December 31, 2024

SALAVERRY & TRUJILLO, PERU

We pulled into the port of Salaverry, Peru around 9 am Sunday, December 29th, despite the reports of awful weather coming out of Peru. We heard there was a tsunami that hit the north of Peru ( just above us)  and severe wind gusts and swells were elsewhere. We must have been in a protective bubble, thankfully, because the seas were calm and the winds not a factor. I spent the day with friends Delia, Lauren and Scott exploring ancient ruins and town of Trujillo. We hired a cab for 5 hours to take us around and wait at each locale. The driver didn't speak English but used a translate app through his car speaker to communicate with us and we could use also to ask questions. Love Technology ! First stop was the ruins of the Moche civilization - La Huaca de la Luna - a large pyramid built for worship & human sacrifice when the flooding rain came. 

A lot of information is just guesses or theories of archeologist, but the Moche civilization, is believed to exist from 400 to 900 A.D. They built 2 temples pyramids, that scientist named Luna and Sol, with a city in between. Luna had been excavated about 60 % before funds dried up. Sol and City barely touched. Story goes that they did human sacrifices, decapitation of their heads (after they were drugged by plants) in an effort to stop heavy rains. Engineering used to construct shape very involved. Every 100 years another level was built and carved and painted with story decorations. Five layers or 500 years uncovered. Next we went to TRUJILLO CITY SQUARE. We walked around, went to bank for local currency and got some Chinese food CHIFA for lunch.

Our friend Whitney told us to see the Murals around the College while in town - they were amazing and stretched for blocks!

Our final stop was to the ruins of the Chan Chan, the capital city of the CHIMOR KINGDOM. It is HUGE!!!!! Below is one Palace! The son's palace still has to be excavated. Supposedly these Chimor people defeated the Moche and then they were defeated by the Inca's.

By Pat Patrick September 1, 2026
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!
By Pat Patrick August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck! 
By Pat Patrick August 30, 2026
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.