Adobe Ruins and Walking Handbags in Trujillo

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Finally I found myself at the Pacific Ocean. I arrived early in the morning in the town of Huanchaco, a short distance from the main city of Trujillo. I found and checked into a hostel before falling immediately asleep, I had arrived far too early for my liking. I woke after a few hours and dragged my tired ass out of bed to begin my first ever visit to the Pacific Ocean properly.

At breakfast I bumped into a couple of guys I´d met whilst waiting for a taxi after the Santa Cruz trek and they invited me to join them sightseeing around Trujillo's wealth of pre-Incan culture. We jumped on a local bus towards Trujillo, jumping off at the beginning of a dirt road leading to the ancient Chimú city ofChan Chan. On the side of the road we were headhunted by a taxi driver and agreed a price to be driven around around three structures from the Chimú period which was around 850AD to 1500AD.

Chan Chan is regarded as the most important of the Chimú structures, not surprising as first of all it is the largest adobe city in the world (adobe bricks are made from sand, clay, water and a fibrous material), but it is also the largest pre-Columbian city in both of the America's. To put that into something of a visual context; never in my life will I expect to see a bigger sand castle. Chan Chan is so large that archeologists believe that it had a population of around 60,000 people - picture 60,000 people living inside a nice yellow sand castle - can't do it can you? That population is greater than the whole of Hereford.

In it's old existence the sand castle was home to vast riches of ceramics, gold and silver but although apparently the Inca invasion left Chan Chan relatively untouched after they conquered the city, the Spanish invasion did not. Sadly due to numerous El Niño and with almost no protection from the elements, the city has been severely beaten down. That said, some impressive restorations have taken place, in particular at the Tschudi Complex which was the first of the three Chimú structures that we visited.

Walking around, the reconstruction was impressive, the tall sandy walls are covered in tiny diamond shaped alcoves and snakes. We visited a large courtyard where a market would most likely have be held, a presentation area, a tomb and numerous unindentifiable areas that were made so from looting and weathering. It was interesting to walk around, but sadly as with Machu Picchu, I found it hard to really get a better understanding of the place due to a limited amount of knowledge of the site. On leaving Chan Chan we encountered a rotten handbag.

I was confused - what appeared to be an old handbag was moving. On closer inspection it turned out to be something of a dog, the Peruvian Hairless Dog. I´ll say no more, just look at the photo.

We went to two other small sites within the city itself, being warned by our driver that we were in its most dangerous parts. There wasn't a huge amound to see at either, although it was remarkable to see how the city has grown around them. Both had similar patterns to Chan Chan and one blessed us with a view of the desert creeping up to the city outskirts. A mountain lay behind the city, in the desert, a series of shanty homes dotting its surface.

The tour concluded with a restaurant recommendation from our guide, where he was a granted a free meal for him bringing in custom. The guys ate ceviche, Peru's national dish, although being sea food I couldn't bring myself to try it. They loved it though and it did look pretty spectacular. I just wish I could get over the smell and brave it.

One of the guys headed into town, deciding that as Chan Chan hadn't been overly impressive he didn't want to see the next site we were heading to, so just the pair of us went, jumping on a minibus for Huaca de la Luna.

Something had clearly been lost when we spoke to the driver about Huaca de la Luna. We realised this when we got dropped off outside Luna Rota, a casino. We took a taxi instead to get to our destination which was oustide of the city in the desert. We were dropped off in somewhat of a lazy and cheeky spot, a good half kilometre walk from the ticket office, but next to Huaca del Sol which is currently something of a mound in the sand. There is a relatively good reason for this, firstly its made from adobe bricks, of which a large portion is sand and secondly almost the whole structure remains buried in the desert. Budget constraints hold up a lot of archelogical work in Peru seemingly, which seems a little mad considering the vast amount of money the expensive ticket to Machu Picchu brings in. Due to the resource constraints almost all work currently being performed is on Luna and not Sol for the time being. The sight of the sandy mound along with another with scaffolding on in the distance gave us thoughts of disappointment like the mornings visit to Chan Chan. Fortunately however, it turned out to be far more interesting than I could possibly have imagined.

We paid for a guided tour (the only way to visit the site) and followed a sand path into the construction and shown an area used for human sacrifice to appease the elements. Our fantastic guide spoke great English and amused some German's by letting them know in German that he found Swiss German easier to understand. He was also passionately anti-Spanish which I found pretty amusing and following in a fashion led by my guide in the Colca Canyon. He seemed genuinely insulted by the Spanish documentation and reports of his country´s history and people. For example he found it insulting that when the Inca's took over Chan Chan, they left it intact any carried on using it, wheras when the Spanish invaded they raped the city of it's possessions and value. When the Spanish documented took over Trujillo, they reported the people as savages for their human sacrifices - he countered this notion by pointing out how many people the Spanish killed in their search for wealth. I think he may have had a point - it is a common phrase to say that history is written by the victors and not the victims. Most countries, including my own have committed atrocities that are not spoken of often.

Back on point... the sacrificial area revealed several bodies and we were informed of a ritual where two people would fight for survival, the loser becoming the sacrifical lamb.The shaman or brujo would then use herbal mixtures to numb the pain and kill the person, completing the sacrifice. It was reported that not many bodies were found buried here, indicating that the act of human sacrifice probably only occurred during extremely poor seasons of weather as a last hope for change and better crops.

We moved on inside the structure which consists of three buildings like a Russian doll, the first build being on the inside and obviously the smallest, whilst the two additional onces were built over, bigger and bigger. All were built of Adobe bricks. From the outside of the temple the colours of Huaca de la Luna were sandy and dull, any indication of colour or decoration long gone courtesy of the years spend under the desert - these Huaca's were only discovered in the past 30 years. Once inside of the structure however, we were presented with the sort of images I would have loved to have seen at Machu Picchu, which was epic in its location, but blank in its structures. As epic as Machu Picchu was, it wasn't culturally interesting and was far more about speculation. Luna was full of coloured carving and images depicting Ayapec the God of the Moché people. Our guide informed us that the Spanish had reported the civilisation as devil worshippers and heathens, but he told us of the cultures belief in duality. Everything has an opposite and this was clear in their paintings and carvings. We were led to the top of the structure where the kings throne used to be. A ramp led up to the plinth, but there were stairs also for the priests to use as they were not allowed to use the kings space.

We were guided back down the temple for the final part of the tour, circling the structure to a wide clearing and Huaca de la Luna's most impressive vision. A huge wide ramp led down from the top of the building, near to where the king's thrown would have been. To it's right lay a large courtyard. The walls of the structure from this side were incredible, absolutely covered were carvings and painting in rows going up. Every row consisted of a different type of carving, representing different parts and ideas of the Moché civilisation, this included spiders, farmers and priests amongst others. Another murial was adorned with hundreds on smaller engravings, depicting many elements of life - amongst the highlights on this piece was an image of the traditional boats seen in Huanchaco and still used. At the top of the structure was an opening, where the king would've spoken to his people.

The whole site of Huaca de la Luna was surprisingly interesting, it was a site that I went to on a whim and one that I had heard nothing of. Also, I had never heard of the Mochépeople before, most people have only heard of the Inca's of Peru before. Luna was easily the best site I visited in Peru and I hope at some point it is granted additional funds to further the work being undertaken there; it needs protecting to prevent it being worn down as much as Chan Chan and it is a place that I would love to return to in the future to see the progress and in hope that more extensive work has begun on Huaca del Sol as well.

That was it for my cultural experience in Trujillo, I passed the rest of my time in Huanchaco, awaiting some sunshine. The first day in town when I'd done my sightseeing was a beautiful day with a glorious clear sky and a blazing sun but unfortunately my sight of the sun retired on that first day in the region with my first ever Pacific Ocean sunset, a strange one.

I sat out on the beach with an Aussie and a couple of beers. The beach in Huanchaco points beautifully to the West with the sun in the centre. It was a great spot to relax and witness the sundown. Unfortunately as the sun dropped to the point where normally it would expand in an explosion of orange, it disappeared behind a hidden object in the distance. I don't know what it could've been, I don't believe there are islands off there, the mainland certainly doesn't curve, so I have no iudea, one second the sun was there, the next it was gone, along with the sunlight and we returned to the hostel.

That first night was a birthday night and so a large group from the hostel wandered out for dinner and onwards for a cocktail night. The majority of my remaining time in area passed calmly and relatively quietly. I felt like I was in a bit of a stagnant place travel wise. I wasn't doing much in Huanchaco and due to my overly long time in Huaraz achieving little, I was beginning to seriously consider my remaining time in South America, what I could realistically achieve in that time and what my alternatives were. I came to the conclusion that I needed more time, if not only to delay finding a job in Canada, but also to ensure that I have more time to achieve better things here. The wins always seem to be too spread apart and I still have a lot that I want to try to correct before I move back to a Western society and a regular 9-5 life. I decided to cancel my flight and get out of my comfort zone by taking a cargo ship from Yurimaguas to Iquitos over 4-5 days, a closed environment where I would feel claustrophic and be forced to improve my Spanish.

Outside of my decision making I really did achieve little, a typed a lot and hoped for the sun a lot also. On my final full day I took a long walk through the beautiful colonial city of Trujillo. My vision of the city was somewhat blocked by my other full time occupation of my time in Trujillo, this was reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I struggled to put the book down whilst walking, after a couple of days of reading it in the hostel, I wanted to get it finished, even whilst sightseeing and so there I was, a gringo walking the city, only occasionally looking up from my book to check out a beautifully restored building that had caught my eye.

On my fourth day in the area, I took a taxi in the direction of the terminal, to catch my bus to Tarapoto, where I could easily access Yurimaguas to begin my adventure to Iquitos. But, as always in South America, that didn't go quite to plan...



The Strangest Story of them All

I met good people and saw some good sights during this period - but there was one thing that happened that I will remember far more than the rest. It is a story that could not have been made up by the most insane of people and one that involves a gift from my former workmates at Cargills in Hereford. One of the gifts they gave me on leaving England was a small rubber chicken as the factory was one that processed chicken - clever huh? It has lived in my backpack during many major things, though I have generally forgotten to use it in photos, with the exception of on the Bolivian Salar. It was brought back to my attention during one of the most random incidents that I have ever paid witness to.

After the night of many birthday cocktails I awoke far too early in the morning and with some remnants of a hangover. There was no one in my dorm room, but the door had been left open. My pillowed head was on the opposite corner of the room.

I always seem to find myself waking up crazily early in the morning after a night out in SA and so feeling exhausted I left my head down and tried futilely to fall back to sleep. I heard a light scratching sound coming from near the doorway, but kept my eyes closed. I didn't bother to really acknowledge the sound, it was an inconsistent scratching that did not occur regularly. It was a soft sound, so much so that I kept my eyes closed whilst trying to will myself back to sleep.

My eyes opened when the sound changed. There was still a faint scratching sound, but it had combined with a very faint squeaking sound now, at the same time. It was coming from the floor next to my bed.

My interest peaked and I struggled my head up and tipped it over the side of my bed.... and burst out laughing uncontrollably. On the floor next to my bed lay my backpack which had been left open. Next to my backpack with the rubber chicken in its mouth was a rather large.... turtle!

The hostel had two turtles, which enjoyed the freedom of the courtyard between the rooms and apparently also the freedom of any rooms that were left open. It had wandered in, heading towards the curiousity of my backpack before spotting the yellow chicken and deciding that it would make a good snack. I watched and laughed for a long time as it stretched, bit unsuccessfully at the chicken, making it squeak, before retracting its neck - time and time again.

I had woken to find a turtle in my room, eating my rubber chicken. Awesome.

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