The End of Peru

13-14.06.: Cajamarca

Monday & Tuesday:
Cajamarca is the place Pizarro ambushed and captured Atahualpa, had him fill a room with gold for ransom, and then had him executed (burned, I think, at the stake on the plaza). The room is still there -- sans gold, sadly. C has a well organized tourist circuit, and it is the gateway to amzonian Peru, none of which we perused.

Entrance to the Incan room is cheap (2S, 1 for students), and includes a baroque church and an ethnological museum; unless you're really into baroque, or pre-Incan pottery, it's not really worth the time. Atuahualpa's room at least was over quickly, and you get a good idea of the amount of gold spent there.

The actual reason for us being in C was a school for mentally disabled children run by the German Bethel institution, to which D's parents regularly donate. We lodged at Las Jazmines, which is affiliated with said institution; it is expensive for Peru, at 60S a room, but proceedings go to the school. Nice place, beautiful gardens and carved doors, and an expensive cafe serving excellent real coffee (did I mention yet that all you usually can get here is instant? In all of South America? They produce coffee here, for Pete's sake, but instant is so much more modern).

Our first attempt to find the school was a horrible failure, as we decided to trust the map more than the directions we got from the administration of the hostel. Too bad two streets in C are called Cumbe Mayo. The wrong one is a very long, winding road up a hill, which took us probably 2 hours just to get up.

On Tuesday, we did find the school, and got a tour of the premises by a wonderful woman who spoke very slow spanish for us (and also proved a couple of times that she is competent in handling difficult children). The premises looked well-built and clean, and the women working there remarkably relaxed, for people who work with such difficult children: one small boy, who immediately at our arrival in class took D's hand and showed her around, threw a terrible and quite violent tantrum when she dared pay attention to the teacher explaining us her class; the boy needed two grown women to control him. Otherwise, though, the children there were often very sweet, although many cannot speak. One child was able to learn sign language.

After the visit, we got our tickets to Piura for the next day, to begin the trip to Ecuador.