Trip To Trujillo & Hanging In Huanchaco

We were all very sad to leave lovely Mancora, and it was made even worse by the fact that we were catching a night bus to Trujillo. The main benefit is that you can sleep for the majority of the trip and next thing you know you are at your destination. The main downer is that thieves are rampant as our group found out.

Two of our Aussie girls had stuff stolen from their daypacks (makes a change from the convict Aussies stealing stuff), namely a passport, a credit card, a camera and an MP3 player. Needless to say Merryn, who had her passport and credit card stolen, wasn't in a particularly good state after this and I think the rest of the group also felt pretty crappy over the whole incident. Simon found out once we got to Trujillo that his iPod had been knicked from his day pack too. Our guide, Kike, was very helpful over the thefts and police reports were the order of the day when we arrived in Trujillo. I was lucky as my bag was padlocked, but it made me feel pretty bad as I was sitting in the aisle seat next to Merryn when her stuff got nicked.

I didn't have such a great sleep on the bus so a early morning nap and a big rest day was on the cards for me after when arrived at out hotel in Huanchaco, which is a seaside town 15 minutes from Trujillo. The main attractions are the nearby Chan Chan ruins as well as the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

Chan Chan was built by the Chimu people who inhabited the area in the 11th/12th century (from memory). They were eventually conquered by the ubiquitous Incas. In fact Chan Chan is a series of different palaces, nine in total, built by the various Chimu rulers. We visited one particular palace named the Tschudi palace, named after the Swiss dude who discovered it. The ruins were quite interesting and were made out of this sand looking brick. The palace housed the ruler, had a major religious function (as there were heaps of temples), and also at the centre was the tomb of the ruler who had built the palace and he was buried along with two of his concubines. The concubines argued their case about how useful there were to the deceased king, and the two most useful were then drugged up and buried alive. Apparantly it was an honour for them, in my opinion I would have preferred to have been a useless concubine! All in all the ruins were quite impressive and it was interesting to learn about a culture other than the Incas for a change. The Chimu lived near the sea so thir big thing was sea life, especially pelicans and sea otters, and many of the patterns on their architecture were of fish and crab nets. Hopefully you can see some of this in the pictures below.

After Chan Chan a short taxi ride to the other side of Trujillo brought us to the Temples of the Sun and Moon. These were built by the Moche people who predated the Chimu by about four centuries. Due to financial constraints of the project, only the Temple of the Moon has been excavated and conserved and it is this temple that we had the tour of. The temple is in fact about five different temples built on top of each other. Each temple was presided over by three priests, and once the last priest died a new temple was built over the top. The priests were all buried in the temple that they presided over. The result of this is that the whole ruin looks like a step pyramid. The Moche were big into their human sacrifice and at the temple many captured male prisoners were executed and their blood sprinkled over the land to increase fertility. Oh yeah, the priests also had a little sip too. I can see why they were into their fertility rituals because the land around here is pretty dry and barren. I much preferred these ruins as they had been preserved in their original condition as opposed to Chan Chan which was being restored. Check out the nice artwork below, unfortunately my camera battery died so I never got a photo of the Temple of the Moon, but there is a picture of the Temple of the Sun for your viewing pleasure.