C & C globetrotting around the world…

After 20 hours on the bus and 950km later, we finally arrived in Trujillo, Peru. We left at 9pm in Cuenca and arrived the next day in northern Peru’s largest city. The border formalities, performed in the middle of the night, were the weirdest ones we’ve ever been through. We arrived in Piura around 8am and were dropped off at the bus company’s terminal from where we had to take a taxi to the other bus company’s terminal. Very strange arrangement. At this bus terminal we bought our tickets to Trujillo on a semi-fancy bus. It turns out it was a good decision as it was very comfortable. Our seats were reclining, we had a toilet, A/C, DVD and even got breakfast and lunch. As we crossed over the border, the landscape changed dramatically. The fact that the roads were now straight was nice, but it was all surrounded by desert. There was lots of garbage lying around everywhere, it was dusty and we felt like in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. We passed through many ugly mud hut towns or piles of old mud bricks everywhere. It felt kind of depressing, on top of the fact that we were tired. We arrived in Trujillo and walked to our hostel.

We were extremely tired, but figured that if we went to bed now, it would be too difficult to wake up later to walk around. The town didn’t seem nice until we reached the big “Plaza de Armas” which has a few nice colonial buildings and the cathedral around it. Trujillo, founded by Pizarro in 1534 and named after his hometown in Spain. We walked around on the pedestrian street and took some pictures of the pastel-coloured houses with wrought-iron grillwork that typify the city. Although it is nicer than we first thought, the architecture is not even comparable with the colonial cities of Quito and Cuenca in Ecuador. After a nice dinner and shower, we fell into bed.

Due to the proximity of the city with the sea (4 km) and the danger of attack by pirates and privateers, a city wall was built during the colonial period. Its construction was based on the design by Leonardo Da Vinci to the Italian city of Florence. The wall was designed of elliptical shape to save costs in its construction and was completed in 1689. Later, Trujillo became a principle centre of Peruvian republican sentiments influenced by the liberal ideas of its educational institutions. Led by city major José Bernardo de Tagle, the city of Trujillo declared its independence from Spain on 29 December 1820. Between 1821 and 1825 the Trujillo region was the only stable and productive land within the nascent republic. In 1823 Trujillo took on the role of the first capital city of the Republic of Peru. It was from Trujillo on 19 July 1823 that the Peruvian Congress reiterated the invitation to Simon Bolivar to join the war of independence. In 1824 the city received the liberating army of Simon Bolivar, and became the seat of government once again, making it the only city to have twice been made capital of Peru. This city is also known as “La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera” (The City of Eternal Spring), because of its sunny and pleasant weather year-round. The irrigated lands of the Moche River Valley produce sugarcane, rice, and asparagus. Today, industries in the city include the sugar refineries, knitting mills, breweries and the shoe industry. Among the internationally known products of Trujillo, asparagus is exported to neighboring countries, Europe and the US. The areas around Trujillo are among the largest exporters of white asparagus in the world. Peru is the world’s leading exporter of asparagus, followed by China and Mexico.

Although the city is not that special, the surrounding areas have been ground zero for several civilizations prior to the Incas and the Spanish. We signed up for 2 tours around Trujillo. The first one was to visit “Huacas de Moche”, which are the remains of the ancient Moche capital city of “Cerro Blanco” (White Hill). These temples belonged to the Moche civilization which lived in Northern Peru between 100 AD to 800AD. Between the 2 temples, which served only for religious (Huaca de la Luna) and administrative (Huaca del Sol) purposes was located the city with a population of about 20,000 inhabitants. The tour began by visiting the museum where many artifacts found in the temples have been restored and exposed. The Moche people didn’t write, so it is believed that their paintings on pottery served didactic purposes as well. It also explained much about the Moche culture and was well made. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal adobe structure on the Rio Moche, is Peru’s largest pre-Columbian structure. However, it was partly destroyed when Spanish Conquistadores mined its graves for gold. It was built of 140 million adobe bricks, but it’s not yet open to the public. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna has remained largely intact; it contains many colourful murals with complex iconography. Their custom of “burying” old temples under new ones has facilitated preservation and archaeologists are peeling away the layers, which we visited and was beautiful and interesting.

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous material (in this case ground sea shells), which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to mud brick buildings, which are still being built in the area today. Adobe buildings account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, compared with wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to earthquake damage. This is why high walls were built in a trapezoidal shape (larger at the base, narrower at the top).

The Moche, which co-existed with the Ica-Nazca culture in the South, was particularly known for its elaborately painted ceramics, gold work, monumental constructions (huacas) and irrigation systems. Moche society was agriculturally based, with a significant level of investment in the construction of a network of irrigation canals for the diversion of river water to supply their crops. Their culture was sophisticated; and their artifacts express their lives, with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, fighting, sacrifice, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies. Although agriculture and fishing were the most important economic activities, the Moche had craftsmen dedicated to making pottery, gold, etc. Human sacrifice played a significant part in Moche religious practices: gladiators would fight and the losers would be tied by the hands and neck. They would then be prepared by the high priests for sacrifice. Their throats would be slit and the blood collected. With everyone watching, the high priest would perform a ceremony where he would sprinkle the blood of the victims on the ground to ensure agricultural fertility. This was also done to calm the anger of the gods who “demanded blood”. The demise of the Moche political structure is believed to have been caused by an environmental change: a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of intense rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought. These weather events could have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. This is believed to have caused the people to move closer to the ocean and change to become the Chimu civilization.

The second tour brought us to Chan Chan, the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, covering an area of approximately 20km². Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor (the kingdom of the Chimú), a civilization which grew out of the remnants of the Moche civilization. But unlike the Moche, the Chimu was not a religious society, but was ruled by a powerful secular elite and king.

The vast adobe city of Chan Chan was built by the Chimu around AD 850 and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empire in 1470AD. It was the imperial capital of the Chimor until it was conquered in the 15th century. It is estimated that around 30,000 people lived in the city of Chan Chan and must have been a dazzling site. Even today we were impressed by the vast area of crumbling mud walls stretching away into the distance. The city is composed of ten royal compounds (each new king built his own palace), which housed ceremonial rooms, burial chambers, temples, reservoirs and some royal residences. We visited the Tschudi complex, one of the later ones. Its walls once stood 10m high are were covered with impressive friezes of fish, waves & sea life. The Chimú resided on the North coast of Peru, a narrow strip of desert between the Pacific and the Western slopes of the Andes, crossed here and there by short rivers which start in the rainier mountains and provide a series of green and fertile oases. The valley plains are very flat and well-suited to irrigation, which is probably as old as agriculture here. Fishing was also very important and was almost considered as important as agriculture to the Chimu. The Chimú were known to have worshipped the moon, unlike the Inca, who worshipped the sun. The Chimu viewed the sun as a destroyer. This is likely due to the harshness of the sun in their desert environment. Offerings played an important role in religious rites. A common object for offerings, as well as one used by artisans, was the shell of the Spondylus shellfish, which live only in the warm coastal waters off present-day Ecuador. It was associated with the sea, rainfall, and fertility. Spondylus shells were also highly valued and traded by the Chimú. The Incas conquered the Chimu around 1460, causing the end of the civilization. When Pizarro discovered Chan Chan, he was followed by other Conquistadors who looted the city. Today, the city is threatened by erosion due to heavy rains, flooding and strong winds.

The next day Christoph visited the Museum of “El Señor de Sipán”, near the city of Chiclayo. The Lord of Sipán tomb is a Moche culture site and its discovery is considered comparable with that of Tutankhamun in Egypt. Some archaeologists hold it to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in this region of the world in the last 30 years, as the main tomb was found intact and untouched by thieves. The clothing of this warrior and ruler suggest he was approximately 1.67 m tall and probably died within three months of governing. His jewelry and ornaments indicate he was of the highest rank, and include pectoral, necklaces, nose rings, ear rings, helmets, falconry and bracelets. Most were made of gold, silver, copper and semi-precious stones. In his tomb were found more than 400 jewels. Because of his high rank, the ruler was buried with eight people, apparently his wife and two other women (possibly concubines), a military commander, a watchman, a banner holder and a child. Among the animals found were dogs and llamas. The warriors who were buried with him had amputated feet, as if to prevent them leaving the tomb. It was interesting to see all the riches of this royal tomb. Afterwards the tour continued to Tucume, which emcompasses 26 major adobe pyramids and mounds of the Lambayeque culture (later conquered by the Chimu). The area is referred to as Purgatorio by local people. This site was a major regional center, maybe even the capital of the successive occupations of the area by the Lambayeque/Sican (800-1350 AD), Chimú (1350–1450 AD) and Inca (1450–1532 AD). Local shaman healers invoke power of Tucume and La Raya Mountain in their rituals, and local people fear these sites. Hardly anyone other than healers venture out in this site at night. The pyramids are cool, but there is not much to see as they have not been opened (excavated). Overall these tours to the archeological sites were really interesting and a great way to learn about many of the pre-Inca cultures of Peru before going to visit the old Inca empire itself.

We also went to Huanchaco, a small fisher town close to Trujillo. It has evolved into a surfer’s destination due to great waves. They were indeed perfect and Cecilia would have loved to jump in, but there was no time. The fishermen in the area still use reed boats (“caballitos de totora”, literally “little reed horses” in English). These “little reed horses”, named for the way they are ridden, straddled, have been used by Peruvian fishermen for the past 3,000 years. They use them to transport their nets and collect fish in their inner cavity. Fishermen still use these vessels to this day, riding the waves back into shore, and suggesting some of the first forms of wave riding. There is currently a minor debate in the surfing world as to whether or not this constitutes the first form of surfing. The boats are kept on the beach and it’s a wonderful sight, especially at sunset.