Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Through the detailed travelogue Audre and Dimitri are keeping of their trip to Peru, we experienced their exciting and interesting visit to Arequipa and then joined them on their wonderful time in Lima.  After that we accompanied them on their adventure through Peru's Amazon. In this part of the travelogue we will join Audre and Dimitri as they travel to Northern Peru. If you missed out on the first, second or third part of their trip, click here for part I , here for part II and here for part III.

There is a lot of desert on the coast in Perú. It’s endless and only sometimes interesting. Our first stop north of Lima, however, was definitely very interesting. We had heard about the Caral archeological site on a BBC travel show. We learned that at km 160 of the Panamericana Norte, there was a 23 km unpaved road in good condition that would take us to Caral. We left Lima at 11 a.m. but didn’t arrive at Caral until 3:30 p.m. The unpaved road was very bad and so it took forever to get to the site.

We were pleased with an excellent guide, Segundo, and it was a very rewarding experience. Caral is 5000 years old. When the people of Caral were building their pyramids, the Egyptians were building theirs as well. Awesome. The site started being excavated in the 1990’s, the Peruvian sand and desert having preserved even the colors. The website is very well done too: www.caralperu.gob.pe We were given the jubilados entrance fee rate of S/.2 (under US$1). We shared the price of the guide with another couple so it was an additional S/.10 for us (a little more than US$3). All in all it was a great detour even though a small section of our back bumper fell off during the rough road ride to Caral.

We didn’t stop at the pyramid of Paramonga. We pressed on to Barranca to stay the night at the Hotel Chavin (Jr. Gálvez 222, fono: 235-2253, website: www.hotelchavin.com.pe). It was okay but only if you need a place for the night.