The North Coast

This weekend, I headed north to Trujillo for La Festival Internacional de la Primavera (The International Spring Festival) and to check out some archaeological ruins with my friend Imad. Also, hearing that Trujillo is perpetually sunny, we booked ourselves a hostal on the beach and were really looking forward to laying around and soaking up some rays. No such luck, it was cloudy chilly the entire time, so we had to change our plans slightly. We met an Italian traveler who was sharing our room in the hostel, so we checked out the ruins and spend the day at the festival with him. It's always fun meeting people on the road.

We spent the first day visiting archaeological sites around Trujillo in chronological sequence. First we went to Huacas de la luna and del sol (Huacas of the moon and the sun), which were Moche temples. The art on the walls of Huaca de la luna was spectacularly preserved and very impressive. Furthermore, the Moche were awesome because they documented a lot of their rituals and daily life in ceramics and paintings adding loads of credibility to archaeological interpretations. Periodically, the Moche would fill Huaca de la luna with bricks and build another temple on top of it. Every family had to produce a certain amount of bricks and to keep track of that, each family also had a symbol that served as a signature. I really liked seeing those. So often we forget how human people of the past actually were, but a signature is something that we can all relate to.

From there, we went to Chan Chan, which was an enormous political structure from the Chimu culture who over through the Moche. The Inka followed the Chimu and then the Spanish came along. Anyways, Chan Chan was spectacular. I loved all the maritime symbolism in the architecture, such as walls that look like fish nets and tiles of pelicans, fish, and waves throughout the structure. Also, the engineering was really impressive. The walls were built to be earthquake proof by leaving light spaces between the bricks and building the walls on an angle. The walls of the main plaza were designed for sound to reflect off of them and the acoustics really were incredible. Finally, the aisles go from wider to narrower making them appear longer than they actually are and also keeping people in line, literally, as they enter hallowed land.

When it was cloudy and cold on Saturday, the day planned to spend at the beach vegging out, we decided to head up to Chiclayo and Lambayeque to check out an archaeological museum about the Lord of Sipan. The museum was incredible and set up so that you see things in the order that archaeologists found them, which was fun. Chiclayo is called "La Ciudad de Amistad" The City of Friendship, and it was very true. Everyone we encountered in Chiclayo was incredibly friendly. We went to an enormous market there. Markets are always fun for me. I love seeing all the food and wares and sampling a bit. This market was also fun because it had a section called "Mercado de los Brujos" The witch market full of potions and amulets for any sort of ailment or need you may have.

Sunday was the parade for the spring festival, which featured dance groups, bands, and beauty queens from all over Peru and other countries as well (USA!). Twice, I got pulled into the parade by dance groups and made to dance in a circle, which was really fun and kind of funny. Our bus left at 11:15pm, so after the parade, we had a nice dinner, hung out a little bar for a bit, and then sat around in the Plaza de Armas for a bit before starting the 9 hour trip back to Lima.