El turismo es el desarollo. Protegemos las turistas.

The title of this post is a sign painted on a wall as you enter Chulucanas. Translation: Tourism is development. We protect tourists. I'm not sure if this is there to tell the people of Chulucanas to stop harassing tourists or to make tourists feel safer. Either way I played tourist yesterday. I went back to La Encantada (and of course bought even more ceramics). Then went to Piura and on to a small town called Catacaos. This time I wasn't traveling alone though. I went with Teresa (the doctor here) and Hector (the data manager). We ate lunch in Catacaos at this nice little restaurant that had a band playing. They were playing criolla (creole) music which comes from the Peruvian sierra and is their take on country music I think. All the songs are about lost love etc. The singer at our restaurant looked like he was about to cry every time he sang. While there we also tried Chicha de Joro which is a fermented drink made from corn. Apparently there are different types. I had clarito and it was surprisingly sweet. It looked sort of like beer but tasted nothing like it. It was good in any event and the criolla music and setting of the restaurant were relaxing. After lunch we went to see some ruins. Narihuala which means town of god is just a short mototaxi ride from Catacaos. The ruins are not huge but they are impressive. In Sipan the interesting part was the treasure found inside, but here there was enough of a structure that you could tell what you were looking at. A young boy named Julio acted as our guide and he loved to tell us about the human sacrifices that took place in a large courtyard in the center of the ruins. Apparently prior inhabitants of Narihuala sacrificed their first born son. If they did not have a son, they instead sacrificed a dog. Not just any dog mind you, a strange dog that doesn't have any hair. After the ruins we went to an artisan market in Catacaos. They are famous for their woodworking and there was a lot of pretty interesting stuff (along with some pretty cheesy stuff). A stop at the cathedrals in Catacaos and Piura and my day of tourism was done. Now I'm back in Chulucanas still waiting to find out what I'll be doing with the rest of my summer.