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Published: January 26th 2006
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After some time in the rolling hills of Peru's northern highlands we were back on the coast, and after disembarking our night bus and rubbing our sleepy eyes, were treated to a fine warm morning. We had taken the decision to stay at Huanchaco, a beach resort a little way from Trujillo, as we'd been advised that it was a better bet than the city itself. Whilst the place had a certain charm about it we concluded that Mancora was a much nicer resort, if that's what you're after. It didn't matter much to us though, as we were yet again in search of ancient ruins and trying to imagine how things looked hundreds and thousands of years before.
Trujillo is home to a number of interesting sites, the most important of which is Chan Chan. This huge - and inadequately protected - site was once the capital of the Chimu civilisation which spanned hundreds of miles along the Peruvian coast, before the time of the Incas. It's a sad story but the pre-Inca sites receive scant attention from the authorities over here and it's largely down to private consortiums to ensure that they are protected and displayed to the
public. Chan Chan is a government protected site, but only a tiny proportion of this once vast city has received any attention, the rest just lying by the roadside being gently erroded by the elements, and anyone that fancies climbing on delicate adobe structures. Having said all this, though, Chan Chan was still an amazing site. What is open to the public has been heavily restored to give an idea of what the place must once have been like. There are many terraces and courtyards where it's just possible to drift off and imagine demi-god like rulers and their servants going about their daily business. I'm not well enough versed on the history of the place to tell you lots about it, but if you are interested in such things click
here. Suffice to say that we enjoyed our visit and it whet our appetites for the other sites around Trujillo.
The next day Emma and I decided to have a wander around the city itself. During the day we took in the frankly bizarre Zoological Museum, home to a huge number of poorly labelled but nonetheless fascinating exhibits of creatures from all over the world. In the museum
we met Sandra, a good natured volunteer who'd taken it upon herself to re-organise the bird section. Good luck Sandra!! It wasn't looking hopeful from where we stood.... After that we had a brisk but again fascinating look at the Archeological Museum, which helped us understand the Chimu culture (and those preceeding and suceeding it) and set us up for our next discovery, the Huaca del Luna (Temple of the Moon).
The aforementioned temple may well have been known as something else, as the Chimu didn't have any writing as such, so the archaeologists have named it that more or less off the top of their heads. The site is truely amazing and we had a great time exploring it. As a result of the way it was built, it is now possible to see the releifs and decorations that adorned the building hundreds of years ago which would have been washed away by the elements otherwise. Basically every hundred years they built a new temple over the last, covering the outside completely, and redecorating the "new" outside. This meant that by excavating the site archaeologists have been able to uncover the decorations of the older layers of the
Colourful wall decoration at Huaca del Luna
In each 100 year rebuild of the temple, the same god was honoured on the walls temple which are richly decorated and a pleasure to see. Better still, this site is sponsored by the national beer company, so by drinking their wares we've been helping preserve this archeological treasure! Bonus!! Possibly the most awe inspiring thing about visiting the site is that it remains partially excavated, and as such they are discovering new details and artefacts on almost a daily basis. Both Em and I agreed that it would be worth coming back in 20 years or so to see what they had managed to uncover!
We rounded off our visit to Trujillo at a very civilised dinner with Papa and Mama (you might remember them from our Chachapoyas episode!) and their son Hernando, along with Lubna and Mick. It was really great to see the family again, and it was again with a pang of sadness that we set off for our next destination, Huaraz. Emma and I were travelling alone for the first time in a while, which felt good and bad for different reasons. Huaraz promised to be an adventure, being as it is the trekking and climbing capital of Peru. That said, it's the rainy season..... Would we be able to
do any trekking? Would we be washed away in freak floods?? Who could say??
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JGirl
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Did Chris come to visit?
Your mate Hernando is a Chris clone...