25 September

Victor drove up to the house at about 9:00. We had both laid down to rest; I was listening to a story on my iPod and Doug rested but didnt' sleep much. When 11:00 p.m. came around, we gathered our stuff, knocked on the car windows to wake up Victor and we were off to the bus station.
The bus didn't pick us up until 12:30. We climbed up the stairs and found our seats. We had to wake up a couple of men who were in our seats to get them to move. Virtually everyone on board had reclined their seats to sleep. The seat bottom moved forward while the back reclined. The head of the seat in front of you came into your lap while your feet scooted underneath their seat. It looked a lot worse than it actually was. I slept most of the way while Doug remained more viligent.
We arrived in Chiclayo at 6:00 a.m. There were numerous taxis and mototaxis awaiting the bus but since Victor was so insistent we not take one of these, we went into the station itself. Office personel didn't come in until 8:30. Not wanting to wait, we called the hostal and they recommended a taxi service. As soon as we arrived, Victor was on the phone checking up on us to be sure we had a safe arrival. We then napped for a couple of hours and both enjoyed hot showers.
Chiclayo is a world different than the beach area. It definitely is a bustling city with crowded cobblestone streets and pedestrians going every which way. As we maneuvered our way around we also had to watch out for mortar falling from construction on the 2nd floor above the sidewalk, mounds of sand & debris, uneven sidewalks. Taxis, as opposed to mototaxis, are the norm here. You see many private cars but they are still outnumbered by the taxis.
We met with the architect at 11:00. He had totally redesigned our house. He gave us three reasons; 1. the original design did not take into account the topography of the land. It currently has three distinct levels that vary by 2 to 2 1/2 meters from one another. The ground is very rocky and very solid so it would be very costly to level it completely. 2. The original design did not take the view into account. Doug and I had already recognized this and talked about rotating the plans accordingly. 3. He also felt the original plans were a bit disconnected. He also felt that typical Peruvian beach houses were designed differently. He also took into account the wind patterns when he came up with his design. We agreed to meet when we returned from Santa Cruz and he would have a floor plan for us.