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Blog - Jim's Thoughts

Peru Tours and Travel

Suggested Packages / Amazon / Cusco / Lima / Lake Titicaca / Arequipa / Nazca
Trujillo & Chiclayo / Chachapoyas / Trekking / Multisport / Rafting / Biking

Trujillo and Chiclayo Tours

An area of great and diverse interest: elegant Spanish cities like Trujillo and former Indian settlements transformed into quaint towns like Cajamarca, Chiclayo and Piura. Monumental ruins of highly-skilled pre-Inca cultures; CHAN CHAN, KUELAP and a region poised for major tourist development; SIPAN, BATAN GRANDE, HUACA EL BRUJO AND MORO. There are mountain villages with local customs and on the coast, deep-sea fishing, surfing, and the CABALLITOS DE TOTOTO reed rafts at HUANCHACO.

TRUJILLO
The traveler entering Trujillo is delighted with its surrounding greenness against a backcloth of brown Andean foothills and peaks. Founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1536 (and named after his native town in Spain), it still retains many old churches, graceful colonial balconies and windows overhanging its modern pavements of homes built during the reigns of the Viceroys. Besides the Cathedral it has 10 colonial churches as well as convents and monasteries, Trujillo it is also a base to visit Chan Chan, Huaca Arco Iris, Huanchaco, Sican and El Brujo.

CHAN CHAN, HUANCHACO
5km from Trujillo is the imperial city of the CHIMU - the largest adobe city in the world. The ruins consist of nine great compounds built by CHIMU kings. The nine meter high perimeter walls surrounded sacred enclosures with usually one narrow entrance. Inside, serried rows of storerooms contained the agricultural wealth of the kingdom, which stretched 1000km along the coast from near Guayaquil to Paramonga. Huanchaco is a fishing village and it is worth seeing the narrow pointed fishing rafts, known as Caballitos (little horses), made of Totora reeds and used in many places along the Peruvian coast.

CHICLAYO
Was founded in 1560 as a rural Indian village now has a population over 280,000. Chiclayo has a distinctive cuisine and musical tradition (Marinera, Tondero and afro-Indian rhythms), has a beautiful neoclasical Cathedral and a daily market (one of the northern Peru's liveliest) . It is the base to visit Sipan,Pampagrande, Tucume, Bruning Museum and many interesting sites.

Chiclayo can also be the starting point for a visit to the fabulous unexcavated areas os Chachapoyas, home of the "Warriors of the Couds".

SIPAN AND BRUNING MUSEUM
A short distance from Chiclayo rises the imposing complex of Sipan (a Moche word meaning House of the Moon), where excavations since 1987 have brought to light a cache of funerary objects considered to rank among the finest examples of precolumbian art. In the most extravagant Moche tomb discovered (1800 years old), El Senor de Sipan, a priest was found clad in gold; ear ornaments, breast plate, etc. with turquoise and other valuables. A visit to Bruning Museum in Lambayeque is also included. Specializing in Mochica, Lambayeque, Chimu and Vicus cultures, it has a fine collection of Sipan and Lambayeque gold.

TUCUME
About 45km north of Chiclayo lies the archaeological site of TUCUME, ruins of a vast city built over 1000 years ago. A short climb to MIRADOR permits to see an unparellelled panoramic view of 26 major pyramids, platform mounds, walled citadels and residential compounds flanking a ceremonial center and ancient cemeteries.

For more info see Introduction to the Archaeology of the North of Peru
Notes:
- Royal Tombs of Sipan museum is closed on Monday.

Lord of Sipan & Chan Chan

Day 1 Lima - Chiclayo
Upon arrival, transfer to your hotel. Visit the Tomb of the Lord of Sipan. Between 1987 and 1988 the tomb was discovered by the Peruvian archaeologist, Dr. Walter Alva, and he is still in charge of its protection and study. There he found the intact remains of a dignatary, or Lord, of the hierarchy belonging to the Moche Culture. Lunch at local restaurant. Afternoon visit the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum and the Valley of 26 pyramids of Tucume. One of Peru's newest museum the Royal Tombs of Sipan opened in November 2002 to display one of the world's greatest exhibits of historical treasures. The ancient Peruvian ruler The Lord of Sipan has been described as the 'Tutankhamen of the Americas' due to the splendor of the artifacts included in his tomb. Archeologist Walter Alva discovered the Lord of Sipan in 1987 and until now the remains of the ruler of the Moche civilization, and ornate pieces including earrings, headpieces and armor made of gold, silver copper and clay from his and other tombs, have only been seen in temporary shows but never in a permanent site. The new Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum in the northern town of Lambayeque is shaped like a Moche pyramid with fiberglass bricks resembling the original site and no windows, to protect its 1,500 precious pieces from damage.

Day 2 Chiclayo - Trujillo
Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to Trujillo ( 3.5 hours ). On the way you will visit the archaeological site El Brujo. This important Mochica Complex has an area of 2 square kilometers. The discoveries include reliefs that represent scenes of the magical and religious world of the Mochicas.
Pm. Visit Chan Chan. The well planned metropolis of Chan Chan, the ancient capital of the Chimu Empire, was built entirely of mud and adobe bricks. A stop is made at Huaca Dragon ( 4 kilometers north of Trujillo ) to visit this restored, pyramidal, adobe temple consecrated to the rainbow, with beautiful base reliefs and a small archaeological museum. Finally visit Huanchaco, it is a picturesque fishing cove where one can find the ancient craft that appeared on Mochica pottery and on friezes at Chan Chan: the caballitos de totora, rafts woven from the totora reed in an art that has been handed down over generations.

Day 3 Trujillo - Lima
Breakfast at the hotel. Visit the city founded in 1534 where you will see a Cathedral from 1647 and beautiful colonial houses with their typical balconies and patios. After touring the city, we will visit the Casinelli Museum, that exhibits valuable artifacts ( unique of their kind ) of different northern civilizations such as Recuay, Chavin, Moche, Chimu.
Pm. Transfer to the airport.

2010 Price per person in US$:

Trujillo

Day 1 - arrive Trujillo and transfer to hotel. In the afternoon, we'll head south of town to visit the Temples of the Sun and Moon, built by the Moche Culture in around 500 AD. These 130-foot-tall pyramids are thought to be the largest adobe structures in the Americas. The complex sits about three miles inland, southeast of the modern city of Trujillo and is considered by many scholars to be the former capital of the Moche State The complex is dominated by two huge adobe brick buildings: the Pyramid of the Sun, or Huaca del Sol, and the artificial platform called Huaca de la Luna, or Temple of the Moon. On the quarter-mile-wide, open plain between them, researchers have found many graves, most of them looted, as well as evidence of large scale manufacturing covered by a layer of sediment up to 10 feet thick. A considerable number of administrators, religious, and manufacturing specialists must have been living at this great prehispanic settlement. We return to Trujillo to spend the night.

Day 2 - breakfast, then full day tour to Chan Chan and Huanchaco - 5km from Trujillo is the imperial city of the CHIMU - the largest adobe city in the world. The ruins consist of nine great compounds built by CHIMU kings. The nine meter high perimeter walls surrounded sacred enclosures with usually one narrow entrance. Inside, serried rows of storerooms contained the agricultural wealth of the kingdom, which stretched 1000km along the coast from near Guayaquil to Paramonga. Huanchaco is a fishing village and it is worth seeing the narrow pointed fishing rafts, known as Caballitos (little horses), made of Totora reeds and used in many places along the Peruvian coast.

Day 3 - breakfast, then transfer to the airport

2010 Price per person in US$:

Archaeology Tour on the Northern Coast of Peru - 6 days/ 5 nights

Moche Kingdom - 7 Days