Another early rising. This time to start our tour of the city itself. We began with a delicious breakfast at the hotel, and then it was off to the PromPeru office in Trujillo, not far at all from our hotel since it’s located on the Main Square. We met with the representative and took some pictures together with him, and then Yolanda said we had to start since we were going on a walking t our. Unluckily for us, the weather decided not to cooperate. It was drizzling, damp, and a little chilly. Brrr. We chose to brave the elements anyway.
Yolanda led us around the Main Square first and explained what each building was. Lovely architecture and vivid colors, even on this gray morning. She told the history of each and even provided architectural details. She certainly knows a lot on these subjects. We saw a couple of mansions (Casa Urquiaga and Casa Bracamonte) plus the city hall. In the middle of the square is a massive monument erected in honor of Liberty. Trujillo is the capital of the department of La Libertad and was the first city to declare its independence from Spain. The square is also a pedestrian mall. No cars allowed, so it’s safe and calm as well.
Our next stop was the cathedral. After a brief tour, we took off down some side streets that are lined with houses built during the Spanish Colony and whose windows are covered with ornate grills and bars or that feature enclosed, wooden balconies. We then found our way to two important landmarks: the Casa de la Emancipacion and the Iturrequi Palace, both built during what is known as the Republican Era and perfectly preserved, like time capsules, so we felt as if we had stepped back in time some two hundred years.
The walking tour had just ended, and Yolanda whisked us off to see more archeological ruins but this time from a culture called the Chimu. We were told they lived in this area from 850 A.D. to 1440 A.D., when they were defeated by the Incas. The first one was the Pyramid of the Rainbow, but the more important site was the mud city of Chan Chan. It’s the largest of its kind in the Americas, measuring some 20 km2. The Chimu built 10 large chambers within the city, and the walls are huge: 3 meters thick by 11 meters high, and we are guided through the best preserved. Unfortunately, Chan Chan sits right next to the Pacific Ocean, so the salt air has really eroded the mud walls. Our trek through this ancient city takes us to a large plaza, a small, interior pond from which the Chimu got their fresh water, storehouses, more huge walls, and some pyramid shaped temples. It’s all kind of disorienting, like a labyrinth rather than a city.
The Chimu decorated the walls of their city with reliefs: geometric shapes, birds, and fish. Pretty incredible. Overall, we are amazed at Chan Chan. It doesn’t look like much when you are driving towards it, just a bunch of mud walls in the midst of the desert and next to the sea, but when you get inside and see everything it is hiding and realize it has been standing here for hundreds of years, you are pretty much left speechless. Then, there is the ceaseless voice of the sea ever in the background. Yolanda tells us that legend has it the Chimu came from over the sea, possibly from Asia.
OMG! I just took a picture of something out of a Chimu legend… a Peruvian hairless dog. It easily could be one of the creatures we saw on the walls of Chan Chan.
All that walking and sightseeing has famished us, so Yolanda tells us we were going to eat some of the best seafood Peru has to offer at Huanchaco Beach. How far, we asked, because we couldn’t last much longer without food. 12 kilometers. That’s good. And worth the wait. The fish was excellent, and we ate something called causa de cangrejo, a mashed potato cake stuffed with crabmeat. We were also served Peruvian white wine. As we ate, we looked out upon this beach and saw the lovers strolling by hand in hand and the surfers braving the rough waves.
A quaint custom of this place is the “caballito de totora”, a canoelike boat fashioned with reeds that local fisherman still use daily to go out to sea and fish. It is an old custom, hearkening back to the time of the Moches, and the techniques haven’t changed much either: e arly morning cast off to place nets, return to the beach to wait for the fish, and then an afternoon launch to bring in the catch. You can see the picture we took and imagine how hard it would be to handle such a boat. The pilot has to kneel down in prow. Poor knees!
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