Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2013
Huanchaco
The fishermen's reed boats in the foreground Trujillo
We caught a night bus from Ica to Trujillo unfortunately the bus arrived at the terminal at the unearthly hour of 4am and not knowing the area at all we and few other passengers sat in the tiny bus terminal until day light when it was more of a reasonable hour to look for a hostel. Trujillo is a bustling city surrounded by desert we decided to stay in a small fishing village just outside Trujillo called Huanchaco so we could enjoy the beach and be only 15 minutes away by collectivos these are small mini buses.
This is a tale to be told, there are many of these type of buses on the roads, all driven by an erratic driver along with his side kick a young man who collects the fares and controls the sliding door, this means he stands in the door well of the bus with the door usually open and him dangerously hanging out of the door shouting in a sing along voice to the by standers on the road side giving them the destination of the bus hoping for new customers. As a new customer gets on the bus he slams the
Huanchaco
The local pelican on the beach door shut for a few minutes while he collects the fares, before starting this routine again all the while the bus is being driven at break neck speed, braking sharply when it has to stop for customers or for other traffic, and another crazy thing is at different points along the bus route the conductor will jump out of the bus while its still travelling at lest 20 mph and place a slip of paper into a time clock machine, this is always was done at such an erratic speed and as if the amount of time to complete this operation is really important (surly this shock to his knee joints will cause him so much damage and pain in the future)but once he had docked the paper he then stood around for several moments before boarding the bus again we couldn't quite work out the reason for this procedure, and us the passenger would slip and slide in and out of your seats with of course no seat belts provided ! The collectivo bus journey is an experience in its self.
Trujillo is typical bustling busy city with a ring road surrounding the city where the collectivos drive
around like Whacky races. The centre has a lovely square called Plaza Mayor with immaculate gardens which if you dared to stand on the grass a lolly pop sucking policeman would blow a whistle at you embarrassing ! ! The square is surrounded by beautiful Colonial buildings painted in vivid colours with intricate wrought iron gitters protecting the windows. In the plaza there are many shoe shine boys keen to clean your shoes even when you are wearing flip flops ! The cathedral was closed which was a shame as it looked beautiful.
In Huanchaco the local fishermen still use the traditional Caballitos de mar these are handmade totora reed boats, which were first used by the Moche culture who lived in the area 400-600 years AD. Today the fishermen fill the inside of the boat with plastic bottles or polystyrene to give the boats more buoyancy. You can pay the fishermen a small fee for a short sail out into bay, the waves are quite high so this makes Huanchaco are popular place for surfers.
We visited the ruined adobe temples of the Sun and Moon just outside Trujillo they are built in the barren desert surrounding
the city. The temple to the sun is the largest adobe pyramid in the Americas and next door is the temple to the moon which is believed to be the capital or the most important ceremonial and urban centre for the Moche culture which was at its peak between 400- 600 years AD
The temple to the moon has in total five pyramids which were are built on top of each other. The first pyramid was built for the king and his priests this where rituals, ceremonial and animal sacrifices and many human sacrifices too were preformed they were done to give praise and thanks to their gods the sun and moon. The human sacrifices were chosen men who had to fight the loser in this battle was then used as the sacrifice. The man was taken away to a special area and given a very strong potion to sedate him so he could be prepared for his sacrifice. On the sacrificial table his throat/ jugular vein was cut and his blood was collected by the high priest who along with the king drank his blood to offer praise to their gods,this sounds a macabre way of giving praise
The Moon temple
Looking into burial area to your gods, when animals were sacrificed their blood too was collected and drank by the king and his high priest.
When the Moche king died he would be buried inside the pyramid along with his personal items and treasures. The new king would have all the rooms inside the pyramid filled with adobe bricks and then build another pyramid over the top. All the pyramids outside walls were decorated in different sections and levels with murals and motifs in colours of red,yellow, white, black and blue depicting their gods and animals of importance. However when the Spanish invaded they removed the top level of the pyramids and chucked the earth to one side, before digging down through the levels to plunder the graves and the other pyramids. Fortunately the earth the Spanish put against the pyramid covered and preserved one side of the pyramid so when the archeologists discovered the sight and removed the huge mound of earth it had been well preserved so now you see these decorations, motifs and colours on this side of the pyramid, the archeologists have also removed sections of the pyramids so you can walk and see different sections of the burial
The moon temple
The preserved 5th side of the last pyramid sites, sacrificial tables and areas where the sacrificial man was kept before his death. The Sun temple has not had much excavation done due to the lack of funds, and in between the two temples was a huge adobe city where only the craftsman lived, this has only had a small amount of excavation work done just enough to gain evidence of the way their way of life.
The ruined adobe city of Chan Chan was the capital of the Chimu empire who took over from the Moche culture around 1100AD the city is situated between Trujillo and Huanchaco. In this city only the king and his priests lived inside the complex, the sea and sea animals such as the crab, fish and the pelican bird were their gods. When the king died he was buried along with his personal items which included his wife, high priest, favourite guard/soldier and his favourite boy/ man servant, they were all given a very strong sedative potion before being buried alive along with a collection of ceramics/ potteries and weapons. These were placed in the large tomb along with king to support him in his journey into his next life beyond. It
The moon temple
An inner side of the 4th temple seems unlucky for the people who were the king's favourites that's all I can say ! The tomb would be filled in with adobe bricks, earth and then levelled.When his son took over the empire he would build his city next door, in total there are 11 adobe cities however only three sections have been excavated the Nil An Palace, and near by the large La Huaca Esmeralda a ceremonial and ritual pyramid and the Huaca El Dragón which was built on the other side of the Esmeralda complex but was similar in function. We could see for miles around the ruined adobe cites of Chan Chan which are still covered in the brown sandy dirt either waiting to be excavated or to be left to nature.
Chiclayo
Chiclayo is a city inland several hours north from Trujillo this is a busy bustling place, however it is close to the Lambayeque valley which is an area where Sican culture once lived they did not have vast empires like the Moche and Chimu cultures, but it was a regional culture situated in the Lambayeque valley. However they to like the Moche culture had the sun and moon as their
The outer side to pyramid
Foreground showing the adobe bricks used to fill in the old Temple before a one was built. gods and like the Moche culture who wore gold to decorate themselves, the Sican culture did the same, their king, his high priest, the medicine man and people of importance wore gold such as a body plate to the chest, arms and legs, a huge headdress, a huge nose ring, earrings and lots of beautiful necklaces made from gold,silver or from shells which were obtained from the tribes who lived in Ecuador. The gold decorations had lots of tiny gold plates or bells attached them so when the person moved a tinkling sound was made to impress their importance to their people. The gold decorations worn, were so heavy the king, priest and medicine man could never walk because of the weight, so they were always carried on a litter, when their skeletons were excavated it showed they had deformed curved spines due to the weight of the gold they constantly wore. In the Lambayeque valley there are lots of burial pyramids where the king, his high priest and medicine man are buried, the burial tombs are huge because the dead person would have his personal items,ceramics , potteries, their gold decorations, their favourite slave and bodyguard buried with him
so as to follow him and protect him into the next life, the king's wife was buried with him, they were all sedated and buried alive.
We visited the gold museum in Lambayeque were all the gold, silver and shell relics and decorations of the Sican culture are kept. The amount of gold and silver jewellery on display was amazing they are beautifully crafted but the size of most pieces are huge, you could understand those who wore the decorations, why they had deformed curved spines. We were sadly not allowed to take any photographs of the incredible jewellery and body decorations.
Our last stop in Peru was the surfing town of Mancora on the north coast of Peru. We left Chiclayo by bus in the morning and several hours later we arrived in the evening at Mancora. The main street was full of young surfers milling around searching for a restaurant or a bar, there were many shops with some type of music blasting from the doorway enticing you in to buy their surf equipment, clothing or swimwear, or there is the usual typical local artisan shops and stalls with their handmade items, such as clothing, hats
and jewellery etc for sell.
We spent 2 days in Mancora enjoying the lovely hot weather, the gorgeous sandy beach, and braving the sea with its huge waves, though we did not try surfing we left that to the experts. Our next destination is Ecuador and we left Mancora on a bus filled with lots of surfing dudes who were also making their way north to Ecuador's coast no doubt.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Hayley
non-member comment
health and safety?
Hi again! Yet more lovely pics, especially of the colonial buildings, I would never have guessed that they would have such fascinating architecture out there! I am also assuming that they don't have any health and safety laws when it comes to the buses! Xx