North Coast of Peru
After leaving Chaparri, we spent a couple of days in Chiclayo (a relatively new city, that was noisy, busy and not very pretty) visiting ruins and museums. My favorite museum - in all of Peru - was of the "Lord of Sipan". This was of a rare tomb that had not been plundered, and was phenomenal in its beauty and extent of artifacts. It is a new museum built in 2002 (very rare for Peru), and very well organized. We hired an English speaking guide, who proceeded to give us amazing details for 2 hours. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures, but I'm including this in the blog, in case anyone goes to Peru. Chiclayo is about an hour north of Lima by air. Here's a link to a very short (less than 2 min) video on the J. Paul Getty Museum site, if you wanted to see just one of the pieces: http://www.getty.edu/art/mobile/center/golden/stop.php?id=357267
The archaeological sites we visited were Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon). A long time ago, Steve had read about an ancient civilization north of Lima, so we went to check the area out. Unfortunately Chan Chan wasn't a very detailed site or tour, but the carvings in adobe were interesting to see. It was built over 1200 years ago.
The large latticework signified fish nets. The birds on the right, in a line, pointed the way to the exit. Apparently, the corridors in the temple were quite maze-like, and the ancient people needed signage! The birds with the crosses for eyes were depictions of pelicans.
This way out...
Peruvian hairless dog
Huaca de la Luna was gorgeous, and amazing that these murals were still so vibrant after 12 centuries!
This wall was extraordinarily tall, and was built outside (or over) the pre-existing pyramid wall. There were multiple levels of carving and painting, depicting various gods and priests:
We spent a couple of days in Trujillo - not too exciting - before heading to the beach at Huanchaco. It was quite disappointing. The sand was brown, the beach was very narrow and rock filled, and the tiny town was half torn up for street repairs. The weather sucked too. We got a great sunset picture, and now we'll be heading home. Thanks for reading...
