:

Weekend Activities

We went hiking out to this hill behind the city over the weekend. It's part of the town's celebration right now. It's the Cerro de la Virgen. I took a bunch of mostly scenery pictures. This is a great hill to check out the sunset over the ocean. I so wish we could watch the surfer championship from up here, but it's on the other side of the pier. The last picture has a mountain in the back that really reminds me of a mountain down by Elk Ridge. Every time I see it, it kind of trips me out. Today another celebration starts! Cultur A Viva Huanchaco. It's tied together with the Surf Championship. We actually have a pamphlet of stuff to go to for this celebration, so we can go to the events. Hoping to make it tomorrow to the Presentation of Dances. "The Devils of Huanchaco" and the "Negritos de Catambla" dances will be displayed.

The Unexpected - Part Dos

So I have previously posted some things that differ in Peru when comparing them to the US. Since then, there have been many more I have learned (most major one is probably to ignore all loud sounds, they don't mean the end of the world). But one of the weirdest ones so far is how the shadows are different here. I haven't been able to come up with a scientific explanation yet, but I have been reading up on it. I have provided an example in the picture. Also still getting a kick out of some of the signs in English here. So many inappropriate signs. Ha.

Well now...surfing

Surfing. Surfing is awesome. We both had a blast. We went at the break of dawn (9 am for us) and then again after our Spanish Classes. We both got up almost every time we tried on the easy boards for beginners. Later we took the thinner smaller boards and it wasn't quite as easy. We both only got half-up a few times and by the time we realized what we were doing wrong we were exhausted (paddling hard before the wave comes: super-important). I also learned some additional things about surfing, besides how to ride a wave: First, surfing is way more exercise than I would have thought (kind of like people who think tennis isn't exercise, it's only chill for lazy people); Second, no need to put sunblock on the front of your legs (duh?), but definitely put it on the back of your legs; Third, I seriously wouldn't have minded having knee pads, but I would probably have gotten beaten up by the other surfers. And that's really saying something since surfers are people like Jack Johnson. Ie, my knees are beat up; Lastly, it feels super cool to ride a wave.

For any one out there thinking of surfing, you should come to Huanchaco. The waves are great here and it's close to free for lessons, boards, wetsuits, etc.

Chilling on the hill

I went to this graveyard and found a Wand of Wonder +2, because this is totally that kind of graveyard,

I used it to conquer this

and this,

which explains why I was striking a conquering pose in all of my pictures that day.

There was also a Volkswagen nearby (quickly conquered). They're everywhere around here.

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Realization

It came to me yesterday that we've been in Huanchaco for about 2 weeks and we haven't posted any pictures of the beach. Seems fitting that we should have pictures at the beach since that's where we've spent most our time, but normally when we go there we don't bring any items of value. But here are a couple pics. Behind the picture of me (Rachael) is the Muelle (or the pier/dock). And behind Brian is a dude taking a nap under a little shelter thing. Caballitos de Totora can be seen in my photo as well sitting up against the beach wall.

Off to go see that church on the hill.

Assortment

Well, a couple days ago we decided to hike up the little hill behind the community and see what it was like up there. It's all right. But what I really want to go check out is that church behind me. It's from the 1500s.

The beach was crazy today. The waves are just ridiculous here. Some guy was cool enough to let me try out his body board. How fun! I think I am going to try and buy one of them...they couldn't cost too much, right? We got invited to a beach BBQ today - I wish it wasn't Sunday, cuz the beach is so busy on Sundays that we would never have been able to find them so we didn't go. Would have been nice to speak English to some people and try cricket.

Prepizza by Bimbo!!!

Why isn't this being marketed in the US? And what do I do for my postpizza?

Drama at Swissostal Huanchaco

We've been having some trouble with our hotel. The hosts were starting try to nickel and dime us in really weird ways and accused of of lying and stealing from them. We decided to put a stop to that early and sat down with them to talk it out. Fortunately, we got out relatively unscathed. This blog actually ranks pretty highly in searches for Swissostal Huanchaco, so I'll stick to the facts and hopefully no one else makes the mistake of staying there.

Just to be clear here's the address:
Ricardo Palma 308
Huanchaco, Peru

View Larger Map

Here's the whole story:
After some searching, we finally found a hotel that would offer us a cheaper monthly rate. We paid up front for the month and settled in. It was a little weird that the hosts made us keep our room keys at the front desk, and would never leave the front door unlocked, making us wake them up at all hours of the night to get in. We realized that the room is way too hot, and asked the owner for a fan. He didn't have one, so we told him we were going to go buy one. When we came in with the fan, he approached us and said that he was going to charge us 90 soles extra per month to have a fan because it uses more electricity and he had given us too low of a price. We were stunned, exchanged some weirded out looks, and said we guess we'd have to pay it. We started to realize why not one other person was staying at this hotel.

The whole thing made me really nervous. They didn't seem picky when we were looking at the room. They never said "No fans," and they didn't make sure they'd seen all our luggage before we checked in or anything. I even asked him to show me somewhere he'd written down rules that we'd missed, but he couldn't. What would they spring on us next? I decided we needed to have a talk. I gave them 3 options:

1.  We would pay the 90 extra soles, but at the end of the month. Also, since they were making us nervous by changing the price on us, we wanted to put a small amount of money down up front, and pay the balance at the end of the month.
2. They can stick with the original deal of getting the whole month up front, but not get any extra money.
3. They can ask us to leave and refund our money.

We had a long conversation about this during which they repeatedly suggested that we just give them all of the money now. At one point they accused us of never telling them that we were going to be using computers and hacking into their wireless network, which was a total lie. I was very up front about the fact that I need it for work when we were negotiating for the place. And right after we checked in he brought the wireless password up to us. It was really weird.

He also thought it was implied when we got a lower rate that the services we would receive were scaled back accordingly. He said that he'd given us such a good rate because we weren't going to use much water or electricity and they would only clean the room and bathroom once a week. They gave conflicting accounts of how often they would provide toilet paper. The one time we actually asked for some, they wouldn't give it to us. I have never stayed at a hotel where the whole room was a minibar. It sucks.

Finally they agreed to refund some of our money, but only after charging us a nightly rate for the time we stayed there that was 50% higher than the going rate in the area. Eh, better than nothing. And we don't want to stay with people who accuse us of being criminals.

Swissostal Huanchaco's final score:
Weirdness               ★★★★★
Relaxaliciousness   ★

The inevitable

Well we got sick. Our best guess is the water.

Pretty much took yesterday and today off laying around trying to find tv online. Hope we can be back to Spanish lessons tomorrow.
We're also moving to the Swissostal tomorrow. That is where we'll reside for a couple months until we go to Cusco. It was just too hard trying to get an apartment without speaking the language fluently.

Sudado de Pescado

For $1.75 I get this for lunch:

 The fish was, of course, caught earlier today by local fishermen in reed boats on the ocean.

Oh it also came with a big bowl of chicken noodle soup with chicken feet thrown in for extra chicken flavor.

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Hearts Huanchaco

So happy we moved to Huanchaco. It's quiter, smells better, no honking taxis everywhere, the beach, fresh seafood everywhere. Also, we really like our Spanish teacher. We had our 2nd lesson today and he goes fast and makes your brain work. It's not easy. My brain doesn't want to do it, but I am trying anyway.

We are so happy to have a kitchen in our new place so that we can make some american food. We just went to the market and bought fruit, eggs, bread, veggies, and cheese (which are things I learned to appreciate). We don't have to eat only peruvian food anymore! We've started to find really great Peruvian food, like Sudado de Pescado, but there still aren't enough vegetables to survive.

Also, we found a really great restaurante a block from our house. Otra Cosa. It's quite a funny situation. The owner/cook happens to be from the Netherlands. So he speaks fluent Dutch, some English, and some Spanish. When we sat down at the table he hands us our menu and says "alstublieft." The menu is written in Spanish, and we order the food in english. And when we're done we ask for "de rekening." It's weird for my brain.

Ciao.

We found some Spanish lessons in Haunchaco that look good, so we up and moved. No more Hotel España

with the human remains in the lobby:

I'm excited to learn Spanish and to finally be able to talk to people here.

The bus ride took all night, but we found a pretty sweet room when we got here. It's right on the ocean.

We're in the market for an apartment now.

My extra comments on the Pickpocket attempt

First of all, I have never had anyone try to pickpocket me before. So this was pretty exciting. There always has to be a first and I really thought it'd be in a place like Roatan or Belize, but we were in a pretty bad part of town. Wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the Parque de la Reserva :( and I am sad I didn't get to see it.

I think Brian would have caught the guy had he not turned around to look for me. This all happened in a split second. By the time I turned around from the sign we were reading, all I caught was the look on the kid's face as he noticed Brian sprinting after him. After another second the kid was at the top of the stairs to a bridge and Brian was already starting up the stairs and leaping 5 or 6 stairs at once when the kid could do about 2. So the look on his face, oh, priceless. That's when Brian remembered that little kidnapping game that's been known to happen in Mexico where someone lures the man away and kidnaps the women. So he turned back and looked and me and noticed no other shady people around and he started bolting after the kid again. I was shocked for a bit, but then I thought it was funny after I remembered we didn't have our passports on us. There were about 5 other people around. One woman and her daughter just kept looking back to me and then looking back and 'the chase.' Another man came over after Brian got back and he seemed to feel pretty badly about the situation. He was really nice, asking if he'd gotten our passports or any money. I think he thought we were out of money and was going to walk us back to the Plaza de Armas. He walked and talked with us for a while and then hailed a cab for us.

All in all, I guess we paid Doce Soles for our round trip ride to get robbed.

Pick Pocket Failure

Went to a park that was supposed to have pretty fountains, but apparently it's only open Wednesday through Sunday. Our cab driver, of course, didn't tell us. So we decide to take a walk around the park. We stop for a few seconds to read a sign. I feel a hand go into my pocket. Great. I've been waiting for this :)

I go for the wrist. Miss. I swing my left elbow back hard. Miss. I turn around. It's a 15 year old kid and he's tearing away at top speed. Rachael says she got a kick out of the look on his face. I tear off after him. After a few seconds I realize he didn't get anything (Not that I keep anything valuable in my picking pockets) and look back to make sure I'm not being baited away for an attack on Rachael. The coast is clear, so I chase a bit more just to see if I can catch the kid. He keeps looking back as I'm keeping pace with him. I let him go when we get to a block of buildings (and probably his buddies) and head back to Rachael and a sympathetic crowd.

I'm sad I didn't catch him, because that would have been fun, but there was no harm done. That kid was gutsy though. What 90 pounder pickpockets a 6'4", 200 pound athletic looking guy? At least try not to die and go for the fat tourists, geez.

Choco Bum

Really?! Choco Bum?

Choco Bum actually tastes all right. Let the horrible puns begin.

Wandering around

We somehow got into the Presidential Palace

And got a picture of their totally awesome creche

Rachael had to get a picture under this tree

Which was across from this really busted up old city

Then we went to a shopping mall built into the side of a cliff by the ocean

But we didn't really want to shop. So we climbed down the cliff

And laid by the beach until the sun set
 

A random fire in the streets

New Years was crazy, as expected. At the end of all the fireworks, the entire city was covered in a smoky haze. At one point, a long hanging string of sparklers were set off to illuminate a big glowing "Peru" sign. When they went off, all the unsuspecting people under the sparklers got showered with sparks. Nice :)

Also, there were fires in the streets on the way home. These guys celebrate the New Year right.

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