an idea of travel: trujillo & huanchaco, peru

I bussed into Trujillo at 4:00 am then caught a 20 minute taxi to beach-surfer Huanchaco. I don´t really consider myself a beach person, but I quite liked Huanchaco´s cool vibes and crashing waves.

The pelicans seemed to handle the waves with relative ease.

I guess you could call me a fake pescatarian. All I know is that my eating habits are odd, regardless of what name you´d like to give it. I try to eat a bit of fish here and there, but it´s not really my favourite. Since Huanchaco is on the ocean, there are oodles of ceviche & seafood restaurants. Seeing as their servings would be too large for me, I spotted a small plate of ceviche in the street and stared at it, wondering if I wanted to risk it. I was staring too long, and the vendor practically pushed the dish into my hand.

I saw a lot of people eating these gooey honey wafer things (have the name written down somewhere), but I couldn´t finish a quarter of it.

I saw a crazy green parrot sliding down these wires into a yard.

One of the things I liked about Huanchaco was the endless variety of graffiti in the streets:

The beach stretch is long and there´s plenty of space for hotels on the beach front, including the one I stayed in.

Caballitos de totoras, boats made of reeds, are famous in Huanchaco.

Took a micro to Chan Chan, which lies between Trujillo & Huanchaco.

The sprawling ancient city of Chan Chan.

I walked from where the micro dropped me off to the nearest part of Chan Chan. There are plenty of people here who think I´m a local or from some other country in South America, but other times I get offered the gringo price which gets annoying after a time. The drivers or workers always warn you that it´s worth paying extra for ´security.´ How thoughtful of them. So much! fear mongering! everywhere I look!

Chan Chan is the most notable pre-Colombian structure in Latin America, located in Northern Peru. It was the capital of the Chimu culture, and the site served a variety of purposes, including religious and administrative.

The city was built around X-XV AD & it was subdued by the Incas in 1470 AD.

I found conflicting information about the height of the adobe walls, but they were definitely high, at somewhere around 12 feet skyward. There are remains of some of the decorations on the walls, representations of fish, birds, caballitos de totoras, the moon, estrellas de mar, and more. It must have been quite the site during its time, with the walls having red, black, white, and yellow colouring.

There are multiple sites, all spread out, but I only saw three of them. The most significant is the Palacio Tschudi which has a labyrinth of spaces.

The resevoir was both functional in everyday purposes and used in ceremonies. Birds here rest from their migration from the reaches of Canada to Patagonia.

The people were experts at irrigation and capilliary, and they constructed ramps down into the resevoir. Agriculture, astronomy, and fishing were important.