Our trip to Trujillo

Chan Chan

Temple of the Moon

Huanchaco beach with boats used by local fisherman

Marinera dance

Huanchaco Beach

We arrived on Monday afternoon and decided to stay in a small beach town outside of Trujillo called Huanchaco. This town was on all of the tourist maps to visit and people we talked to said it was a very nice place so why not stay there instead of the big city. When we arrived we got our hotel room and just walked up and down the beach, it really was beautiful.

Day 1 (Tuesday)
We took a 20 minute bus ride ($0.50 each) to Trujillo and did a nice walking tour of the main plaza. It was nice but nothing spectacular because it was very typical, a lot of big churches. Johanna and I like to see the churches but they all start to look alike so we move pretty quickly through them. Even still, it was a beautiful day and the police shut the plaza streets so there were no cars or horns and it was a very peaceful afternoon. After the tour we took a short taxi ride to a Peruvian Paso Fino horse stable just outside of town to watch a horse show. Everyday day at 1:30pm this stable has a show were they perform the national dance of Peru, Marinera, with a paso fino. After the show Johanna was talking to the announcer and he went on and on about how much he loved Peru and what he did and they both started to get a little choked up. The show was that amazing. After that we headed back to Huanchaco and spent the afternoon and evening on the beach. We ate dinner, drank a few beers and went to bed.

Day 2 (Wednesday)
We went back to Trujillo and took a tour of the two main archeological sites in the area, Temple of the Moon and Chan Chan. The Temple of the Moon was a temple that was used for sacrifices to the mountain gods by the Moche people who lived from about 100AD to 800AD and their demise is said to be from floods caused by El Niño. They built 5 different temples over the years, one on top of another, and you can see all of the layers with the original colors used to decorate the walls. We were able to watch some of the archeologists work as they were cleaning the old clay stuck to a wall to reveal the colors used for decorations. With the size of this humungous wall my first tool of choice for this job would have been a pressure washer but they took a different approach. They were using a syringes with needles and injecting a chemical that would slowly break away the clay while preserving the color underneath. It was really amazing. The next place was Chan Chan which was the capital of the Chimu Empire which lasted from about 800AD to 1470AD when the Incas conquered them. Every time a new king came into power they would build a new palace so there are many different palaces in this city. There is only one that has been excavated and that is only half true. The archeologists have been excavating this one palace for over 40 years and they have only completed half, just to give you an idea of the size of this place. It was very damaged due to the rains caused by El Niño and the archeologist doing an amazing job preserving the site. As amazing as Chan Chan sounded in the books we are very glad we went to the Temple of the Moon because it was far more interesting. After the tours we were exhausted and head for the hotel.

Day 3 (Thursday)
The worst day ever, not just on this trip but I think in my entire life. I got sick from some food that I ate but luckily I had Johanna to take care of me because I do not think I would have made it. It was a very long day and night but we pulled through together and made it through with very little sleep. Luckily our only plans for this day were to walk around Huanchaco and enjoy the town and since we had down this a little bit each day we did not miss much.

Day 4 (Friday)
We rolled out of bed at 4am to catch our flight home and after a few complications we finally made it back to Lima. Our first stop was the hospital where I got some good drugs.

It is Sunday now and I am finally getting back to normal. Overall all we had a great time and have a lot of good memories.