Chiclayo
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2007
1
25
80
Trip End
Mar 16, 2008
Chiclayo,
Peru
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
We arrived on Mayday and was completely dead, however we managed to find a gringo tours operator (Sipan Tours) which were very friendly and we booked two 1-day tours to Lambayeque, Sipan, Tucume and Batan Grande. These tours were fantastic and our guide (Orlando) was very sweet and made the sites very interesting. It was especially worthwhile as the museums we went to were all in Spanish and he gave a nice detailed description in English. Also, we got a thorough briefing of all the periods from 700BC up to the present day.
On the first day we visited the broken pyramids in Sipan (broken because they are made of clay/mud bricks and the rains have eroded them making them look more like hills than pyramids anymore)
Chiclayo - Baton Grande. Fresh Excavations 1
. There were quiote a lot of tombs that were on display at the sites, but the valuable artifacts were in the museum we visited later on. We even met the famous Dr. Walter Alva who discovered the tombs in 1987, and was splashed across all the National Geographic magazines. Probably the most interesting and fun part for me was being allowed on the second day to view the latest excavation Temple of Windows at Batan Grande... felt like we were on an Indiana Jones film set. They had just found this area and had been digging for a month, but they were saying that theyŽll be digging for another 10yrs due to the complexity of finding the tombs and renovating the gold/silver/bronze articles as well as the bones. We were allowed to roam the freshly dug holes and take photos.. IŽll attach a few on this entry.
