Trujillo, Peru

Cool city almost next to the beach with plenty of options for food. It was nice and warm and I even got sunburnt a little on the spot where I missed with the sun cream. The first thing I didn’t when I got to the hotel was jump in the shower and wash my clothes that I was wearing on the bus. Then I booked another full day tour to the Chan Chan complex and the Moche temple of the Moon. ($30 soles, not incl. Entrance fees).

Moche Temple of the Moon.
This was an entire city made out of adobe. There are 2 main sites: Temple of the Sun, which was off limits, and the Temple of the Moon. The Moche culture, at it’s glory between 400AD - 600AD, spanned over the current city of Trujillo and over to 2 mountains in the area.

The main temple is a pyramid made of solid adobe bricks with a flat platform at the top. Surrounding one side coming about halfway, were “rooms” where the priests used to throw sacrifices into. There ranged form food to crafts to pottery. Human sacrifices were made elsewhere. The art on the walls were with colours made form natural materials like plants or minerals. Different from the highland religions, the religious symbols had depictions of felines, snakes and sea animals. Perhaps the current Ripcurl brand of apparel borrowed its logos from some the art… Waves are tha prominent symbol.

In another area, not the temple, there are five layers of residence. They think that when one overlord died, the new one build another one on top. Another site close by had 11. All along the walls were paintings of warriors and priests and religious symbols in bright yellow, red, blue and black. Most bordered by waves.

There were no stairs to the original buildings. They used ramps, which may imply wheel technology, however, as they have no proof yet of that, it is all still speculation. This site is sponsored by various companies and the local university students are able to work on excavation the areas. Smart.

From the top of the solid pyramid, you can see the adobe remains of the city. They are only one story high and only some of the walls are still standing. Originally, they were painted in yellow and red, so imagine kilometres upon kilometres of red and yellow residences and shops almost illuminating the area with the bright colours. Natural weather phenomena’s caused the culture to move. They think the next culture that evolved was the one at the Chan Chan complex.

* Side Note. Hairless dogs. There were some residential dogs that lived on the complex. They only had a bit of hair on their tails an on their feet. Their skin was black, hot to the touch and had a leathery feel. Must be one of the ugliest animals I’ve ever seen. They’re about the size of a small golden retriever, minus the hair, of course. I think the only thing worse could be those hairless cats, and only because they’re cats.

The Chan Chan Complex

To quote my rather incorrect guide book, “Chan Chan was the capital city of the Chimu Empire, an urban civilization which appeared on the Peruvian coast around 1100 AD. By 1450, when the Chumu Empire stretched from the Rio Zarumilla in the north to the Rio Chancay in the south and covered 40,000 square kilometres, Chan Chan was the centre of a chain of provincial capitals. They were all gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire between 1460 and 1480.”

It is another city made out of adobe bricks but this culture used the mud for decoration as well. Fishnet styled patterns about 1 foot x 1 foot protrude from most of the walls like little cubby holes. The images were carved out of mud, making it 3D, and then painted. There was even a man-made rectangular lake built inside the complex. It took us one hour to go through the whole thing and this was only one temple. An area, for taxes and administration, of rooms and store rooms, mainly intact, spanned, it seemed for an entire square kilometre. No stairs either. All ramps. Fine for me and my 1.5 knees. The walls were, at the base, formed with bigger stones with adobe bricks built on top in a triangular fashion. Seismic technology. Very cool.

After Chan Chan, the tour bus took us t the beach close by. Not overly crowded and very laid back. I had to test the water. I walked down to the sandy beach, which was mostly devoid of pebbles, and let the wave splash onto my feet. With a yelp, I scampered away from the cold Pacific water.

That evening, I had more ceviche with an Argentine History professor I met on the tour. Can’t remember his name. Between his broken English and my broken Spanish, we managed to have interesting conversation. He lives in a neighbourhood in BA that I had never visited. Like the Mike in Cusco, he also asked me the same questions a few times. I’m assuming that words were lost in translation rather than him being too drunk to remember.