I got my Decapitator
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
36
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Trujillo,
Peru
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Huanchaco
Emily and I wanted to make the most of the warmish weather so headed for the nearby beach town of Huanchaco where we had heard that there was a surfing competition. We were very excited at the prospect of some sexy surfers, but imagine our distress when we arrived on a windy, a bit dirty and deserted beach. We did spy some surfers in the distance but hardly enough to constitute a competition.
Instead of sunbathing like we had planned, we ended up sitting on the wall looking out over the waves and the few brave surfers in the freezing cold water. An American girl, Shannon, came up to us and started talking to us
01 Corpus Christi Carpets
. She rented out surfboards on the beach with her Peruvian boyfriend Carlos, and had lived in Huanchaco for 9 months. We met Carlos who offered us free surfing lessons, but we were a bit chicken of the cold water and I am still a bit scarred from my "lesson" in Brazil. Some friends of Carlos and Shannon rode up on a motorbike, and Victor, the motorbike owner, offered to take Emily for a ride. I encouraged her as Victor was quite good looking and he had nice arms, a quality we both admire. She ended up getting a grand tour of the Huanchaco area which included riding down some church steps which Emily says was quite painful.
We agreed to meet up with our new friends for a night out on the town later in the week, but Emily and I were both a little disappointed when they didn`t drop by the hostel like they promised. Oh well.
Corpus Christi
I seem to have the uncanny luck of stumbling across parades and festivals and events in my travels so far. The sick day we had off because Emily`s tummy was playing funny games turned out to be a good choice. In the morning, lots of students were creating big murals around the Plaza de Armas out of wet coloured sand and flower petals
02 Moche Murals
. There were some amazing murals and we wandered around, although by the end of it, we were graped and wine glassed out as they depicted the last supper or communion or something. Later in the evening the festivities began, but when Emily and I rocked up, it was a big religious ceremony with the massive square chock full of people. We stayed for a little bit, and then went back to the hostel and watched the fireworks later from there.
Huacas del Sol y Luna
Our combi dropped us off at the Huaca del Sol, the largest pre-Columbian structure in South America. It was quite impressive, but we weren`t allowed to roam over it like we had done in Chiclayo. We followed the trail to the neighbouring Huaca de la Luna, which is a major excavation site, since they found some beautiful coloured and carved walls. Again we came across a show of horsemen in ponchos demonstrating something to the students around us. At one point they galloped around a group of small schoolboys and the teacher moved them back after that, supposedly out of harms way.
We didn`t get a guided tour, which was included in the price of our tickets, but we wandered around the complex looking at the excellent murals and coming to our own conclusion about the Moche art
03 My Decapitator!!!
. Afterwards, I found my Decapitator spread on the footpath by a vendor. He cost 3 soles (just over AUD$1) and is ceramic and fits in my hand. I love him already and hope that he makes it home in one piece. Huaca Arco Iris
We moved on to the Chimù culture in the afternoon, visiting a structure with 3 levels and lots of pictures of dragons tonguekissing underneath rainbows. Not quite as impressive as I had hoped, but we got to walk along the top of the walls. On one side was the drop to the ground and on the other strange tomb-like boxes, almost like the sections of flood walls in the Titanic. Although the wall was about 70cm wide it felt like you were walking on a tightrope.
Chan Chan
The capital of the Chimù was a massive complex. We walked the 1.5km from the highway to the Tschudi palace past lots of other plazas, complexes and walls. The carvings on the wall in Tschudi were amazingly ornate and depicted birds, fish and fishnets. Inside they had dug a dam which still has water and some reeds in it. There were some tombs, but they were empty and nowhere near as interesting as Sipàn. It took about an hour and it was an interesting walk around the palace
04 Arco Iris
.We then walked to the site museum which was quite small, although provided a little bit of info. I`m quite pleased as my Spanish is good enough to understand museum descriptions!!!
At the Museum they also had a photographic exhibit of the hairless dogs, viringos. I keep calling them skinless dogs by mistake and we have seen them at just about every archaelogical site in Northern Peru. They are ugly and have no hair except for maybe a mohawk or some on their tail and are black and scabby looking. It turns out that they were used for all sorts of stuff, including drinking the blood of a warm dog for medicinal purposes - ugh!! They are endangered and I think it`s probably because they are ugly.
Huaca Esmeraldas
Probably the puniest site around Trujillo, the huaca doesn`t have much to offer except for a couple of wall carvings that are being restored. We walked to the Huaca from the museum and after about 15 minutes, had seen all it had to offer.
I can`t believe how many places we are allowed to roam free or walk on walls
05 Chan Chan
. It is quite interesting but a little disturbing as well. I suppose it falls in the same basket as Dad tobogganning on sandhills when he was young that are now protected for housing a major archaelogical site back home.Things I Learned
* I`ve had enough of the coastal fog
* I like routine and eating breakfast at the same place every day
* There are no toilet seats in Peru. You just perch on the porcelain. I suppose it negates the infamous battle of the sexes over having the toilet seat up or down.
* BYO toilet roll is very handy and I have learned to blow my nose on toilet paper
