Lanikai Underway

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Saturday, 14 July, we scheduled a taxi to take us to visit the nearby ruin site of Pachacámac. The site contains ruins from at least three successive groups of people before the Spaniards arrived to take it over from the Incas. Most of the site is just covered in mounds of sand with a few obvious adobe blocks sticking out. We first passed by the partially excavated ruins of the oldest residence discovered at the site. Now with a guide and our taxi driver still driving, we continued up the small hill to the Temple of the Sun. This structure is from the Inca era and is a large pyramid with a stone base and higher up adobe block construction. Originally it was capped by cane and adobe walls and roofs. We climbed to the highest existing level and enjoyed a 360-degree view around the valley, the Pacific Ocean to the west, green fields and rivers to the south and dry hills to the north and east (along with some modern settlements). Back down off the high point we visited the Palace of the Chosen Women. This structure has been about 70% reconstructed. This area is also Inca and had been used as a sort of convent for girls. The girls were raised here and trained to work in the temples and palaces of the rulers and priests. It contains several pools, gardens, work areas and living areas. The last area that we checked out at Pachacámac was a palace not far from the girls school. Only one of the courtyards has been excavated and could be looked into from the road. The plaza haa a ramp connecting it to an upper level indicating pre-Inca origin, as the Incas always built stairs.

Pachacámac had been in continuous use as a religious center since the first century AD up to when the Spanyards arrived. They did much destruction to the site in their search for gold. More destruction was later caused by grave robbers up until in recent years when the area was brought under some government protection.

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Wednesday, July 11, we took an early bus from Trujillo – it is 8 hours to Lima, the capital of Peru. The PanAmerican Highway south of Trujillo follows close to the coast as the Andes mountains crowd close to the Pacific Ocean. We were still traveling thru the desert with areas of sand forming dunes right up to the base of the hills but we also crossed small rivers where the desert blooms. The taxi driver from the bus station into the city center helped us to find a great hotel near Plaza San Martin, the room even has a heater and at $20 per night was a great bargan. It is winter here now and quite cold and cloudy.

Thursday was spent exploring the old city center. A walking street connects Plaza San Martin to the central plaza, Plaza de Armas. Along the way we passed the first of the three churches that we visited over the day, Iglesia La Merced. The church was open and Doreen took a photo of the main altar, also some of the many side altars were just as beautiful but difficult to get far enough away to get good photos. Some were elaborately carved wood and others were gilded gold as was the main altar.

The main plaza (Plaza de Armas) was another block further down the street. The Cathedral fronts the plaza along one side and that was the next church that we visited. It is a very large structure and the nave is lined with not only altars but many small alcoves or small chapels. Photos were allowed so I took pictures of all that I could. Below the main altar were the catacombs, the burial site of many of the important religious officials. The most recent tomb was in 2000, the latest Archbishop to die. The carvings on the altar, pulpit, choir, lectern and main altar were intricate and very beautiful. The many, side alcoves also had beautiful large altars, all different. The first one that we stopped in had murals all over its walls done in a mosaic of tiny tiles.

The third church that we visited was Iglesia San Francisco (an active monastery) where we had a guided tour and no os were allowed. The guide led us thru the choir loft from which we could look down into the nave of the main church, the monk’s library with its large collection of very old books, some from before printing, the monk’s dining room where the current monks still take meals, one of the many gardens or plazas of the monastery and down into the catacombs. The catacombs contain the bones of over 25,000 people who had been buried there before the outside cemetery was developed. An archaeologist, while counting the bones, had re-arranged them into decorative groupings placing together all the bones of the same type. It was really weird!!

From San Francisco we continued around the block to the “Park of the Wall”. This park contains uncovered remnants of the original wall that once enclosed the city and parts of some of the homes that had once been built over it. We lunched at a small cafe in the park before returning of the main plaza. The main plaza has the governor’s mansion along one side and the City Hall along another, all highly beautiful.

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Monday, July 9, we visited the two major archeological sites near Trujillo: “Huacas de la Luna and del Sol”, and “Chan Chan”. We were picked up at the hotel just after 10AM for the tour of the sites and were driven into Trujillo by an interesting taxi driver with interesting coments along the way. We met the rest of the tour group at the Plaza Mayor and were off to visit the large pyramid of Huaca de la Luna. This is an active excavation site. The large adobe pyramid structure contains many layers of prior pyramids and their temples. Like many other of the pre-Columbian ceremonial centers that we have visited in Mexico and Central America, one pyramid is buried inside a newer one, over and over again with the most recent on top. Here there are about 90 years between the layers, each representing a new ruling group. Here the pyramids are of adobe mud bricks (unlike the Aztec and Mayan ruins that are always of stone). Much artwork and exterior decorations in the lower levels were preserved buried in the mud that washed down from the upper layers in the infrequent desert rains. Even some of the decorations on the outer layers were protected under sand that blew in after the pyramids were abondoned. Richly colored murals and wall decorations have been uncovered including many levels on the facade of one side of the structure. Excavations are still continuing here and they are starting to unbury the large city hidden under the desert sand at the pyramid’s base and continuing to the other pyramid at the site, Huaca del Sol. This second pyramid in not being excavated at present and looks like a large mud hill growning out of the desert sand.

We returned to Trujillo for lunch before continuing on to the second site, Chan Chan. After lunch we continued toward the coast to visit the largest adobe mud city ever built. During it’s prime, over 100,000 Chimu people (pre-Inca) lived here. As we approached the site we could see the remains of adobe walls on both sides of the road stretching out into the distance. We first visited Huaca Dragon. It is a partially restored pyramid with no active digging going on at present. The lower parts of some of the outer walls show raised designs that had been protected in the mud until uncovered by the archeologists. The paint was missing but they had found enough to show that the pyramid had once been painted yellow. We continued on to the small museum where we spent little time as it contains few artifacts. Moving on thru the mud city we visited the one (out 9 known) palace in the city that has been opened to tourists. The palace itself covers a large area and is surrounded by a thick adobe wall over 10 meters tall. Inside are passages leading to inner and more inner courtyards ending in the far interior at a large tomb. The tomb was surrounded by 44 smaller ones and all had contained riches; pottery, jewelry, cloths, copper, gold and silver artifacts and other riches. All had been sacked by grave robbers long before the modern archeologists arrived. Also inside the palace was a large cistern which tapped the underground water. One of the black hairless dogs (that is a decendent of the pre Columbian ones) was swimming in the pool. Doreen got several photos of the dog. Some of the walls of the courtyards and housing area were decorated with reliefs and had been protected, again by the washed-down mud and sand. Representations of birds, fish, water and the sky were visible as well as some simple geometric designs.

It was a very interesting day and we returned to Huanchaco after 6PM, very tired but in time to have a beer and watch the sunset.

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Thursday July 5, we moved on further south to Trujillo. The bus ride was only 4 hours long, continuing thru the desert. South of Chiclayo there are many more small villages and farm plots than north of the city; everywhere that small rivers descend from the Andes, the desert blooms. At the bus station in Trujillo we managed to avoid the mob of taxi drivers while collecting our luggage. With our bags in hand we selected a taxi to take us to the fishing village of Huanchaco. We had him drop us off by the pier and Doreen waited with our packs while Bill searched out a room. We have a nice size room at “Hostal Los Esteros” overlooking the beach, just across the street from it. We watched some of the reed boats coming back in thru the surf before heading downstairs for a late lunch/dinner.

We spent the next two days relaxing and enjoying the slower beach atmosphere. On Sunday July 8, we took a morning combi (a van-sized “bus”) into the city of Trujillo itself. The driver dropped us off near the long distance bus terminals. After checking on bus lines to Lima, we walked to the central plaza, taking photos of the interesting colonial architecture along the way. Many of the buildings have lace-like grillwork on their windows and there are several types of hanging balconies on others. We stopped at Iglesia San Francisco and were between services, so got to view the interior with its many large altars. The main altar is gold but there are others along each side of the nave – some just as intricate and large as the main one! We exited the church by a side door and the women were selling tamales to raise funds for a mission. Bill and I purchased two that we enjoyed on a nearby park bench. Real tamales again!! The were very delicious. We went inside the Cathedral on the Plaza Mayor but a service was in progress so we only got a peek.

Following another street from the plaza, we looked into Hotel America. It is a very old colonial hotel and in its day was quite elegant, but is quite run down now. The desk clerk let us look around inside – not a place that we would choose to stay, but interesting to see. Following the road further brought us to a small park with a saved section of the ruins of the old colonial-era water system that brought water to the city for the many gardens – but drinking water for the residences came from private wells in each home.

We caught a taxi at the main plaza back to Huanchaco, 10 Soles or about $3 US for the ride. We arrived back in town in time to enjoy a cold beer at an upstairs restaurant overlooking the beach and pier. After two cold days at the beach the sun finally made its appearance, warming up the area just a bit.

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On July 1 we moved on to Chiclayo. It was a three hour bus ride thru the Sechura Desert. The road passed thru mostly a flat sand desert with scattered desert trees and occasional sand dunes. We were “attacked” by a taxi driver as soon as we exited the bus. He followed us inside the terminal as we checked on onward bus schedules. We asked to be taken to the central plaza but, per ususal, he ferried us around to several hotels until we found one to our liking (all for just 2 Soles, about $0.75).

On Monday July 2, we splurged and paid $45 for the taxi to transport us to the two major ruin sites in the area, Sipán and Túcume. Sipán is the site of two main adobe pyramids with at least 12 royal burials hiding in them. The tombs date from 1 AD and active excavation is still ongoing. Many treasures have been uncovered in these tombs. We watched the diggers at four sites, one of which appeared to be the top level of another tomb. It contained recently uncovered skeletons and pottery. Túcume is also the site of active digging, but we were not allowed close to the digs. Túcume is the remains of a very large adobe city and we climbed up on a hill (Cerro Purgatorio) for a look over the site – which was quite impressive. Visiting these two sites took all day and left us quite exhausted.

On Tuesday we visited the museums in Lambayeque. There are two museums, one contains older finds including objects from Túcume and other nearby sites. The second museum is new and contains many marvelous items found in the royal tombs of Sipán. Viewing the two museums took much of the day. There are many gold, silver and copper pieces (large ear rings, banners, masks and many trinkets), lots of huge collar necklaces (containing many tiny shell beads that had been carefully reconstructed layer after layer as they had been removed form the tomb), pieces of cotton fabric, and lots and lots of pottery to see in the Sipàn Museum. This museum is one of the richest in artifacts that we have seen.

The city of Lambayeque also had some interesting colonial buildings near the central plaza, one of which is reported to have the longest balcony in South Ameirca. Casa Montjoy is the name given to this once-rich colonial home, but today it is falling apart (although restoration is just beginning). We got to walk thru the basically empty building and view the adobe construction with its very thick walls.