Where we last left off, we had just taken an overnight bus to Trujillo. We decided to bed down in the beach resort town just outside the town named Huanchaco. We checked into a nice hostel right off the beach and reveled in the silence of this little surfing town in the off season. Most mornings began with an overcast sky with a cool breeze but we would often get a sunny sky in the afternoon. We liked it so much that we decided to make this a base for the remainder of Mom's trip outside of Lima. From this base we were able to explore three different archeological gems in the area.
There are three big archeological sites near Trujillo. The first we visited was Chan Chan. This place is the remains of a huge city completely made of adobe. Nowadays its in a pretty sad state, most of the walls have melted away due to rain (mostly El Nino effect rain since Trujillo is still a desert). However, archeologists have been able to discover a lot about the culture from what remains. The most interesting thing about the Chimu people was that every ruler built his own palace complex from scratch. When they died, they buried the king (and his whole court) inside and then shut the place up and moved to a new palace. Mom of course was in heaven. We hired a great guide and she pummeled him with questions during the whole tour.
The next big site was close by but of a different culture. It was called Huaca de la Luna and its culture was the Moche. These people were older and they preferred to rebuild their temples on top of each, rather than start from scratch. This is a boon to archeologists though because the newer temples on top keep the older temples very well preserved. The Huaca de la luna (translated means “temple of the moon”) was the religious center of the Moche people and was the place they would do their sacrifices (sometimes human) to ward off the El Nino floods. The current theory is that a particularly bad El Nino happened and the sacrifices didn't work to stop the floods and people got disillusioned with the rulers and they lost their power.
The third site was actually not that close but we opted instead for a day trip to see the famous Lord of Sipan. This place is a Moche site where they discovered a burial of a king in such opulence that it rivals that of the more famous King Tut in Egypt. Walking through the excellent museum translating all the signs for Mom (we were proud we could do this) was quite an experience. They set it up kind of like how they discovered the tomb layer by layer. We were blown away by the amount of gold and the amazing artifacts they found. Unfortunately we were unable to take any pictures with our camera so you'll just have to take our word that it was awesome. We do have pictures from a smaller museum and the actual site:
Suzanne being amazed:
Artifact found in the tomb:
The trip to see this site and museum was quite an adventure. First off, we forgot that we needed passports to get on a three hour bus ride up to the city of Chiclayo. So that set us back by an hour and a half on a very long day trip. Once we arrived we hired a taxi for going to the museum and the actual site outside the city and got going. Our deadline was 5pm when the site would close and the area around it would start getting dangerous. After spending longer than expected on the great museum, it was 2:30pm and we decided to skip lunch and head out to the actual site. Our taxi driver extracted a couple more dollars out of us since we were at the museum so long but we agreed on a new price and we began the trip out to the huaca. He took us east and of course within minutes we were on a dirt road bumping bumping inland. On either side of us rose up sugar cane plants from seemingly endless sugar-cane plantations. As the minutes ticked on and we could see nothing except more sugar-cane we started to get worried that our cab driver was taking us out in the middle of nowhere to rob and kill us. We managed to stay calm and keep telling ourselves that our guide book had told us it was about an hour outside the city but fear is definitely not that rational... After what seemed like ages though, we saw a bit pile of melted adobe rise out of the horizon and breathed a sigh of relief. We were going to live after all! We had only about 45 minutes at the site before we hit 5pm and it was time to get going. The taxi driver decided to try another road back to the city due to the previous road being very terrible (unmaintained pavement IS worse than just a dirt road). He then proceeded out and before we knew it we were back on the road, but something was wrong. We were headed south and east and the city was west and north. I kept asking him if he was sure we were going the right way and he kept saying yes, but when we definitely started heading east and the road went as far as the eye could see east, I convinced him to ask for directions from a (luckily) passing moto-taxi. The taxi confirmed we were going the wrong way and he generously told us to follow him and so we did and got back to the city just as the sun was setting and things got too dangerous. After a three hour bus ride back to Trujillo we were just glad to be alive and safe once again!
Surfing
With all our archeological sites done and visited we had the next couple of days to relax before heading back to Lima to drop Mom off at the airport. Since we were staying in a surfing village of course we had to try it out! I've always wanted to know how to surf and we had the time so I took my first surfing lesson. It was great! The place we went to guaranteed you'd stand up on your first lesson and that I did. It turns out that they make this guarantee because they end up giving you the proper push right when the wave is coming so all you have to do is stand up. Even though it felt a little like cheating, I have to admit that it was nice at first to just focus on standing on a moving board. I can understand the reason people like surfing because the rush you get on actually riding a wave towards shore is quite exhilarating. It is also a lot of exercise! You have to use your arms to paddle out to sea so every foot you travel on the wave that's a foot you have to paddle back. I did just fine for about 1.5 hours, but after that my shoulders were mush.
We waited one more day before trying again, this time I had convinced Suzanne that she also should take a lesson and so we went back. However, while Suzanne did great on her first lesson, my shoulders were still sore and quickly returned to their mush-like state. Since I was at the point of trying to catch my own wave I needed those muscles to respond but they just wouldn't! In the end though, it was a ton of fun.
Exhausted Mike:
Suzanne surfing it up:
Finally it was time to head back to Lima. One overnight bus trip later and we were there with a day or two to spare before Mom's flight. We used these days to hit some of the national museums that were located in Lima. Of these the most strange one was the exhibit of erotic pottery! It was really weird to see thousand year old pottery with people engaged in all sorts of sexual acts as well as pottery of venereal disease and the like. Then there was the very strange figures of skeletons engaged in acts with living people... Very weird. Consider this a disclaimer and warning for the pictures on my public albums!
Artifacts and gold!
Birdman:
Finally we had to take Mom to the airport. We had a ton of fun with her and really enjoyed having her around to share some of her knowledge on all these sites. She is also the easiest person to travel with. She left all decision making up to us and told us that whatever we decided was fine with her. She didn't care when we wanted to eat pizza or just hang out a day reading in our room. Nor did she complain when we picked hotels that had all night parties going on next door. She just went with the flow and had a great time. So thanks Mom!
~Mike
ps. Since Mom wanted to remember a lot of information and use it for her class planning (she's a professor at Baylor) we took a ton of pictures of museums artifacts and information cards at the museums. So our public albums will hold a ton more pictures than we usually put up there. If you're interested in learning about these things too though, hopefully you'll find it interesting.
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