Trujillo, Huanchaco & Chiclayo (29/Jun-1/Jul/06)

Mancora, Peru

Instead of sleeping at Trujillo we decided to find a hotel at the nearby seaside resort of Huanchaco, famous for having fishing boats made out or reeds similar to those in lake Titicaca. Exhaustion catching up with us, we had a good sleep until lunchtime and went off to explore Trujillo. Not much there. Lonely Planet slightly exaggerates its beauty and colonial architecture. Well, Lonely Planet slightly exaggerates everything. Apparently it is also famous for dancing horses, but couldn’t quite find the energy to search them out. Spent most the time looking for a buyable digital camera, but no luck - many places were closed as it was a national holiday. Went back to Huanchaco to soak in the holiday atmosphere (many families from Trujillo were down there for the day).

That evening we saw one of the most bizarre things we have seen so far in our travels. Sipping a few beers next to a table of loud ladies (who had downed quite a few more than us) we saw one of them suddenly spring up, run across the road, and return with one of the local seagull/pelican type birds that flap around locally. They then proceeded to tie the poor thing up (after unsuccessfully trying to wring its neck) and bang it in a bag. Dinner I suppose.

Next day found some energy to go to the local ruins of Chan-Chan, even if we were a bit oversaturated with Inca and pre-Inca ruins and museums. Still, this was worth it as it was quite different to the rest, being completely built out of adobe (mud brick). It is a huge city, the biggest in pre-Columbian America (and the biggest adobe city in the world). Only a small part has been reconstructed properly, but even that is simply huge.

From there we took the bus 3h North up the coast to Chiclayo to see the Sipan museum, a grave found in the late 80s that miraculously hadn’t been plundered, so was more-or-less intact. Found a few digital cameras, but about $100 more expensive than they should be. Also we think, amusingly, we stayed in a whorehouse. Not too sure, but if it wasn’t that it was a pretty dodgy hostal.