The Lord of Sipan

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  Chiclayo, Peru
Thursday, October 16, 2008

I decided to be a bit more spontaneous and not reserve a hotel in advance. I have met many people along the way who tell me that they just get off the bus and ask their taxi driver to take them to a hostel in a certain price range and that it always works out well. So, I decided to try this in Chiclayo. Unfortunately, it did not work out so well for me. The driver took me to a hostel that was pretty pricey but the guy gave me a big discount. It was still a bit more than I wanted to pay. The driver kept telling me it was a great place because I had my own bathroom and my own TV with cable. However, the bathroom smelled bad (like gross air freshener or something) and didn`t have hot water. What do I need my own bathroom for with cold water?? And I definitely did not need my own TV. It seemed like mostly Peruvians were staying there. Not a hostel where people hang out. A room with a private TV kind of leads to everyone hanging out in their own room. Needless to stay, I dropped off my stuff very quickly and headed out to Lambayeque, a town about 20 minutes away where they have the Museum of Sipan, the reason I came here.
 
The tomb of Sipan was discovered in 1987. Sipan, a lord of the Moche Culture, was buried there in a large, multilevel tomb where many other people were buried. Some people were sacrificed for his burial and others were important people that were also buried there, a Priest and another Lord of Sipan. The Lord of Sipan was buried with tons of amazing offerings, including clothes, jewely, and ceramics. The jewelry is beautiful, very intricate, with a lot of gold, silver, and some other precious metals. Really gorgeous. It was a very nice museum, although all the information was written in Spanish. I was very impressed with my Spanish however, as I was able to understand a lot of it!
 
After visiting the museum, I spent a few hours wandering around Lambeyeque. It seemed a much more peaceful area than Chiclayo. There were many parks and plazas, lots of greenery. There were lots of bakeries around and the smell of freshly baked bread was wonderful! I wandered through the market, lots of fruits and vegetables, and a few stalls with Chinese herbs were set up.
 
Headed back in the combi to Chiclayo and wandered around there for a bit. It wasn`t as bad of a city as my first impression had led me to believe! There was a huge outdoor market (I like outdoor markets...the fresh air makes them a lot more pleasant, especially the meat section! Kind of takes away from the odor!) Chiclayo is a big city, with lots of stores and noise and people. Seems very disorganized but there was a lot of activity, with people of all ages walking around. Stayed out as long as possible in order to avoid going back to the awful hotel! Although I was originally planning on staying here all day tomorrow I decided to head out first thing in the morning to Mancora, a beach town in the north of Peru. Will be leaving at 6 am! Looking forward to some more time on the beach.  

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