Chan Chan y Paso...

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  Trujillo, Peru
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

We arrived in Trujillo with the intention to camp but alas not really an option here and why would you when hostels cost about the same! After our taxi to Huanchaco we settled into the Los Fescos hostel (or something similar, Cost: 15s per person). The main attractions in this area are the pre-Inca ruins of the Chimu and Moche people. There are many ways to see these ruins but a tour is the best to actually get the most out of your day. At the small information hut we found out about a tour with a French Lady called Ozelyne. A little bit more expensive but she speaks English and crams a bit more into the day than the larger tours. This tour cost 60s per person if there are 4 of you. Our mission was to find 2 more tourists in town who were willing to pay for the tour. After ambling round the town looking for gringos with the intention of propositioning them on the street we returned to the hostel having achieved nothing more than having a lovely Ceviche lunch and a Inca Cola. (Inca Cola is the local soft drink

Paso dance

. Tastes similar and also has the amazing nuclear waste appearance.) In our hostel we met a Canadian Couple, Jamie and Emma, who were willing to do the tour so all we were set. Went to a fantastic Restaurant in town and had the most amazing bbqed fish!

Our tour round The ruins went thus. I will try not to bore with to much info. I don´t know if this is because I am kind or lazy!

The Museo De Sitio: This is where you buy your ticket for Chan Chan and a couple of temples. 11.20s

This is the first stop of our tour and a refreshingly informative museum. Glad we had Ozelyne with us as she added so much more. Here we basically learnt about the history of the Chimu people and the surrounding area. Small museum but need at least a hour to take in everything

Chan Chan:

Chan Chan was the pre inca capital of the Chimu people. Basically it is a collection of 9 different citadels that were built between 850ad and 1470ad

Paso man

. As with Angkor Wat a new town was built every time the king was killed or died. Seems like a lots of work but each to their own. The site we went to visit, and the only one open to the public was site 8 or citadel Tschudi o Nikan. The whole city was built out of Adobe bricks and has been excellently preserved over the years due to being covered in sand. The Whole town is covered in patterns of waves, birds and netting. All these symbols are relating to the pacific ocean a km away. The pictures that will be up soon will show much more detail.

Huaca Esmerelda and Arco Iris o el Dragon:

These were two small temples situated in Trujillo.

Esmerelda is somewhat uninspiring after seeing Chan Chan but still very cool. The site doesn´t get much tourist attention due to not being on the larger tour routes, so its nice to have the place to yourself. This temple was meant to be a market for the poorer folk who didn´t live in the citadel.

Arco Iris is dedicated to the Rainbow representing Rain and Fertility. On one wall there are some impressive restored carvings that still have evidence of yellow paint

Chan chan carvings

.

Huacas del Sol Y La Luna:

This is a Temple of the Moche people who reined from 100bc to about 750ad. Instead of building new towns every time a leader passed away these chaps filled in the current floor of the temple and built on top of this. The result of this is some amazingly well preserved paintings on the wall. In total there are 7 different floors. After that they obviously got bored of rebuilding the temple and just painted over the existing walls. The main attraction to Caroline was the sacrificial ceremony. The exact point of this we´re not 100% sure of but from what we could gather they captured local warriors, drugged them on San Pedro Cactus juice, made dogs have sex with them and then threw them of a cliff on to a sacred rock! Bizarre process!!!!

Unfortunately huaca De Sol was closed pending excavation.
 
The next day we were moving on to Cajamarca in land. On route to the bus station we stopped at the local Paso stable. For 11s we were given a 2 hour show on Paso. The Paso horse is a Peruvian horse that they use for Dressage and performing the Marinera dance. The dance is between a horse and male rider and a lady on the ground. The dance itself is very impressive and the precision of the horses is extraordinary. After the show both Caroline and I were allowed to ride the Paso horse. Very funky.

We caught the VIP bus to Cajamarca (40s) at 10:30.

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Chan chan 2	us at chan chan	Doggie	Moche grafitti
Moche paintings	2008 bricks	Chan Chan

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