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            <<  Trujillo, 15-Mar-2015  >>

Pizzaro's hometown 2.0

Few pictures (not too much text) from the big city around the corner - Trujillo.

Trujillo in Spanish’s province of Extremadura was a birthplace of Francisco Pizzaro, the crazy conquistador who subdued Incan Empire and looted for Spanish Crown golden riches beyond anyone’s imagination. And right here, 10km from Huanchaco and practically at the edge of then-standing ancient site Chan Chan which he looted, he established a colony named in honor of his birthplace – the Peruvian Trujillo. As such it’s one of the oldest post-Colombian cities in South America.

Trujillo is nice. It’s not bombastic but it’s nice. It’s Peru’s 3rd largest city with some 700 000 citizens and it played important role in Peruvian history (it was here that Peru declared its independence from Spain). There’s a lot of old colonial buildings still standing, painted in brave bright colors, each of them looking like a small fortress with its massive streets facing walls. Its historic center is very neat and sympathetic and at the same time it is sufficiently modern: it has bunch of supermarkets and an extremely flashy shopping mall. Trujillo is not too far away from Huanchaco, some 20-30 minutes by bus, but we go there very rarely. Somehow, beyond the initial draw of touristic interest, there is not too much that would make us go there. Sure there is a lot of bars, but it’s just too inconvenient to go so “far” during the night and having to pay a taxi on the way back. Yes we have been there, that’s for sure, but we go there only seldom. Probably the buses are to blame. There are thousands of buses and minivans passing between Huanchaco and Trujillo literally every minute, but despite the short distance the ride is plain horror. Peruvians in general drive like idiots and these “professional” drivers are worst of all. They accelerate to 100kmh in 10 seconds and then they brake back to 0kmh (to onboard another passenger) in 5 seconds. It’s like a nightmare rollercoaster ride, with at least 50 stops on the way as there are no designated bus stops and people get on and off every 20 seconds. True anarchy in motion. It makes the bus ride to Trujillo so annoying that you really don’t feel like going there at all. Plus Trujillo itself is one big honking traffic jam, a real warzone for pedestrians. I thought I was used to traffic chaos from Asia, but this is worse. The drivers are much more arrogant, they drive 5 time faster than anyone in Asia and the whole Peruvian traffic chaos just misses the fluency of the Asian traffic chaos.


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     MARCEL STRBAK | www.strbak.com | www.facebook.com/marcel.strbak