chiclayo & trujillo

In planning Mimi's itinerary, we decided to travel up Peru's coast to Chiclayo and Trujillo to visit pre-Inca ruins in preparation for the Inca sites in Cusco and Machu Picchu. Happily Carlos had four days off of work for Holy Week.

We took a bus for the 12-hour ride to Chiclayo. The bus we took was no Greyhound. We enjoyed first-class service with large comfortable, reclining chairs and a pretty attendant who hosted a bingo game. It wasn't perfect because, frankly, I thought playing bingo on a bus was weird, the food was terrible, and the beverages were unimaginative–sweet soda, sweet coffee, and sweet tea. However, most importantly, the bus was on time and we arrived safely.

I admit, I was very excited to go on this trip. I love love LOVE! pre-Inca art, particularly art by the Moche. And Chiclayo and Trujillo are abound with their remnants. So, as soon as we stepped off the bus, we headed to Lambayeque, a town 10 km north of Chiclayo, to visit the Museo de Tumbes Reales.

The Museo de Tumbes Reales displays treasures recovered from the royal tombs of two kings from the Moche culture. It is one of the most impressive museums I have visited, not just for its treasures but also for its design, display, and descriptions. The museum itself is built in the form of a pyramid. Replicas of tombs, skeletons and all, are placed inside the museum in locations that correspond to their actual locations in the real royal tomb. There is also a room with life-sized characters from the royal court–king, guards, warriors, wives, children, servants, and dog. Residents from the Chiclayo area were carefully chosen to serve as models and artisans created all the costumes and props using local cotton, wood, and metals.

After two hours, we headed to Túcume, a town 20 km north of Lambayeque. We checked into our hotel, Los Horcones, which is located in the backyard of the Túcume ruins. Los Horcones is a beautiful space. The owner is an architect and designed the rooms himself. We played on the hammocks, strolled the grounds, picked guava (looks like a gigantic green bean with sweet white pulp), and gazed at the Milky Way at night.

















Los Horcones left an impression on me in other ways too. The next morning, I wore shorts to breakfast. Vicious mosquitoes attacked me and in less than 15 minutes I counted 30 bites. It turned out that I was allergic to their venom. The following day all the bites swelled into quarter and half-dollar sized bumps. Now the itchiness and swelling have subsided, but I am left with what look like jumbo hickeys on my legs.

After breakfast, we visited the Túcume ruins, which are a complex of 26 pyramids. The pyramids come in two sizes: big and bigger. This picture shows the Huaca Larga (long pyramid) on the right, another pyramid in the distance, and the Lambayeque Valley (and of course Mimi). Huaca Larga measures 700 meters (2,300 feet) and is the longest adobe structure found to date.

Because the pyramids are constructed from adobe, they looked like mountains that have melted. The Lambayeque culture built Túcume after they mysteriously fled and abandoned another city. Túcume was a sacred ceremonial, burial, and healing site. There is evidence that the Chimú, who conquered the Lambayeque, and Inca, who conquered the Chimú, used Túcume too. However, when the Spaniards arrived, they renamed the complex "Purgatorio" and claimed that it was the gateway to purgatory.

We fled purgatory shortly before noon, ate lunch, and made our way back to Chiclayo to take a bus to Trujillo. The three hour ride down the dessert coast littered with garbage, sand, villages, and ruins was uneventful; we slept through most of it. When we arrived in Trujillo, it was already dark. We ate at a cafe recommended by our guidebook. The food was absolutely awful. Mimi ordered a chicken sandwich and they presented her with a grilled chicken platter. I am sure that if we had sampled the sand on the highway to Trujillo, it would have had more flavor than the chicken, and better texture.

Our hostel was in Huanchaco, a beach town 15 km north of Trujillo. The hostel was guarded by the fattest dog I have ever seen. Yes, she is hairy. But underneath all that hair is fat. Mimi slept in a regular room and Carlos and I rented a tent and reposed in a small camping area. Next time, we plan to bring our own tent and camp on the beach, just a hop and a skip away.

Like Chiclayo, Trujillo is rich with pre-Inca ruins and we were poor on time. After an unsatisfactory breakfast at the hostel, I felt like I had woken up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag and was irritable. (We were the only customers and waited 25 minutes for three cooks to prepare scrambled eggs, coffee, and untoasted bread.)

However, once we arrived in Chan Chan, my exasperation evaporated like humidity in dessert. Chan Chan is an expansive complex of palaces built by the Chimú. (Think of the Chimú as the middle child: Moche, Chimú, Inca.)

Each palace had ceremonial spaces, living quarters, and commerce areas. The Chimú did not have doors or stairs. Instead, they had open portals and ramps. Rooms in the palace connected to each other through a labryinth-like system of long hallways. The layout of the Tschudi Palace, the most well-preserved and restored palace, reminded me a lot of the Forbidden City in Bei Jing. The Tschudi Palace, with 11 major rooms is not even the largest of the palaces. The smallest palace in Chan Chan has eight rooms and the largest has about 30 rooms. So, just imagine a city of Forbidden Cities.

After the death of a Chimú king, his palace was converted into a mausoleum. The mummified body of the king along with human and animal sacrifices, food, ceramics, gold, and other necessities for the afterlife were sealed in the palace, and the succeeding king built, lived, and governed in a new palace.

Chan Chan is so big that it would take a day to visit all the ruined palaces. We had to press on. A taxi dropped us off at the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo. There is a big fountain with a skinny naked man statue on top. Our guidebook suggested that his face resembled Simón Bolívar, the great South American liberator; I thought the man carried the expression of someone who had to pee badly. After a visit to the church and drinks at the fancy Libertador Hotel, we ate ceviche at the nearby Plaza de Recreo.

It had started to drizzle when we arrived at Huaca de la Luna, a Moche ruin 10 km south of Trujillo. Huaca de la Luna contains beautifully painted murals. The Moche worshiped the moon and considered the sun a secondary diety. Because the Moche lived close to the sea and the moon controlled the tides, the moon was important in their lives. Living in the dessert heat, they did not consider a hot sun exactly a boon. For this reason, the Huaca de la Luna was used for religious ceremonies while the nearby Huaca del Sol was an administrative space.
We went back to Trujillo and happened upon an Easter Parade, of sorts. It was Good Friday and the locals were bearing an idol of the dead Jesus through the streets of Trujillo. It was creepy and fascinating.

We followed the crowd for two blocks then ducked into Café El Museo for delicious hot chocolate. The classy and cozy cafe had a wooden bar, antique cash register, leather benches.






Above it is a toy museum, Museo de los Jugetes, with playthings that span time and distance from Western toy cars, teddy bears, and train sets to pre-Inca dolls.

Mimi was tired and went back to the hostel in Huanchaco. I was still hungry so Carlos and I went to a pizza joint recommended by a friend. We ordered pizza with salty anchovies and drank sangria while we waited for our food. Then, we returned to the hostel too. That night, like the night before, we fell asleep to the roar of the ocean.

Bright and early next morning, we exited our hostel, crossed the street, and hit the beach. The water was frigid and the waves were rough and tall–perfect for surfing. We didn't have time for surfing (there were more old things to see) but Carlos managed to get out to sea by signing up for a 10 minute ride on a reed boat. The boats are called Caballitos de Tortora; tortora is the name of the tall reed that grows in the valley.

The locals are trying to promote tourism in Huachaco. Fisherman head out to sea before dawn to catch fish. In the late morning, they mend their boats on the beach and offer rides to tourists to supplement their income. At s/ 5 per ride, it's a pretty good earning; but with so many competing ride-givers, the fishermen don't end up making much. (So they say!)

Our last day in Trujillo and there was one last, must-see museum I wanted to visit: Museo Cassinelli. Located in the basement of a gas station, it contains the largest collection of ceramics in northern Peru. The priceless ceramics were stacked on wooden shelves, protected from inquiring fingers and greedy thieves by wire netting.

Our guide explained the different styles of ceramics: Moche ceramics were sculpted or painted. They came in human, animal, and vegetable shapes, and some depicted diseases like leprosy, cleft lip, amputation, and conjoined twins. Nasca (southern culture contemporary with the Moche in the north) ceramics were painted in many different colors. Etc.

There was a collection of erotic pieces too. Our guide made a point to emphasize that the erotic ceramics were not intended as pornography. They were fertility symbols. (Imagine a Moche man waiting for the arrival of his monthly subscription of ceramics wrapped in brown paper. Well, that didn't happen.)

The erotic collection depicted heterosexual, homosexual, and animal sex, along with plenty of attention-grabbing phalli (apparently, brides drank from those on their wedding night). Sexually transmitted diseases were also represented; there was a vessel showing a man with a rash on his bum and a woman holding her nose to the smelly infection. I asked our guide how homosexual sex is a symbol of fertility when men can't conceive. He explained that conception wasn't important; the sex act was the point.

The end. My desire to behold pre-Inca art had been satisfied. Thoroughly. With the images from the Cassinelli collection vividly imprinted in my memory, like the sharp scent of sweet mandarins, I am happy as a goat.

(oh, right, and I hope my traveling companions had a good time too.)