The north coast.. mud houses and beaches

South America » Peru » La Libertad » Trujillo » Chan Chan
May 13th 2006

Published: May 16th 2006

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Hayley

Chan Chan

The lost.. now found city.. build 100s of years ago from mud, sand and gravel

Hello

Just looking at my photos and they are all beige!! Thats because the coast of Peru used to be covered by the ocean.. and its still very sandy.

We arrived to Trujillo and after a well deserved sunday chill out day in nearby Huanchaco, Christine, Lisa, Mon, Lo and I headed in a taxi to spend a day looking at mud houses. (yes I know thats 6 people in a taxi plus bags.. but remember.. this is Peru) We headed to Chan Chan ...an ancient city of the Chimu People, descovered quite recently. They were very impressive palaces, where one time sixty thousand people lived. We also saw a snake.. the guide we hired said it wasnt dangerous... but she looked terrifed, so we all gave it a wide bearth anyway.

We went to some more ruins around Trujillo, including the very impressive pyramids.. temple of the sun and temple of the moon. We walked around the temple of the moon and it was amazing, the archaeologists have put together 10000000s of tiny pieces back together.

We also saw many peruvian dogs, the wierd ones with out fur. They look scary but are actually quite friendly.

Dragon temple

With carvings on the wall

Afterwards we headed on another night bus to Mancora.. a beautiful beach town in the far north of Peru. We headed here for a holiday.

In Mancora, days were spent swimming in the sea, watching surfers , reading books in a hammock, drinking fresh fruit juices, watching sun sets and generally chilling out. It was very quiet and relaxing, and we created a mini spa break for ourselves..... we headed up to a thermal pool with healing mud... we were the only people there and it was free.. just a hole in the ground! We covered ourselves in the mud, which smelt a lot like eggs, waited for it to dry in the sunshine then peeled it off. Another day we walked along the deserted beach for an hour and came across lagoons.. so we had a swim in them. We finally found some wholemeal bread and great vegetarian food in Cafe del Angela.. so decided to stay a few more days (when you travel in SA, wholemeal bread is definatly worth changing your plans for!!)
So all in all an invigorating and relaxing few days... Just what we needed ...... before we embalk on a whole new