T
he town of Pataz was different than most I have seen in Peru. It is built on a very steep hill,
and in multiple sections (upper and lower town). Apparently it is much larger than when
Alberto was a kid. We drove to the entrance and had to explain to a man operating a gate
(security?) why we wanted to enter. We explained that we were tourists and that we were
looking for a hotel. That was good enough and we were in, though he seemed unconvinced
by our tourist alibi. There was quite a lot of people out on the streets so quite a few eyes were
on us as we drove through town. The whole main road was only 3 blocks, and terminated at a
plaza. We stopped there to figure things out. Alberto recognized the plaza and was telling me
stories of his childhood. There was lots of people passing by, most of which were wearing full
underground work wear (I guess most people commute to work by foot?). While Alberto went
to find a hotel I was surrounded by small children asking me a million questions.They were
excited that we came from Canada, and even more excited by the colour of my eyes and hair.
I answered as many questions as I could with my less than perfect spanish. Alberto returned
with two hotel options of which I picked the one in the upper town. This required that we exit
the town and use an access road a little ways back up the road we came in on. It was dark by
now so we really wanted to get things set up in the hotel and get sorted. We said goodbye to
the kids and went to find the hotel.
The hotel was pretty good, and it was a lot quieter in the upper town. We had not showered in
a few days so that was the first order of business. Once we were cleaned up we went for a
walk a