Huanchaco, Peru (October 13-14th)

Huanchaco is another small town on the coast of Peru. It is about a half hour from Trujillo which is one of the larger cities in Peru.

On our first day we were pretty tired from our night bus so did not get up too much. Court and I walked to the main part of town and along the beach a little. There are lots of traditional grass boats everywhere that fishermen still use. We found a cute cafe called Chocolate that was a big hit with the Brit's in our group as they were able to have scones for breakfast and proper English tea! I think we must have visited three or four times during our two day stay.

On the second day our group got picked up and taken to Trujillo to start our tour of some pre-Incan ruins. First we visited the temple of the moon and a museum that has been made for all the artifacts found in it. We also saw a few Incan dogs. They are a very old, purebred breed used by the Incans. They are hairless and really quite ugly! When the Incans went into the mountains they would have to put sweaters on the dogs. The temple was quite large and still had the original color on all the paintings. Interestingly, after the burial of a chief in the palace the mochi tribe would completely cover the whole place again in clay and they start fresh, adding another level to the temple. So now there are layers and layers to uncover. Seems like a lot of work...

Next we had a quick lunch in Trujillo (including traditional dance entertainment) and then visited the Rainbow pyramid named for the colors that it used to be painted in. A large portion of the pyramid had been completely restored so we were not as impressed with it.

Next we visited chan-chan which is an ancient Moche tribe civilization. The area that was settled was quite a huge city area so we only toured one of the nine palaces in it. Most impressive was the sheer size of the palace, built entirely out of adobe. Again, a lot of the ruins had been completely restored so were not very authentic looking.

When we got back we went out for another English tea and then dinner to kill time before our night bus.

The night bus to Lima was amazing! Nicer than the flights we took to get here! Our group was all very impressed by the reclining seats, foot pad, pillow, blanket, dinner, breakfast and juice provided. The 9 hour drive went by very quickly!

-Lisa

Picture 1 - Grass boats in Huanchaco
Picture 2 - Chan-Chan ruins
Picture 3 - the Temple of the Moon
Picture 4 - Incan dog