El Ñuro

But, the absolute best part of the Piura trip was swimming with the sea turtles in El Ñuro! For a mere 5 soles, we were able to swim with the turtles for almost an hour!  It was amazing!

Piura: Casa Grau

Part of this trip including spending some planned and unplanned time in Piura, which gave us some time to check out the museums there.  My first choice was Casa Grau, the home of the legendary Admiral Miguel Grau.  I was excited to learn more about Miguel Grau since his name is on roads all over the country, like Washington or Lincoln in the US.

Admiral Grau is known as El caballero de las mares, the gentleman of the seas.  During the Battle of Iquique fighting for Peru against Chile, Admiral Grau rescued a Chilean crew after sinking their ship, depicted here:

He also wrote a letter to the widow of the ship's commander, assuring her that her husband died with honor in battle.  What a gentleman...and in his private life too:

Unfortunately, in a later sea battle with Chile, the Battle of Angamos, Admiral Grau wasn't so fortunate.  He was killed and his ship, the Huáscar, was captured.

This clock is stopped at the exact time of Admiral Grau's death, so all future generations would remember

Ayabaca

Since I have been lying low in Lima for the past few weekends, I decided it was time to get out and visit a new place. A friend suggested that I join him on a trip to Piura, and, since I've already had great experiences in the North, I jumped at the chance.

Our first stop was a pilgrimage to a church in town in the mountains a few hours away from Piura. My friend makes this trip every year, although this year his plans were postponed due to the heavy rains that caused the landslides elsewhere in the country.

Our first task was to secure transportation. You might think this would be easy since my friend had been here before. Not so this year, as the police were carrying out extra checks on all transport vehicles, driving the regular combi drivers into hiding. Securing passage required a bit of back office dealing-talking to people on random street corners, slinking down some back alleys, and driving around some side streets until the combi was full.

Luckily for us, we were able to contract a ride in an extended cab pick up truck...and we didn't even have to sit in the bed for the 4 hour trip!

No kidding-he's really sitting on a stack of plastic chairs in the back of a pick up truck!

I also realized how lucky we were once I saw the condition of the unpaved winding mountain roads closer to Ayabaca. And this is not a place you want to break down-the towns along the way are so small that when you stop to refuel they bring out the gas in a 10 gallon bucket with a funnel!

Drying meat to make cecina

But Ayabaca was worth the trip! The town that greets you is a oasis of paved roads and commercial activity. (Does that give you a better idea of the conditions along the way?)  The main square is pretty and the chuch is just the kind of place you'd want to find at the end of a pilgrimage.

Unfortunately, we only had a few hours to spend in Ayabaca before we had to head out on the return journey. But it was the first of trip of many adventures!