Dancing with the Devils

 On our last day in Huanchaco, we visited the Temples of the Sun and Moon, two Chimu temples outside the city. The detail preserved is amazing-- friezes of beaheading dieties, serpents, birds, skulls. Pretty impressive for a fortress built of mud bricks. We visited the sacrificial altar where warriors were offered to allieviate the horrendous El Niño rain that eventually drove the civilization into the mountainds. I found a few more pottery shards, and added them to my collection.
  After a few bizarre nights, filled with amazing stories in Huanchaco, involving characters like an addict from New York, and an over-priveledged Israeli girl, we left.  We arrived in Chiclayo late, it´s a large market town, and the corridor into the Northern Highlands, and the Amazon. We made a last-minute decision to head to Pimentèl a few miles away; it´s another quiet beach town right up against some terrific waves and a sandy beach. We stayed in a huge, re-vamped colonial mansion, right on the beach, and more importantly, near the churro stands. Maegan and I must have eaten our weight in those golden little goodies in the three days we were there. Our room had the most incredible bathroom ever- all tiled in butter yellow, with an enourmous hand-tiled bathtub and a checker floor. It positively glowed. Especially for those of us who were spending a good amount of time in there...

   The body surfing was good, very good. 2m waves that threw you onshore, or that you could ride then to the dry sand. Hundreds of little sea snails were embedded in the beach, so that walking out to the water was walked on their thousands of soft little tongues. The water was warm enough to stay in untl the cormorants began to circle at nightfall, and then we´d grab another churro, and walk the ancient pier to see the sun dissapear into the dark green water in a shroud of red and pink.

We also checked out the Brunig Museum, which was the largest collection of Chimu gold and atefacts in the world, including the Lords of Sipàn tombs, which were mostly raided by the Spanish in the 1500s. It was very cool- the pottery and jewelry blew my mind. Who knew what humans were capable of when they spent their time creating things? Even the peasant pottery was incredible, with the most sophisticated style and craftsmanship. We spent about two hours in the cold, dark museum, just in awe of it all. And then back out into the hot, desert sun...

   The next night, we planned to leave by bus to Chachapoyas, an Andean town high in the cloudforest. The trip would take 9 hours by bus-cama (very classy bus that has seats that fold into almost-beds, and bad kung-fu movies) but we wouldn´t depart until 8pm. We walked around Pimentèl and heard a marching band. They were playing a minor chord, funerary march, which was both creepy and upbeat. Then a huge procession turned the corner: three young girls in white dresses and tiaras, carrying little brass beds with babies tucked in. Men in Middle-Eastern dress, like kings, in jewel toned turbans and capes. Then bulls, made from bedsheets and PVC piping, and then the devils. Men and boys dressed in rags, trenchcoats and tails. Some wore skeleton masks, others in dried dogskins with holes cut for their eyes. Men in dresses, monster costumes, horns, black faced and hairy. They had colourful ribbons tacked all over their clothing, and the jived and whirled to the music, jeering at the crowd, gnashing their teeth and pulling apart baby dolls. They were dancing with canes, whips, and cuy-- guinea pigs. Once they saw that I had a camera, they were eager to lurch and dance for pictures. Behind the lense, I saw one man approaching us, howling and shaking something. It was a dead guinea pig, about the size of a rabbit. I snapped the photo, then had the dead creature dangled over my face and bare back. It was actually quite soft, and I look forward to eating one.