Moche and Chimu ruins around Trujillo

Now that we have made it into Peru our first couple of stops in the North coast were Chiclayo and Trujillo.

Chiclayo was where we finally decided to stop after 3 bus journeys and a border crossing which took about 15 hours. Immediately we were struck by the difference to Ecuador which seems so chilled and calm in comparison to the hustle and blaring horns of the local taxis. There is a crazy market in Chiclayo which houses a huge amount of herbs and sages displayed on the stalls of witch doctors. After a ton of travelling we were both pretty knackerd so had a pretty early night before heading down the coast to Trujillo.

Around Trujillo are a number of culural sites from the Moche and Chimu periods which were pre inca cultures. Firstly 'Huaca de la Luna' was pretty amazing as there are walls covered in Moche designs and as the Moche people buried their old temples under the new ones there has been amazing preservation of these wall paintings which are all original rather than restored.

The other key sight around Trujillo is Chan Chan which at the height of the Chimu empire must have been pretty spectaular as the area it covers is so vast. We took a look inside one of the restored royal compounds featuring friezes of waves and sea life and a giant mausoleum where the king and his family and other sacred objects would have been buried after his death.

Another key thing around all the sites are a bunch of peruvian hairless dogs which look pretty ugly. The body temp on these guys is pretty high though and apparently they make good body warmers for ill people- think we will give that a miss though.

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