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1994
Peru (North) - South America
Bec2004-09-20 16:29:15
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Peru
Most of the Ecuadorian coast is covered with rain forest. The Pacific coast gets dryer towards the south and after the Peruvian border, it becomes a desert that stretches almost to Santiago in Chile. Here, between Piura and Chiclayo it is called the Sechura desert.
Chiclayo
Chiclayo is a modern city of little historical or cultural interest. It is however a good place to stay in order to visit the Brunning Museum in the older nearby town of Lambayeque where most of the artefacts discovered in 1987 in an intact Moche tomb near Sipán are kept.
A visit to that museum is really worthwhile. The discovery was considered so important that the National Geographic Magazine described it in its October 98 issue and presented a second article on the 2000 year old Moche Civilisation in its June 1990 issue.
Trujillo
After Chiclayo my friends went east and I came south to lovely colonial Trujillo whose Plaza de Independencia can be seen here.
The banks of the Moche river that flows down from the Andes to the Pacific have been inhabited continuously for 5000 years and are said to hold more than 2000 archaeological sites. The most important of these are the 13th century Chan Chan ruins of the Chimú Civilisation, 5 kms west of Trujillo and two 2500 year old Moche Huacas (adobe brick burial mounds), 5 kms east of the city.
I had a room with bath at the Hotel Sudamericano for 6$ a night.
Chan Chan
The Chimú capital Chan Chan covered an area of 36 square kms with a central area of 6 square kms containing a dozen large compounds, called ciudadelas, surrounded by 30 foot high adobe walls. These citadels were the dwellings of the ruling classes and their courts, each successive ruler building his own new citadel that was maintained by his descendants like those of deceased Incas would later be in
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See photographs from:
Peru Gallery
