Thursday
27th April 2017
Collected
by our guide Yvette for a half day tour around colonial Trujillo which was built between four Chimú archaeological sites.
Visited
the main square ‘Plaza de Armas’ and various Spanish colonial houses (one of
which is now a bank) with paintings within their courtyards, hand carved
furniture and ornate grill work. On to
‘Chan Chan’ the pre-Columbian adobe citadel of the Chimu culture, which was
enormous. It was surrounded by huge smooth flat walls with only one entrance
and loooong pathways. The site just got
better the more we walked, with original carvings in the adobe still visible.
The site was used for collecting taxes, offerings and ceremonies. Onto the
pre-Inca temple of ‘Huaca El Dragon’/rainbow temple which was a lot smaller and
was used as a storage area for food as well as a first floor ceremonial
square. Again some superb carvings
remained and it was clear to see the various diagrams of fish, condor, puma
etc.
Dropped
off for lunch at lovely restaurant, El Sombrero, included in package. Pisco
Sours on arrival, raw fish Ceviche for Iain, I had an avocado salad, then Sea
Bass for Iain and a sea bass soup for me. Stomach feeling a bit dodgy for me,
so tiny portions with Iain hoovering up anything remaining. Ice cream to
finish. All overlooking the seafront
from a 1st floor vantage point, cooled by the sea breeze. Very nice.
Had
a wander up "El Muelle", or the pier, a
landmark of Huanchaco. This steel pier was constructed in 1891, it is 108
meters long and full of families playing with crabbing lines. Bit like
home!
The fishermen use their "Caballitos de totora",
reedboats shown in ceramics that date from 500BC. They don’t seem at all
practical and use what appears to be a plank as an oar. The boats become
waterlogged so are used for a couple of hours, then lined up on the beach to
dry out – 25kg dry, over 50kg wet, so you need to be ‘a man’ to carry it to and
from the beach. Rite of passage methinks.
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