Wandering in Trujillo
The north is not (as) often visited as the south of Peru. It is a pity as the scenery is really impressive and Trujillo and its neighbouring town of Huanchaco (pronounced Wan-chuck-oh, hey, Chuck is here too)are really cool places.
The Plaza de Armas in Trujillo is beautiful as are the surrounding roads. There are a lot of old buildings which have been restored, mostly by the banks who now own and occupy them, and painted in funky colours. They have a really nice way of using the old buildings. The majority have a façade with an entrance and then a courtyard before the main building. As a result, the banks that now occupy the buildings are able to keep the beautiful old facades and then modernise from the courtyards onwards. As a result the streets are colourful and retain the old charm.
Today was the day for wandering around and exploring. The weather was great. It must have been about 25 degrees and shining – perfect for walking around and catching a few rays. We were partly right when we said there were no street names. There are some, but commonly they don’t match up to what is on the map. Nice touch. They chose a nice intricate font painted onto tiles to add a further level of complication as you can only read the name from about a metre away.
Now an important Spanish lesson (seeing as this is a short descriptive day).
We had dinner at a small place called La Valentina, which is about 500m from the plaza. They really take service to a new extreme. They are trying very hard to be classy, and actually do a good job. It is just such a contrast from the other restaurants and general chaos outside. As an example, when our meal of pizzas arrived it was placed on a separate table and when we had finished a piece the waiter would come and serve us another piece individually. Strange but cute.
