Top Five Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #1: Hotel Libertador, Trujillo, Peru

And sometimes everything that I want in a hotel comes together in a single place and, on one occasion, it all came together with absolutely no downsides. My absolute favorite of favorites of all hotels where I've stayed was the Hotel Libertador, located right on the Plaza de Armas at the center of Trujillo, Peru.

Everything I want in a place to stay, the Hotel Libertador had.

Clean, comfortable room?

Check. Comfortable bed and big enough not to be cramped. I don't need my hotel room to be the size of a football arena.

Location convenient to everything? Check. Right beside the Plaza de Armas. And check out the view from my room:

The signature view of all of Trujillo, its most notable landmark, Trujillo's beautiful golden-yellow Cathedral. And despite all the traffic around the Plaza de Armas, the room was silent as a monestary.

Friendly and very helpful staff:

Check. Beautiful and large lobby:

And it wasn't very expensive. Not cheap, but not too expensive. In Peru, everything is really cheap (food, taxis, airfare). Everything except hotels, for some reason. The Hotel Libertador was a warm, welcoming place to stay right in the center of Trujillo action. It really was a perfect "home away from home," if only for three nights.

I take pride in the fact that my list of must-see vacation destinations contains a few idiosyncratic, off-the-well-trod-path choices that are unique to me. Trujillo definitely fit that bill. I was reading about the interesting pre-Inca sights in the area and decided that I needed to go and that I needed to go before I saw the Inca sights in Cusco and Machu Picchu (since I had to do things in the correct chronological order).

Trujillo was a great place to go. And the Hotel Libertador ranks as my favorite hotel at which I've ever stayed. Alas, it is no more. It was rebadged the Hotel Costa Del Sol Trujillo Centro and, apparently, is under new ownership. Some experiences are so wonderful they cannot be experienced again.

Landscape Phot-o' the Day: Huaca del Sol, Trujillo, Peru

Today's landscape photo is from the desert around Trujillo, Peru. Landscape? Did I say landscape? As in natural with no buildings?

April Fools!

This is not a landscape. It is a pyramid, albeit severely degraded, built by the Moche civilization, with major construction having been completed around 450 A.D. Again, this is the Moche civilization. They built pyramids. They did not build chewy rice cakes with ice cream in the middle. That was the Mochi civilization.

Visited April 2018.

Phot-o' the Day: Woman Dances with Peruvian Paso Horse; Trujillo, Peru

Saturday is the day for horse pictures. This is a woman dancing with a horse.

And not just any horse. This is a Peruvian Paso Horse. Peruvian Pasos are renowned for their smooth gait. When you find yourself in Trujillo, Peru, and I do hope that someday you do, please go to the Peruvian Paso Horse Show on the outskirts of town.

Trujillo, Peru, is an awesome place to visit, perfect for several days of tourist fun. There are amazing, one-of-a-kind sights to see, including some of the absolute most important archaeological sites in the New World. The food is amazing (with some of the best ceviche on the planet found in nearby Huanchaco). Beautiful buildings. Cheap prices. It is a tourist mecca with everything ... except tourists. (Yes, there is far more to Peru than Machu Picchu.)

Visited April 2018.

Catblogging the Last Day in Trujillo (Dog-blogging too)

Trujillo traffic: Yes. It is all taxicabs

This is the day I say farewell to Trujillo.  You want off-the-beaten tourist path vacation sites with a well-developed tourist infrastructure waiting for the tourist hordes to descend?  Trujillo.  You want the "real" Peru without the overly-commercialized mass-market tourism?  Trujillo.

On my last night -- my appetite finally returning just as I am about to leave Peru -- I ate at a "Chifa."  No pictures because I stupidly broke my own rule of always carrying my camera.  A "chifa" is a Chinese restaurant serving  Chinese-Peruano fusion cuisine.  That makes it sound upscale.  It's anything but.  This is downscale Chinese for the Peruvian market.  I ordered the "pollo con tamarindo," largely because, on the Spanish-only, English-free menu, this was a dish that (a) I could recognize the name, and (b) I knew for certain was something neither Chinese nor Peruvian restaurants in the USA would serve.  It was quite good.  Apparently this is a standard "chifa" menu item as I saw it on the menu of other chifas.  And there were many many other chifas in Trujillo.

So where are the cats I promised?

Since my cat pictures are the only ones anyone ever seems to grab off this blog, I vow now to take pictures of all cats I come across on my travels.  Trujillo is not a big cat town.  So this fellow (or lady) (I can never tell with cats) (they're all kind of sort of transgender to me) is the full extent of the Trujillo cat blogging.

But Trujillo is a dog town.

These three dogs seem to run Plaza de Armas.  They were there every time I walked through the Plaza in my four days in Trujillo.  They looked healthy and happy -- although the black one in the second picture seemed a bit bossy.

We end the animal blogging with bird-blogging.  See the birdie?

Let's move in for the close up of the statuary man in the foreground:

Oh the indignity.

There was a band playing in the Plaza de Armas then, too.  Things like that make a place a magical place to visit.

Tree-blogging.

And we will end our tour of Trujillo with a photo of a photographer desperately trying to get the right angle to get the entire facade of this old church (Iglesia La Merced) into a single frame.

Ending with a metaphor.  Next stop:  a few days in Colombia before heading home.

This Post Is Full of Horse

Flesh.  This post is full of horse flesh.

I went to a horse show today.  La Exhibición de Caballo Peruano de Paso to be precise.  So this is full of horse pictures.  Including (spoiler alert) a dance-off between man and horse.

Meet the horses:

The Peruvian paso horse is known for its distinctive gait.

The smooth gait is bred into them.  It's not training.  To demonstrate the smooth gait, this caballero is riding while carrying a snifter of Pisco.

Very civilized.  This is the baby of the farm.

The horses do not age into show quality (muscle development) until the age of three.  This colt is two.

He is trained to eat alfalfa right out of your hand.

All with a distinctive smooth gait as he walks along the row of spectators.

Next, one of the adult horses engaged in a dance-off with one of the show dancers:

Everyone one's a winner when you're dancing with the horses.  Next up, it's ladies' choice:

Once again, everyone's a winner.  Although, I must say the horse danced like he had two left feet,  Which he did!  (I slay me.)

The finale?  A salute to Peru!

And I joined in.

Afterwards, the stars of the show hung around to greet their fans.

The one in the front?  With the short mane?  The crew cut means the horse has been gelded.

He is quite the camera hog, however, always knowing where the lens is pointing.

I will add, for the benefit of those of you legitimately concerned about the animals in animals acts, especially animal acts in foreign countries, these horses appeared to be healthy, happy, and well cared for.

And with that, it's time to head back into the barn.

Sorry there's no video to upload, but I only shoot still, not video (not enough on my memory card even if I were so inclined).  But here's a youtube video showing this distinctive gait of the Peruvian paso horse.