We’d
hummed and hawed so much over what to do and where to go next that by the time
we left Huaraz we were on plan G! In the
end we jumped on a Yungay Express bus to Casma for Soles20 each and only a
4-hour ride. It turned out to be another
of those beautiful bus journeys up to a pass at 4600m and down, down to the
coast at 0m! Peru may be richer than
many of its neighbours but the majority of its residents are still living a
decidedly rural life. Many of the homes
are made of blocks made from mud and straw which are held together with an
animal dung bashed concoction. The roof
is generally made up of corrugated metal sheets that are held down by rocks.
Casma
turned out to be a very noisy little town with trucks, buses and mototaxis a
plenty zipping up and down the one main road.
We checked into Hostal Victoria near the transport hub and were
pleasantly surprised to be in a spotlessly clean, en-suite room for only Soles40
a night. Went for a wander down said
road but it didn’t take long to exhaust Casma’s lack of attractions – so why
were we here? Well, we’re now basically
making our way towards Ecuador but wanted to take in a last bit of Peruvian
culture and see the coast. Only 5km out
of Casma is the ancient archaeological site of Sechin dating back to around
1600BC making Machu Picchu look brand new.
Not a great deal is known about these ancient warriors and it’s not an
extensive site; however, it was interesting enough to hold our attention for a
good hour. It’s amazing that people from
so long ago managed to construct such vast fortresses and the pictures etched
into the rocks were very detailed giving an insight into their lives. We had the entire place to ourselves and it
proved to be a cheap activity at only Soles5 each entrance fee and Soles10
return in a mototaxi. They are a
motorbike version of a tuc tuc in case you’re wondering. There are real Bajaj tuc tucs over here too
like those in India and Sri Lanka.
With
Casma duly done and dusted it was time to move on to Huanchaco a beach resort
near Trujillo. There are buses on this
route but the timetable is a bit irregular and the buses are often full so we
decided to do this short hop in stages.
First of all we jumped in a shared minivan that for Soles5 each took us
to the bus terminal in Chimbote. From
there we hopped on one of the many buses (Soles9) that ply the route to
Trujillo where we finally jumped in a taxi (Soles18) to take us to Huanchaco. Even though we changed modes of transport it
was a quick enough journey along the coast.
We travelled through more of that desert interspersed with agricultural
green valleys and tantalising glimpses of the Pacific Ocean – we were off to
the seaside.
