Sunday, July 20

After Bolivia, we flew from Puno in the south of Peru to Lima in the middle. We skipped the whole southern part of Peru, because we've seen that 3 years ago during our honeymoon. Instead, we wanted to visit the less touristy northern part along the coast. The nature here is less interesting, mostly desert, but on the culture side there is a lot to see.

From Lima we took the bus to Trujillo and 2 days later to Chiclayo. The area was inhabited by the old Moche culture long before the Inca's and later the Spaniards came in the picture.
In Trujillo we visited the Huaca (= special religious or cultural place) del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna. These are large pyramids where only in the last 10-20 years archeologists have discovered beautiful wall paintings and hidden temples. The original surrounding city is buried underneath the sand and new discoveries still take place.
We also visited the ruins of Chan Chan, the capital city of the old Chimu culture. They came after the Moche and were conquered by the Inca's. The adobe ruins of royal palaces are huge and not much details are left. The Peruvians are restoring them, but are using some strange methods for that....: they hide the original wall details behind mud and put fake copies in their place...it didn't feel real anymore!

In Chiclayo we visited the ruins of Sipan, also from the Moche culture. Graves filled with treasures were discovered here. Archealogists are still making new discoveries which makes it even more interesting. The treasures are shown in a beautiful museum nearby.

After this culture boost we desperately needed to relax ;-). So we moved on to Mancora in the far north near the border with Ecuador. This is the only area where there is not the chilly mist that covers the rest of the coast. On the contrary, it was beautiful sunny weather and we had 2 wonderful days on the beach, drinking cocktails and enjoying the good food. It actually felt like vacation!
Mancora is also famous for its surfing and that's because of the huge waves; they were as high as a house! We had a lot of fun playing in the water and jumping in the waves.