Monday, 2 February 2015

Coral – 2nd Oldest Civilization in the world

Going places on a whim sometime will shock you so when Sparky the hostel manager in Lima invited me for a daytrip to Coral from Lima, I just agreed without even asking much about what it is about. How far it was I didn’t know, what it was I had no idea but a day trip exploring with new friends that is not a tour is always welcome.

I was shocked that we had to take a local chicken bus bumpy as hell for 3 hours just to get to the nearest town north of Lima named Barancca. Then soon after the bargaining started with all the taxi drivers in town who looked at 8 bewildered tourist whom rely on one and only one Sparky for Spanish translation and negotiation. After settling for a good price on a 10 seated Van we were on our way to Coral which took another 1 hour.
Coral was beautiful thou, large and not known despite it being the 2nd oldest civilization in the planet, second to only Mesopotamia. It was low key and not many tourist knows about it, yet it was fascinating in its own way. With some help on publicity and repackaging it properly it could well be a hit like Machu Pichu but I guess like anything that comes second it gets much much lesser fame.

 
An official Park Ranger Guide must be hired to enter and could be shared by 20 people maximum which rounds down to about 1 sols each. The guide serves as a historian and gives much explanation with plenty of vigour. If only I could understand better Spanish …
As I visited Coral I saw the potential of the place as a tourist attraction. I was discussing with Sparky that there was potential of creating a tour out to Coral from Lima. A chartered Van to skip all the bus and time wasting effort not to mention taxi bargaining, and for as little as 60 Sols a person with bare minimum setup the tour might take off well enough to fund Sparky’s dream of owning a hostel in Lima. Too bad it’s not in Malaysia else I would have jumped to start it up immediately.
So the 9 of us was the experimental trip which cost nearly 45 Sols …. Smile I said to them when we were taking the group photo …. Sparky gonna use this as a photo advert for the tour to Coral ….. Sparky eyes gleamed at me idea sparking no doubt.

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