Last day in Piura

Well thankfully my last day in Piura was a great success and I got to do all the things that I had hoped to do yesterday but was too ill to do so.

I had to check out by around 10am but the hostel was kind enough to store my bag for the day while I went visiting central Piura and the surrounding neighbourhood.

My friend arrived at just after check out time and together we went to see the pre-incan site of Fortaleza de Narihuala, of significant historical interest where the traditions and craftsman shop of the region have been recently recreated and passed down through the current Peruvian generations.

The construction of the area was nothing more than dried mud, mixed with straw, etc, and then hardened the baking sun but the overall effect was impressive just for the effort rather than the complexity of it, considering how far back in time it was built.

I was a bit puzzled by the tour guides, as it was a pair of children no older than 7 or 8 years of age, and no surprise they only knew Spanish and only the basics of the region and the museum so I ended up teaching them almost as much as they taught me, though my broken Spanish and my friend acting as a translator.

After visiting the museum we went to the small tourist town of Catacaos, which was beautiful and full of authentic style souveneirs and restaurants serving authentic traditional food but for me it was too much like a tourist town for my liking.

We arrived just before lunchtime and went to a quaint little restaurant, being the first ones there, but the service was abismal and I ended up cancelling my order after we had almost finished sharing my friends course and noticed that after we arrived the place began to fill up and many other people were enjoying their meal despite mine not even being served to me yet.

What made the experience worse that as soon as we sat down, the moved us to another table that was right under a speaker and when the others guests arrived they started up the music, which prevented me and my friend from talking as much.

The final straw for me was that the restaurant owners encouraged, or at least did nothing to prevent or discourage, all the local beggars, hawkers and sellers and so throughout the entire meal I had little boys and old women coming up to me and attacking me with everything from fans made of reeds, to sombraroes to pottery nativity scenes. I have always been put off a place by overly enthusiastic sellers, so to have a child of 7 hit me with a fan to get my attention the only thing going through my mind is how much trouble I would be in if i was to throw the kid across the room or demonstrate on his rectum exactly where he could shove his fan.

The crime is that I normally collect fans and if he had just been on the street I would have been interested, but too much poverty and too many rich tourists have ruined this once idyllic town and it is now as bad as anywhere in Egypt, which I thought would never be equalled anywhere else inthe world.

My friend found much amusement in my distress and said that I get stressed far too easy, which may be true, but then I am used to a certain amount of personal space which he was clearly invading by tapping me on the elbow with his fan.

I do like Piura, and both Catacaos and Fortaleza are both worth visiting, but I would not be able to live in either, still preferring Lima to anywhere else in Lima, but then I am a city person and used to London so a laidback and bushtown like these are good only for holidays and not for general everyday life.

After Catacaos we went back to Piura centre and here I was able to change the last of me pesos to American dollars, as this is the currency of Ecuador and I would need to be able to pay my taxi fare from the the bus station to the hostel. The banks were all closed as it was a holiday so this had to be done from one of the many yellow jacketted money swappers on the street, who no doubt gave me a terrible exchange rate of only 1:3 for US$ but then with no alternative any local currency money is better than no local money.

As I plan to travel from Guayaquil to Manta on the 5th by autobus as well, I will ask when I arrive if I can get my bus ticket there at the same time, and thus save myself a chore.

Back at my hostel I was able to find a power socket and wifi signal in their kitchen to while away my last hour before my bus ride to Guayaquil. I only hope that it goes all smoothly and the border crossing is not stressful or problematic, but I will know in a few hours time if it is or not.