Bracamonte Hotel

Above: Taxi in Trujillo.

Friday 25th March 1988

I got up at 08:00 hrs and packed my gear up. I left a note at reception for Jackie Smith and then moved down the road to the Bracamonte Hotel. Here I paid 300 Intis for “Room 16” which was a campervan trailer. I threw my stuff in and had breakfast at the hotel cafeteria.

Above: The Hotel Bracamonte in Huanchaco in Peru.

I then quickly penned a letter to my friend Austen Simmons back in London and set off for Trujillo. I had a fair wait because the buses were still on strike and there were only two Government-run buses plying the route from Huanchaco to town.

In Trujillo I posted the letter to Austen and went to the “Ticket Office” of Chinchay-Suyo Bus Company at 720 Bolivar. Here tickets were sold from a discrete unmarked window in a yard. I handed over 388 Intis for a ticket for tomorrows 20:30 hrs. bus to Huaráz, in the mountains.

Huaráz (from Quechua: Waraq or Waras, "dawn"), founded as San Sebastián de Huaráz, is a city in Peru. It is the capital of the Ancash Region (State of Ancash) and the seat of government of Huaráz Province. The urban area's population is distributed over the districts of Huaráz and Independencia.

The city is located in the middle of the Callejon de Huaylas valley and on the right side of the Santa River. The city has an elevation of approximately 3050 metres above sea level. The built-up area makes it the second largest city in the central Peruvian Andes after the city of Huancayo. It is the 22nd largest city in Peru. Huaráz is the seat of the province's Roman Catholic Bishop and the site of the cathedral. Huaráz is the main financial and trade centre of the Callejón de Huaylas and the main tourist destination of Ancash region.

The city was founded before the Inca Empire when humans settled around the valley of the Santa River and Qillqay. Its Spanish occupation occurred in 1574 as a Spanish-indigenous reducción. During the wars for the independence of Peru, the whole city supported the Liberating Army with food and guns, earning the city the title of "Noble and Generous City" granted by Simón Bolívar. In 1970, 95% of the city was destroyed by an earthquake that damaged much of Ancash Region. 25,000 people died. The city received much foreign assistance from many countries. For this reason, the city was named a capital of International Friendship.

The name of the city comes from the Quechua word "Waraq", which means "sunrise". The pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the area had a god called "Waraq quyllur", which means "morning star" or the planet Venus, because it is the star that is seen at sunrise.

I then went to locate the actual place where the buses departed from, a yard at 337 González Prada. This was on the other side of an uninspiring street market. On the way back I nearly bought some monkey nuts, but a young lad warned me that they were “muy caro” (very expensive), much to the disgust of the seedy looking stall owner.

I had the set menu in the Hotel Colonial, on the plaza, with it’s magazine picture collage on the walls (reminiscent of our kitchen at home, created by my mother with her favourite pictures from magazines).

Lunch eaten; I joined the huge queue for a bus back to Huanchaco. It wasn’t as bad as it looked because they managed to cram so many people on each bus. I actually got a seat on the second bus, so I was glad that I didn’t give into the temptation to take a taxi. The bus was only 4 Intis.

In town I also bought some more coloured embroidery thread so that I could make some more pulseras to alleviate moments of boredom. I retired to my little caravanette to write up my diary. A while later I went back up to the church with my camera.

There were several people in the graveyard and quite a few people in their Sunday best clothing scaling the pebbled track up to the church. I stood around for a bit and decided against taking any photographs for fear of upsetting anybody.

I went back to the hotel, pissed about for a bit, and then went out for a Cerviche Mixto in the El Tramboyo Restaurante. The family who ran the place were noisily having dinner by the television set. The kids were all shouting and trying to slap one another. I returned to the peace of the deserted Bracamonte Restaurante for a delicious slice of apple pie and a few bottles of Trujillo Pilsen.

Guy came along from the Hostel Huanchaco with a couple of Australians, and we drank beer and talked until 22:00 hrs. when they departed and I staggered off to bed.