Up the coast we go

So landed in Lima after a pleasant little flight with a nice snack box containg ritz crackers, wafers and a chocolate! On arrival though realized wasn't sure what i was doing as had planned to take bus that evening on to Trujillo, but that wasn't till 11pm and it was only 1, and more to the point wasn't actually booked as yet! Lol what a surprise
Anyways, decided I could go chill with Rosie/mom at their hotel as they were spending the night in Lima, only issue being how to get there, all the taxis wanted something ridiculous like 40/45 sols to go the 30/40 mins into miraflores district (like a tenner!) so decided the cheaper option would be to find a local bus! Only issue was had no idea where to get one and no idea where they went! Took a while to find my way out of the airport as like all the exits said 'cars only', but eventually found my way to the main road. Next problem was didn't know what they needed to say and more importanty did know which side of the bypass to stand on! After a while of wandering looking lost, some lady helped me out, chatted away to me, got me on the right bus, and told the man to tell me where to get off! Very helpful so I gave her 5sols for her help! Tool ages to get where I was going on the bus but only cost me 2sols so was totally worth the hassle! Lol got to their hotel to dump my stuff then we went out for lunch. Had ceviche for starters, cheesy garlic bread and a mahoosive pizza! Along with 2 liters of beer between us and complimentary pisco sours! Was a really good meal and rosies mom very kindly treated us to it as she was flying home the next day!
Then spent next couple hours chilling, going round some markets and sorting my bus ticket for later that night to Trujillo. Bus was at 11pm but ended up doing well as was right at front if bus so could stretch out my legs and then there was noone next to me so instead myself out and had quite a comfy nights sleep!
Arrived at 8 In the morning to Trujillo but as was only 5 blocks from plaza de armas decided was good idea to walk to the hotel! Weeeel, I found the plaza no problems then got myself seriously lost looking for the hotel! Eventually stopped to ask a policeman who informed me it was 4 Nicole back in the direction I'd just come from! Fml anyways also questioned me as to where I was staying as apparently wasn't a main tourist road! So he decided to accompany me there just in case. Very nice policeman, chatted away the whole time and turns out had travelled a lot aswell! So made it to where we're staying which is kinda a B and B. However we weren't actually due till that evening but lady was very nice and let me have the room early so I cold unpack, chill and shower! Ended up just having a really lazy day kinda wandering around, had a great but massive lunch and went to the market which is like shoe central! Also had another interesting skype convo with mom and dad on the iPod, where I can see and hear them but they can't see or hear me so I have to type all my replies - takes a while. Anyways, had a brainwace that if I just bought a microphone I could attach it to my iPod and it would e skype ready! Unforunately, in my excitement I didn't check it was suitable when I picked one, so was £3 down the drain! Hmph gonna try again some time in future! Then rosies flight got in late last night, so we went to find a bite to eat/drink but there was like nowhere as was a Sunday and the final debate for the elections was on aswell, so just came back to room and chilled there.
So, next day, we went to the fabled chan chan! Had meant to get up early but no surprises that hadn't happened! Also as previous day was a Sunday, hadn't been able to find a tour and so did it via public transport. Now, lil heads up here, lonely planet is kinda deceiving with it's map of chan chan, as it gives the impression everything together in one place, which is so not the case! So, local bus drops us off at side of road next to a giant sign saying 'chan chan' and there's a guide man there who says it's 15 mins walk down the dirt track. Gotta say, pretty damn hot out there! Arrive at 'tourist stopping' where u can buy the entrance tickets and are immediately latched onto by some lady guide. However, she doesn't speak very good English and Rosie doesn't speak Spanish, so that plus the fact she wanted 25sols each meant we went for option 2: guide book! So, straight to the point, totally didn't get the hype bout chan chan. Was just a bunch of dirt walls and all the cool patterns had signs next to them saying replicas! Sooo, yeh? But the entrance ticket gives u entry to four places: the palace(where we were then), 2 'huacas' and the museum. Well had done te palace and the museum was closed for some reason so decided we ought to at least do one huaca. We picked the one that the guide book said was the most beautiful of the sites. So, back on another combi in the direction of town, and fare man tells us where to get off. Anyways, walk a few blocks and can't find it so head back to the park near main road. Reconsulting the map when some Peruvian lady comes up to us and is like you must be careful with your bags or someone will steal them as this isn't a good neighbourhood! But she showed us where to go and it's just this mini pyramid that's half fallen down, in te middle of this dodgy area, surrounded by a wall and gate! Lol and from the top, I say top but not actually high up, you can see the local shopping mall! At this point we decided we were all chanchanned out and to head to local beach town for the afternoon. Really tranquilo lil town which is supposedly famous for the surf. Had an interesting lunch at nice restaurant overlooking the beach then went for a wander round town, still really hot. Headed back to Trujillo after a while to sort stuff and chill a bit. Then decided we wanted to go and see a film, so went to local cinema, and really wanted to see new pirates of the Caribbean but that was the only one showing dubbed instead of with subtitles! So went to see hangover 2 instead, named 'que paso Ayer?' en espanol! Movie wasn't till later so had a bit of time to kill so went to this chicken place for dinner for surprise chicken ad chips! Lol anyways as usual I asked for mine without salad, and so their solution to no salad was to double everything else on plate, so ended up with the most massive portion ever! Hardly gonna complain bout extra food now am i? ;) Then there seemed to be an unusual amount of people in the street so followed the noise to the plaza de armas to find a giant ollanta concert. I am aware you´re probably not up to date on your Peruvian politics, shame on you, but the second round of elections are just coming  up and are basically between Ollanta and Keiko. Tho everyone i speak to says its just voting for the lesser evil, Cancer or Aids! Anyways, was like a mini carnival with a stage, singing, people selling food. Then people had ollanta tshirts and these massive banners aswell. Gotta say if they did politics like this back home it´d probably interest a lot more young people! Well, the obligatory voting rule might help aswell ;) Had to leave the ollanta fest to go see the film tho, and wasn´t sure how it was gonna be as is kinda hard in my opinion to do a sequel to the hangover! However, was awesome, really funny, possibly more so than the first one. Headed back after the film and were followed for a while by the fastest moving procession ever! (They´d moved on from Ollanta fest in centro and were heading out).
So, yesterday we really had to get up early again to get the bus onwards, however again that didnt work out! Was up at 8, but by time we got everything sorted, went to supermarket etc didnt manage to get the bus till 11! and even then we arrived like 3 mins before it left! Also, judging by looks and comments we got, apparentl not a very gringo bus! So, this bus took us 3 1/2 miles up the coast to a town called chiclayo where we wanted to find another bus up to mancora! Unfortunately when we arrived it wasnt that easy so i left rosie with the stuff and went round alll the bus companies trying to find a bus up to mancora. However, the majority only went to Piura which is still 2 - 3 hours out of Mancora, and the only ones that went direct arrived some stupid hour in the morning and I was told it wasnt very safe, so that was kinda out! Anyways, arrived back to our stuff to discover a little surprise...... Rosie had decided she no longer wantd to go to Mancora, and if I didn´t mind was gonna catch the bus back to Lima that night! So kinda bit of a shock to the system, but we said our goodbyes and i got on the next bus heading to Piura, cause her bus back to Lima wasn´t till 8. Another 3 hours and arrived in Piura, with no idea how i ws supposed to get to Mancora! That issue was soon rsolved when i stepped out of the bus station and was accosted by people offering me a seat in a minivan to Mancora. Got stuck between two touts, but eventually went with the one who argued better, simply because she said they were waiting to fill up the van, which meant there were other people there - safety in numbers and all that jazz. Tho she went a bit overboard as even after I´d chosen her she was like the other guy was gonna steal all your luggage etc! Anyways, she wasnt kidding about filling the van up and we didnt leave for another hour once the van was well and truly stuffed to capacity! Was almost dying at this point of being squished in van and hadnt even left as yet! So was another 2 1/2 hours before i finally arrived in Mancora. Managed to sleep a bit of the way, but our driver was appaling and at one point actually woke up to find us on the wrong side of the road, trying to overtake a lorry and failing miserably with a truck coming the other way! At this point one of the ladies told him to slow down and take care before he killed us all! lol So arrived safely at hostel after 14 hours, 2 buses and a crummy minivan at 1 in the morning! Tho hostel is more like a mini resort in looks! Anyways was completely knackered so just went to bed and didnt get up till 11.30 this morning, which is still early by my standards, but is one of my few lie ins on this whole trip so far! Met up with Marlous (one of the volunteers for Arequipa) who was staying here, tho left this evening, and chilled by the pool for a while before heading out to find out about buses to Quito. Didn´t really do much today as had a bit of a headache so just really chilled, slept, watched movies and read a book all day! lol not really sure what to do with myself as am unused to so much free time! Is great here though not sure how i´ll last 2/3 more days of lazing! need something to do! lol anyways thats about all so far, tho now im on top of this gonna try and keep it that way! judging from past probs won´t happen tho i genuinely mean it ;) Also is seriously hot here when the sun is out, tho today was a bit cloudy making it a lil chilly!
Photos to follow soon! Promise :)