Traveling up the Pacific coast we sometimes used a guidebook to find lodging, other times we stopped at a travel agency or information office. In a Miraflores travel agency, we chanced upon an advertisement for a campground in Zorritos, a small town south of Tumbes near the Equadorian border. Although a campground was not part of our original planning, the advertisement was so appealing that we decided to make Zorritos our next stop after Chiclayo. Reaching Zorritos, 288 miles north of Chiclayo, proved challenging. Bus schedules were not ideal and air travel required a flight to Tumbes, then a reverse trip to Zorritos. In the end, we decided on bus travel along the Pan-American Highway (the only route). We arrived at 3am in the morning, disembarking in front of a bank with a sleepy guard. Fortunately, the guard found a mototaxi who brought us to the campground. In the morning we were assigned the cabin in the photo. We found a very friendly and relaxing atmosphere. Residents took meals communally and conversation was lively. The lingua franca, English, made communication easy for people of various nationalities - one couple from as far as Croatia. We spent our time relaxing, talking with the other guests or wandering the beach. At the end of a week, we reluctantly said good buy to our Italian hosts and the other guests. We would have liked to stay longer but had one more stop on our list: Cajamarca. We boarded a bus for the return trip and immediately upon arrival bought tickets for Cajamarca. I should add that bus travel in South America is far more comfortable than buses in the U.S. Some bus lines, however, are better than others.
There were many opportunities to relax at the campground, such as in one of the many available hammocks.
Our last stop in Peru was the city of Cajamarca, elevation 9000 feet. To reach the city, we traveled 158 miles on an overnight sleeper bus from Chiclayo into the Andes. Dinner was served on board and our seats fully reclined for sleep. Cajamarca is known for the Inca Baths (Los Banos del Inca), hot springs where the last Inca chief, Atawallpa, bathed. In 1532, Francisco Pizarro led a small Spanish force and by several ruses was able to capture Atawallpa. He was later murdered after delivering large quantities of gold and silver to Pizarro. Modern Cajamarca is an important Peruvian city and the home to many ethnic Quechuans, descendants of the Incas. Adults still speak the language and attempt to preserve their traditional life and culture. Although there are about 30,000 speakers of Cajamarca Quechua according to Wikipedia, the language is endangered due to a lack of written material for educating children. There are still attempts to preserve the language as we learned from a visit to a school in Cajamarca that taught Quechua. We often saw Quechuan women street venders in downtown Cajamarca, dressed in the traditional tall hat and colorful clothes as in this photo.
