The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: November 9

Back into my “Trujillo A” routine of teaching and meeting nick in the evenings.

Friday was the first elimination round of the international singing competition, and one of my CEIM students Milton was participating. He is a baritone, and gave a very good, and intimate rendition of a Mozart aria, was pleased for him. Fingers crossed.

The two elimination rounds have some 52 singers in total of which 50% will pass to the semi-final on Monday. Participants had come from some 15 countries, all of Latin America plus Romania and the USA! It was a very mixed bag, really some contestants were not ready and one or two overstretched themselves with disastrous results.

Sometimes "selfies" are just not a good idea!

But this week ended with super mini-trip to Chiclayo. We left Saturday morning at 7:30 and arrived in Chiclayo four hours later. Chiclayo is up the coast, so the scenery en route was unremarkable hills and stretches of desert, except for where agro-farming businesses had irrigated or there was a water course. Dry, dusty and incredibly boring, mile after mile of nothing. Chiclayo is a small city some eight kilometres inland.

Where there is agriculture, it is sugar cane and we passed close to the town or Cortavio – famous for it Rum distilleries.

Anyways we arrived, left our bags at the 4* Casa Andina hotel, couldn't check in until 14:00, and decided to walk into the “centro historico” see some sights and have lunch. The centre was not as interesting as trujillo, the traffic tens times worse and the cathedral interior unremarkable. But the weather was warm and with sunny intervals, so we were happy. After wandering aroudn for a while we found the restaurate “Romantica” which specialised in serving “comida Chiclayano” and food being what Chiclayo is famous four, along with one of the highest crime rates in Peru.

Lunch was a starter made of blood sausage opened and the contents fried served along stewed tripe, salad and yucca. Maybe not to everyone’s taste but it was tasty! Especially washed down with lovely sweet black beer. Main course was the North Peru favourite of Cabrito (stewed goat in a lovely thick gravy), beans and rice, very traditional, very tasty.

This rather heavy lunch needed time to be digested so we headed back to the hotel, got upgraded to a junior suite and was surprised and the size of the bed, it was about 8 feet wide and 7 feet long, huge!

The suite was on the top floor so we had a panoramic view over Chiclayo, but don't get excited as the view was not up to much!

So we snoozed and then decided to go watch the sunset at Pimental, the local coastal resort. Nick uses an “app" like Uber for taxis, which is the safest way to travel. So we shunned the line of limos outside the hotel and climbed into a little local taxi and were whisked of to the seaside!

First impression of Pimental was that it was so much better then Huanchaco. Lovely big sandy beach and very long pier, the length necessitated by the bay being very shallow. A nice Malecom (promenade) and a variety of bar and restaurants, plus what looked like a quite upmarket local community.

The pier had been constructed to export sugar and the pier being so long had its own train. It was in a reasonable state of repair and mainly used by guys fishing with rods or just with a line they let down between the planks. There was a group of boys diving from the pier and except for the fact that the final section had no had rails or any form of protection, and of course no life-bouys, it was charming. There was a group of resting Cormorants and we were able to watch the local fishermen in the reed boats ( the origin of the surf board!)

We strolled back and found a bar and Nick suggested I try a local favourite of Black beer mixed with Coke-cola …… not sure! Nick said well it's just like a Sangria … even less sure! (on his visit to Spain in December I will disabuse him of this idea)

Practicing my Spanish with local resident.

Not sure what I am thinking .....

Back to the hotel, bathed showered and rested and we were ready to hit the town. Nick had messaged friends from Chiclayo for recommendations and we headed out to “La Novena” a resto-bar with DJ. I decided that, I shouldn't object to the DJ and was so glad. The place was cool. The restaurant was at the front with an open kitchen and at the back the bar and DJ all safely ensconced behind floor to ceiling glass doors so the music was diffused.

Chicken with bacon, grapes and ricotta: yummy!

Service was excellent and the food a very pleasant surprise. Cocktails in hand we choose a selection of Makis (Peruvian version of Japanese Sushi) to start, these were great, but lacked the piquancy of the Japanese original. No Wasabi. But very tasty non-the-less.

Postre with Apple Martini.

Recharging the cocktails we choose a main course of chicken rolled with bacon, and served with a ricotta cheese and grape sauce, served of a bed of potato puree with courgettes. It was an exciting and excellent combination of flavours, the two chefs were standing looking at us as we ate our first mouthful waiting to see our reaction, they were not disappointed. This plate of food was exceptional and would have matched many fine dining restaurants in the UK.

With a third cocktail we then moved onto desert: ice cream stuffed crepes, quickly fried served with a chocolate sauce and strawberries, another triumph.

Not a cheap evening by Peruvian standards but a very well spent £60. It had been ages since Nick and I enjoyed such a pleasant and relaxed evening of good music, food, drinks and conversation.

After a rather poorly organised and slightly chaotic buffet breakfast, which left both Nick and I with unsettled stomachs (the sausages?) we spent the morning just wandering around and visiting the mall and our favourite Ripley departmental store. Back to the Hotel, resting our stomachs, checkout, a walk and then we sat on the hotel patio for some snacks and non-alcoholic drinks.

We got talking about the famous marketing film made by Peru, which is funny and very clever. You can see it here.

PLAY THE VIDEO

Add Peruvian TV personality ...who?
No idea.

We were reading the papers in the lobby (or rather I was as Nick was sound asleep), I got our bags from reception and at 2:50 looking at our tickets, realized that our bus to Trujillo was at 3:00 and not at 3:30 as I had thought. I panicked, shot out of the hotel and hailed the first passing taxi, a very clapped out old vehicle, but the old boy drove like the clappers (as much as was possible in the old banger), went through red lights cut up drivers and got us to the bus terminal for 3:00 "keystone cop style" on the dot just as they were calling our departure. Nick had not panicked relying on the fact the this is Peru and a 3:00pm departure would actually mean 3:15! He just grinned and said my reaction was so typical..... "no comment."

Anyway, I had 3.5 hours on the luxury VIP bus to calm down, with seats that are “like” beds (bus-cama) the bus was brand new but our seats would not stay upright, so lying prone was the only option for the journey. Nick slept, snored occasionally and the journey passed quickly aided and abetted by the obligatory pirate DVD films.

Milton Hinsbis - Baritono - My student!

Back at my room, a message from Milton to say he was through to the semi final. Hooray.

Then sorted out Nicks Schengen Visa obligatory insurance (for Spain) €36 and reflected that the next few months were going to be hectic. For me Spain, UK, Spain,then Nicks visit and a return to Peru on January 7. For Nick, Chicago, this week; Spain, December; San Francisco, January; Germany, February and heaven knows what for the rest of the year. So pleased his career is advancing at such a pace.