Middle-aged flash packers

Best night’s sleep so far. Hostal San Miguel gets a big thumbs up from me.

Our tour around Trujillo didn’t take long – a couple of hours – but it’s a little gem. Besides the castle, it has a variety of churches and elegant buildings. However the star of the show (in my eyes anyway) is Trujillo poster boy Francisco Pizarro. A bastard (both technically and emotionally) he sailed to Peru to make his fortune. He met with the Inca king of Quito (Atahualpa) and after gaining his trust, held him to ransom for a room filled with gold and then killed him. Unsurprisingly Pizarro met with little resistance after that, and in no time at all became the governor of Peru. As all good narcissists do, he named a city after his home town, hence my nearly booking a hotel in South America instead of Spain.

Pizarro’s treachery continued and after cheating his business partner (Almagro) out of his agreed spoils, Almagro seized the city of Cuzco in revenge. Pizarro then had his half brother regain power of Cuzco and put Almagro to death. But Pizarro’s savagery caught up with him and three years later, Almagro’s followers murdered Pizarro while he was eating. (Awful being interrupted during a meal don’t you think?)

Trujillo have a huge statue of him in the centre of their main square – I wonder when PLM (Peruvian lives matter) will be round to pull it down.

A quick stop to collect our bags and settle up at the Hostal and we were on the road again. This time we were heading for Cadiz, or a suburb of. Our very expensive and (hopefully) very swanky apartment awaited us. I still hate you Pedro.

We met Veronica , the key holder for the apartment, by the apartment block’s car park. As usual, the car park was one designed for toy cars with concrete pillars intermittently placed to ensure its almost impossible for you not to scrape your car. To really challenge Steve’s parking skills, the vehicle next to our designated space was right on the line. He rose to the challenge by backing in to the space with centimetres to spare. Impressive.

Veronica was very pleasant and was in charge of renting out her parents’ apartment while they are in America. Although they have taken their clothes etc with them, there are quite a few of their personal effects around which makes it feel as though we are staying in a friend’s house. Judging by the knickknacks and fridge magnets, I think we would get along very well. The apartment itself is nice but way over priced.

Anyway, we took advantage of the communal pool straight away and very nice it was too. Next a walk to the supermarket for provisions (beer and wine basically) and we were feeling quite at home. However we have an itinerary to get through, so one rest day tomorrow and then it’s back to finding out what the Costa de la Luz has to offer.

Trujillo. Expectations- exceeded