A mammoth undertaking

I took some of Christopher’s ashes with me to Peru, with the aim of scattering them somewhere I thought he’d appreciate. He would have really enjoyed the holiday, and would have loved taking photos of all the ruins.

Obviously, I didn’t know the area at all, so I asked my guide for some advice for somewhere suitable to scatter the ashes. At first, he was completely flummoxed by my request – I think they go in for burial in Peru, rather than cremation, so the whole concept was alien to him. He asked what sort of place I was looking for. I replied somewhere peaceful, but that didn’t seem to help him. Even though he spoke excellent English, he asked me to type my requirements into his Blackberry so that he could translate them to be sure. Then he said “Yes, I did understand you the first time! Let me think about it”

The next day, the day after Boxing Day, we drove south from Chiclayo to Trujillo, stopping off at a number of archaeological sites on the way. When he and the driver met me at the hotel at 07:30 that morning, the guide said that he’d been thinking overnight, and had come up with a couple of options to discuss with me. One of them I thought was particularly appropriate, so I went ahead with it.

The River Reque where I scattered some of Christopher's ashes

This is the Rio Reque, a few km south of the city of Chiclayo.  This is the same river, but further downstream, as the one we only just managed to ford on Christmas Day. The tomb of the Lord of Sipán and Pampa Grande are upstream on one side of the river, and the Pomac Forest is on the other side. So I’d spent the last two days exploring 1500 years of ancient civilisations in the valley of the Rio Reque, as well as nearly getting swept down it myself!

The guide found a surprisingly tranquil spot, with sugar-cane fields on either side, and I scattered a small jar of Christopher’s ashes into the river. I think that he would have approved.