The road was good, apart from the odd stretches that had been washed away by floods, and we made good time. It was just getting light when we stopped in Trujillo at 07:00 hrs. It didn’t look like a particularly enchanting city so I continued on by getting a bus to Huanchaco from just down the road.
Huanchaco is a popular vacation beach city in province of Trujillo, Peru. Huanchaco is known for its surf breaks, its caballitos de totora and its ceviche, and is near the ancient ruins of Chan Chan. Huanchaco was approved as a World Surfing Reserve by the organization “Save The Waves Coalition” in 2012. This historic town is part of the tourist circuit called the "Moche Route" or "Ruta Moche".
Huanchaco's original population were indigenous fishermen, who worshipped the moon and a golden fish called Huaca Taska. Some accounts suggest the name "Huanchaco" originate from "Gua-Kocha, a Quechua word meaning "beautiful lake".
The bus which went down to this fishing village cum tourist resort was labelled “B”. Buses “A” and “C” had different destinations despite having Huanchaco painted on the side. I was now busting for a crap. I bundled onto the crowded bus with my luggage and paid 3 Intis for the short ride into the village.
I checked into the Hostel Sol y Mar, Jirón Ficus 570, for a room with a matrimonial bed, toilet and shower for 300 Intis. Desperate for the toilet I was in no position to argue or find anywhere cheaper. I threw my bags into the room and dived into the bog for some blessed relief. Just in time! I then crashed out on the bed for four hours, until midday.
I then went out for a look around and a bite to eat. There was a thin strip of sandy beach on the other side of the road and a grey turbulent sea (the Pacific Ocean), which was visible for about 100 metres before it disappeared into a grey mist.
There were lots of glamourous Peruvian holidaymakers on the beach sporting the latest fashion beachwear. I walked down to the pier. The pier in Huanchaco was constructed in around 1891 and is the heart and soul of the town, where locals and tourists alike throw in lines and hope to get the biggest and tastiest catch.
Huanchaco fishermen still use caballitos, boats made from the totora reeds that grow in the marshy area at the north end of the town. They go out when the fish are biting and surf back a few hours later with their catch, selling it immediately on the beach and then stacking their caballitos along the beachfront to dry.
I had ceviche in a restaurant on the front, washed down with Trujillo Pilsen (brewed by Sociedad Cervecera de Trujillo SA). The brewery in Trujillo began operations in 1918. Pilsen Trujillo was launched on the market in November 1920 in Trujillo under the name of "Cerveza Libertad", by the Cervecería de Trujillo society. The first beer produced by the company was named Libertad in honour of the name of the La Libertad Region, where Trujillo is located.
As an added bonus I found a fly pickled with the fish in the citrus juices. The concept of ceviche is so old there are no recipes for its earliest incarnations, which were probably made in or near Huanchaco. There’s good evidence to suggest that 3,000 years ago, fishermen ate their catch straight from the sea, says Maricel Presilla, author of Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America.
Today’s best-known ceviches are served dressed in a base of lime juice, salt, chilli and onion, with the citrus, in particular, getting to work on the proteins in the fish. As the proteins coagulate, the fish appears to cook, becoming firmer and opaque as the lime mingles with the other ingredients to create a fiery liquor known as leche de tigre (‘tiger’s milk’).
I bought some bananas on the way back and tested the sea temperature. It was freezing cold as expected, but it seemed strange when the weather on land was so hot. I returned to the luxurious “Sol y Mar” (Sun and Sea) Complex. I read my “Clowns of God” book for a while and then went out for a better look at the town.
Huanchaco has the appearance of an Arabic town, built on a narrow sandy plain between the sea and some sandstone cliffs. Built in 1540, the Santuario de la Virgen del Socorro is a white church on the red stone bluff overlooking and dominating the town and is reputedly the second oldest in Peru.
I found a token plaza and a couple of sports grounds, one with a squash wall, amongst the low square, single-storey houses. A few had half an upper storey built of red bricks, left irregular at the top with protruding metal reinforcing rods poking up to the sky, as if the bricks had run out or the builders had buggered off halfway through the job.
I had a Coca Cola and sat of the front watching the sun go down. I ran back to my room for my camera and had a worrying moment when the receptionist couldn’t find my key, making me suspect that someone was rifling through my room with it, but it turned out that she was just looking for the wrong number.
I went back by the pier and took a few photographs while the fishermen came in with their catch. The sunset was unspectacular. After another session of reading and writing in my room I was ready for an evening meal and a shant (alcoholic drinking session).
I walked into the town and was dismayed to find that all the cafés and restaurants were closed, and this was at 19:30 hrs. On the way back I found one, “El Tramboyo”, that was still open for business. The family that ran the place were clustered around the television which had a predictable Benny Hill-style comedy program showing.
I had a nice bit of fried fish with fried yuka and a bottle of Cristal cerveza. Yuca is the root of the Cassava plant. It was one of the first domesticated crops in America and the first evidence of cassava cultivation dates back 4,000 years in Peru. Yuca is a tuber that is grown mainly in tropical countries of America, Asia, and America and that comes from the family called Euphorbiaceae.
Everything was dead in the town when I walked back to the “Sol y Mar” at 21:00 hrs. so I went straight to bed for some much-needed sleep.
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