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Visited Huacas del Sol and la Luna this morning. Two Pre-Incan temples built by the Moche civilisation over six centuries to AD600. Managed to use our student cards for reduced tickets (unlike the horrible lady in Chiclayo who wouldn't accept them despite having 'International Student Card' written on them!) and get an English-speaking guide. Only the Temple of the Moon was open but the actual complex was huge. The temple is actually five temples, one built on top of the other. The first was buried and then the next built on top. In true Peruvian style and with a rather warped idea of preservation we were allowed to walk all over the buildings. The front facade was still being excavated but most of the inside walls were covered in friezes still with original colours. Absolutley amazing seeing as it is all made out of adobe. We walked over to the Temple of the Sun for photos although it was closed and hasn't been fully excavated yet. Still, very impressive as the largest Pre-Colombian structure in Peru allegedly made up of 140 million adobe bricks. Bought souvenirs (has to be done really) whilst being followed around by the ugliest dog in the world. A strange hairless breed that the Peruvians actually seem quite proud of!

Made it back to Trujillo for a late lunch and managed to bump into a couple that seem to be following us around Peru. We crossed the border with them, found them again in Mancora and now in a cafe in Trujillo. Probably end up at Machu Picchu together as well!



Spent the next day touring the main archaeological sites around Trujillo with the owner of our hostal, Clara, as our guide. Lovely woman but completely crazy and kept ordering us to take photos of random stuff and telling other people off for getting in the way of our photos! First on the tour was La Huaca Arco Iris (The Rainbow Temple), one of thebest preserved Chimu temples in Peru thanks to it being covered in sand until forty years ago. Then onto the Museum of Chan Chan which houses examples of the ceramics and tool found in the various sites. The best part was the ruined city of Chan Chan itself. The whole complex covers 28sq kilometres including nine palaces (as each king died, he was buried within his palace and the new king built a new palace for himself). Its claim to fame is its being the largest Pre-Colombian city in South America and the largest adobe city in the world. The palace-city of Tschudi has been partially restored although Crazy Clara (as our hostess/tour guide is now affectionately known) was able to show us all the original parts as she used to work there.

Wake up the next morning with the intention of getting to Casma only to find a strike has hit and no'one is going anywhere in the entire of Peru. Looks like we're stuck here for quite some time! Mooched around all day eating far too much and spent the evening watching the Mexico v. Argentina match in the hostal TV room with all the other guests. Fingers crossed the strike lets up soon and we can get on our way but the owners of the hostal are advising us all the stay put as apparently one bus got overturned due to rocks being out in the road and 14 people died. Not really worth trying it just to stay on schedule!

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