Peru ain't Thailand

Kate and I left Cajamarca on Wednesday and headed for the coast, the first time so far on the trip. Being only 5 degrees south of the Equator, Trujillo, Peru´s answer to Surfers Paradise was eagerly awaited. Unfortunately God was a bit tired when he created Peru and made a quite a few mistakes with the weather here. 1) it´s really cold and I had to wear a jacket most of the day and it´s supposed to be summer. 2) the water is about 15 degrees 3) it hasnt rained here since the last El Nino which was 7 years ago.
So much for our beach holiday. By the way half fallen down apartment blocks and millions of plastic bags don´t quite make it Bondi Beach. But I can´t really complain.
One thing they did have in Trujillo were these boats made out of cane papyrus which the locals use like surf skis and go fishing with. Apparently they have been using these boats for thousands of years.
Speaking of thousands of years there are some amazing ruins in Trujillo, from the Moshi and Chavin empires which both predate the inca empires by hundreds of years. In fact the incas only starred for about 150 years before the Spanish. These other empires left amazing ruins as well, not to mention incredible examples of human sacrifices. So our beach holiday lasted a day and a half before we took the night bus to the Cordillera Blanca, specifically Huaraz.