Peru Revisited - 1st stop Trujillo

Bus from Villcabamba to Trujillo, 13 October 2007
Trujillo, Peru, 14 - 15 October 2007

We eventually arrived in Trujillo (Peru) mid afternoon having left Vilcabamba at 7.45pm the previous evening! We were shattered, it was a case of find somewhere to stay, get something to eat, hit the sack. Not too impressed with Trujillo, the next morning we went in search of a bus to take us to Huaraz. It´s a real pain in the neck in some Peruvian cities where there isn´t a central bus station but instead each bus company has there own office & these can be spread over the city. We stumbled upon Linea, a good quality operator, and booked semi-cama seats on the overnight bus for the following evening.

We ate in the Chelsea Pub which was about as English as a kangaroo... well the restaurant part was anyway. Whilst out & about we organised a full day tour to visit the various archaeological sites in the area, booked a flight (Lima to Cusco) at the LAN Office for 28 Oct and Claire got a new pair of sunspecs. All in all a very successful afternoon!

The following morning we found our minibus successfully and waited to commence our tour of Huaca de la Luna, Huaca del Sol & Chan Chan. As we waited, Ben and Hanna walked past, so again we arranged to meet for dinner later!

Huaca del Sol is a giant adobe (mud brick) pyramid. As there are no internal passageways or chambers you simply admire it from the outside. Huaca de la Luna is very different and very interesting. It is a temple, that is built on a temple, that is built on a temple...and so on. When it came time to build a new temple the Moche (as the civilisation is called) would simply go out 5 meters or so from the external walls , fill in the rooms of the temple below, and build up again. Following the excavation/archaeological work it is amazing to see each progressively smaller temple in the ground.

Following lunch we visited Chan Chan, the most famous archaeological site in this part of Peru. Chan Chan was built by the Chimu civilisation, who were descendants of the Moche, and was the capital of their empire. It is a huge elaborately planned adobe city. We contented ourselves with visiting one of their 8 or 9 temples (apparently they are all very similar). Following the tour we stopped off in the seaside town of Huanchaco. While it was nice to walk along the promenade the place was a bit too Blackpoolesque for us. Following another very pleasant meal with Ben and Hanna, we hopped on our overnight bus. This was the 1st bus journey, we've taken, where we had to provide fingerprints before we boarded the bus! At least LINEA are security conscious!