Travel rhythms in Perú

The travel rhythm wakes me up early in the morning in Chiclayo, a dry and dusty yet vivid and colorful city in Northern Perú. We dress up like undercover tourists and head out of the hotel for a rare continental breakfast.

My senses are being triggered by the smell of meat and fruits, colorful umbrellas of the crowded market, the smiling people, the clash between salsa and honking vehicles. It looks like the city is one big market. A street vendor tries to sell more food by playing loud salsa music. So do all his neighbors. Some of them yell through cracking speakers and others just drive around with their merchandise.

We enter an indoor market. Hundreds of little shops are packed next to each other. There's an area for shoes, one for clothes and another another one for electronics, etcetera. Girls are giggling. We hear some guapo's flying around. Some of them approach us and ask for a picture. An older man curiously asks where we come from. After explaining where Belgium is, I take a portrait picture. When I enter the meat area, I walk through clouds of smells and flies. I quickly step out and head for a quick baños before we jump into a collectivo.

When I walk through the huge museum gate of the museum, I enter the astonishing world of the ancient Tumbas Reales De Sipán, not surprisingly described as a world class facility showcasing the dazzling finds of the Royal Tombs of Sipán and the Lord of Sipán himself. We admire a huge collection of jewelry, from giant decorated golden earrings to helmets with platinum bells.

Some hours from there, we visit the archaeological site. Pyramids resurrecting from the dry deserts form an intriguing background to the family that proudly shows us a just slaughtered pig. Colorful walls betray the habits and festivals were here thousand years ago. The guide drags us over the sandy paths into the maze of Chan Chan, where I declare myself king of Chan Chan.

King of Chan Chan

Later that day, we take another mini van to the beach. Sunday seems to be the perfect excuse to enjoy the last (or first?) beers of the week and shake some salsa on the sand. We meet some university students and laugh about the funny dance moves we exchange. Meanwhile, people stare, smile and wave at us. Some more pictures, even more. Do we look famous? Is it about the rasta haircut of our French backpacker friend?

All together we head for a pizzeria. Inside it feels like being in a club; same pounding music, dance floor, cocktails. We áre in a club. But hey, it's Sunday night. So we decide to go for some well-deserved sleep, because tomorrow more adventures are waiting.

dM3

Appointment in Milano

During our travels we have met a lot of people immersed in literature, ranging from Tom Clancy to J.K. Rowling to Dostojevski. However one book is obviously on the rise among travelers. That's right, I'm talking about the instant classic 'Appointment in Milano' by Warren Dekko. Considering our personal fondness for the writings of this trending author, we took snapshots of some of the new believers.

The World Is Not Enough: missions

Mission Carcoke
Mister Carcoke sent us out to visit a mine. In the very north of Colombia, where everything looks like the far far west, we decided to go for a non-touristic 4WD tour to a remote salt mine. We talked our way in as a random Mr. Simon Boel (see picture) and gained access through the highly secured gate. Mister Carcoke received some of the following pictures, and thus this mission is complete! We are now looking forward to Carcokes countermission.

Mission dode duif 
Most probably the most nature friendly mission, this lady asked us to plant a flower on a volcano. Where else than on the Galapagos islands should we bring in some new species? Although strictly forbidden, Dimitri decided to plant a special 'flower' on the crater with the 2nd biggest circumference of the world, only erupted 6 years ago and almost visibly begging for new flowers. "Dode duif" received the following video and thus this mission is complete!

Mission Snoekie
Miss Snoekie gave us the descriptions of a famous radio personality in Costa Rica and asked us to find, look for and eat with the man. However, the mission team-solo was not able to look for the guy since Dimitri was traveling through the country to meet up with G-6 down in the south. There was absolutely no time to do missions. Sad smiley, this mission was doomed to fail.

Mission Boskabout 
Mister Boskabout sent in a secret mission via the request form. Although details cannot be provided here, the mission consisted of several delicate sub-missions in different countries. Two missions were already completed, and we received a considerable amount of cash on our account. Two missions completed!

Mission Purple Packed Chocolate Biscuit
The month of November has been transformed in Mo-vember by a group of progressive young Australians that aim to put prostate cancer on the map (http://www.movember.com). Our mission, as submitted by Purple Packed Chocolate Biscuit, was to grow a large moustache during Mo-vember and have a moustache get-together at the end of the month. As you can see, the mission was a success!

Future missions?
Great you ask! We are working on some other missions in the same time, but we are also happy to receive much more missions from all of you! We are also looking forward to your comments on these missions.

Graham & Dimitri

Galapagos Dreams

We have met many people so far who have an opinion about the Galapagos Islands. Those who went, gave us a raving review. Those who didn't, found the islands way to expensive. We decided to check it out for ourselves and attempted to rub it in everybody's face by booking a relatively cheap last-minute trip.

Relatively cheap food: sea lion meat on the airplane

After a 1000km flight from Guayaquil, we arrived at Puerto Ayora on the main island of Santa Cruz. We immediately left our hotel and went looking for a tour. 10 meters later, a tour organisation offered us a cheap last-minute trip departing early the next morning. It would be an 8-day cruise on a luxury yacht going around a dozen of islands, combined with a two-day trip to the Island of Isabela.

Thrilled with our success, we celebrated New Year's eve at the port. The Galapagos inhabitants turned out to be true pyro-maniacs, lighting up fireworks in the middle of streets and squares, creating loud explosions left and right and throwing fire crackers at our feet. The evening climaxed however with the official fireworks at midnight, which left the crowd gasping in awe and applauding with delight.

Our boat, the majestic "Guantanamera", was a big yacht with a cozy upper deck and a professional crew. The afternoons were spent lazing in the breeze, listening to music, writing and reading as we sailed from one magnificent island to another. Almost each island was packed with extra-ordinary animals that weren't afraid of us and happily posed in front of our lenses. Those same animals were the subjects of "the origin of species", Darwin's masterpiece that changed our vision on nature and evolution.

The following photos show the homo sapiens on the islands:

After five days, the cooling system of our yacht broke down and we had to continue the trip on a first class luxury yacht, the Yolita II. Happy about this major upgrade, we continued the trip and snorkeled away.

We snorkled away...

... from the Yolita II.

Writing about everything we saw, learned and experienced would be impossible, so we have decided to leave an (incomplete) shortlist of some of the animals we saw up close:
Sea-lion, seal, pinguin, land and marine iguana, albatros, blue-footed boobie, dolphin, whale, whaleshark, huge land and marine tortoise, Darwin's finch, lava-lizard, white-finned shark, sting-ray, millions of tropical fish and thousands of birds.

As a picture says more than a thousand words, please enjoy some of the shots we made around the islands of Galapagos. We will upload some more pictures later on Flickr.

Needless to say, the Galapagos islands were another highlight of the trip. We obviously became a part of the group of travellers that will provide others with a raving review. Indeed, this once-in-a-lifetime experience is very expensive, but it's like buying Belgian chocolate: definitely worth every cent!

Dimitri & Graham