Speaking the lingo, or not, whilst travelling

Trujillo, Peru
7-9 April, 2010

   I got off the Cañon de Pato bus trip with an older Australian couple from Darwin. When I say older, I just mean that they where in their 50’s (so older than me, and older than the average independent traveler). We all booked into the same place and I spent quite a bit of the next day and a half in their company.
   The couple had been traveling two and a third years, having started out in Asia. They only spoke English, so it seemed to me they were missing out on a lot, but it was interesting to see just how well they got along without Spanish as well. At times I have felt I just didn´t have the words to express myself, but when Phil was disappointed in the customer service he just told them so, in English. Maybe I should do the same, they seemed to get the point. No attempt was made, by Phil, to speak Spanish. If he wanted a beer, he just kept saying beer, until they realized the man must be thirsty.
   Although I love being able to speak Spanish, I actually don´t feel this (traveling only with English) to be an ignorant style of travel. I think it better than not traveling at all and if you started out in Asia I can see that this might be a natural progression. The languages of Asia are too many, too varied and too difficult for the average traveler to go beyond the very basics of Hello, Thank you, yes, no. And I have always defended the Gold Coast City (Australia) signs in Japanese, saying that if we want to make money from these people, it´s best to be as accommodating as possible. Having spent a little time in Asia, I´m sure many of them feel the same way… if they want to make money from me, they´ll usually know enough English to sell their products to me.

   In Trujillo they had a good value deal to visit the Temple of the Moon and Chan Chan, 2 half day trips, for S/25 (about $9). So that´s what I did. Both are ruins from pre Inca times. Chan Chan was impressive for its’ size (the largest city in the worldbuilt of Adobe), but I was more impressed by the Temple of the Moon, which was temple built upon temple, 5 levels of temples from different times (Chimu culture), each one filled in and built on top of with the next. And the colours still intact!

From the approach, the Temple of the Moon, really doesn´t look like much. But then they started digging and wow!

Here is one of the inner walls of a temple, each temple was filled in with bricks (they have left some in the corner) and built around with bricks too, and then another temple built on top, creating a pyramid effect from the outside.

Here you can see the 5 layers of the different temples. And the original colour still quite good.

I really liked this decoration, it has so much going on in it.

In a musuem they showed what things might have looked like... could you imagine wearing the big nose piece?

Chan Chan, the worlds largest city built of Adobe... was massive.

More of Chan Chan

At the end of the day they took us to the beach at Huanchaco. These are fishing boats... drying when we got there, but if you go earlier in the day you can get a fisherman to take you out for a quick trip in one of these where you surf back in on the wave. I think it cost less than $2, but I was too late in the day.

Notes
Accom; Hotel Colonial **** Haggle the price.... when I got there they saud S/55, then S/45, then I got it for S/30. Private room, cable TV, hot water.
Tours; Chan Chan S/15, Temple of the Moon S/20, together S/25. Lunch at the place they take you too.... well I guess that´s how they get to do the 2 tours so much cheaper. Expensive at C/18. (Lunch usually S/3-9)
Oh, and they are fantastic Pisco Sours at the fancy Hotel by the Plaza.