And we're baaaack - this time to stay, in welcome civilization

We're in Chiclayo now (a city of ~500,000 about 400 miles north of Lima) and feel like we dropped into the lap of luxury.  We have a huge room, queen bed, nice bathroom (with hot water available at the sink) and outdoor pool for the splurge of $75/night!  When we got used to spartan lodgings for $30/night, or very rustic at lodges, we almost forgot what it was like to be pampered.  I, for one, really like it, but Steve's not so sure it's worth it...

Funny story from today:  We took a taxi to a nearby town (11 km away) and paid 20 soles (~$6.50).  After seeing a fabulous museum and having lunch in the small town, we were walking back to the main square to catch another taxi, when a combibus pulled up and the "rouster" was yelling "Chiclayo?", pointed to us, and gave us the 2 front seats, before we roared off.  We didn't know how much the charge was (but the guidebooks I've been consulting said it was going to be cheap) or where we could get dropped off in this pretty big city.  Steve had our hotel marked on Google Maps, and was watching the route we were taking on his phone, so we could see when we got fairly close.  We then hopped off when some other people got off, after paying 3 soles ($1) for the 2 of us!  We had figured we'd never use the combibuses, as we don't speak Spanish, and couldn't figure out where they were going, but this was pretty foolproof.  No wonder the locals cram into these minivans, after standing at the side of the road and holding a hand up.

I'm going to try and catch y'all up on where we've been and what we've done (besides sweat and itch) over the next few posts.  The site I use to send the emails out, only sends one a day, irregardless of how many I post - at least that's what I've found so far, but I'll see if I put 2 or more up tonight and send them out tomorrow morning, if it will send all the new content out at once...

The Amazon River was ginormous!

The Amazon River was ginormous!

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That's an orange piranha, one of 5 fish I successfully caught with that stick you see in the upper right corner (fishing line tied to the end, with a hook baited with raw chicken) by sharply jerking upward when I'd feel nibbles.  We weren't too thrilled to spend a morning fishing from a small boat with 4 other guests (thought it was another hokey activity dreamed up by the lodge to keep guests occupied), but it turned out to be rather fun, and we ate our catch that they fried up for us at lunch!  Luckily, there was other food prepared, as the majority of fish we caught (12 in total) were the size of the one in the picture. 

Sunset over the canal leading to our Amazon lodge

Sunset over the canal leading to our Amazon lodge