We were picked up at 9am
by Jose who already had a Spanish family (Mum, Dad and a thirty-ish
daughter) from Barcelona in the back of the van. A refreshing change
from the gringo trail in the south - its just the five of us on the
tour.
Our
first stop is at the Huacas de Sol y de La Luna (Temples of the Sun
and Moon). The main road to the temples is being worked on so we
(but it seemed no one else!) went the old way. It was a rough dirt
track that took us past the local Circus (which had seen better days
from the state of the Big Top) and across the Rio Moche. There was
no bridge, we drove through it, about twenty metres of pebble
bottomed river bed. Its dry season so at only six inches deep it was
an easy ride.
From
the road, the temples just look like mounds of adobe bricks but they
hold a hidden treasure. The site is still an active archeological
dig, final year archeology students at Trujillo university provide
the man power. The Temples are separated by a huge flat area which
is where the city was. For now, work is focusing on the smaller
Temple of the Moon and the city. It is sponsored by a local beer
company - I bet the researchers welcome a cold one after a day in
the dust and heat here!
The
Temple of the Moon is fascinating. It is a Moche site, dated to
between 200BC and 850AD. AS the population of the city grew they
rebuilt and enlarged their temple as well. On the site there are
five different temples. The old ones were not destroyed, they were
filled with bricks and the next one was built as a layer over the
top. The archeologists now have a real dilemma. To excavate the
oldest temples they will have to partially destroy the newer ones.
Because successive temples were built over the older ones they have
incredibly well preserved wall decorations and murals. You can also
see the makers symbols in the adobe bricks in the walls. They think
that when a new temple was built the different groups within the
city each had to supply a quota of bricks, a sort of tax. The marks
were how they kept track of who had supplied what quantity of
bricks.
From
the artifacts found in the temples they can tell that it was only
used for ceremonial purposes and not for commerce or accommodation.
Different plazas enabled the public to watch certain parts of the
ritual ceremonies. Some parts were held in privacy. Human sacrifices
were made. As part of these rituals they believe that two warriors
fought each other, not to the death but until first blood was drawn.
The "loser" was then sacrificed to the gods either by having his
throat cut or by a bash on the back of the head.
The
decorations on the outside of the temple pay homage to their gods.
In its prime, this site must have been truly stunning to see and it
makes me wonder how much more fantastic the larger Temple of the Sun
must have been. Work continues at this site and I suspect it will do
for many years as long as the funding continues. Jose our guide
confirmed that each year new parts of the Temple are opened up for
visitors to see.
Totora reed canoes at Huanchaco
Most
of the tourists here seem to be Spanish speaking. There are also
about five groups of school children on a visit. They must only be
about five or six years old and are very well behaved. At the little
souvenir centre we saw another local oddity, a breed of Perúvian dog
that has no hair (one had a bleached blond mohican). The Spanish
family fulfilled their tourist obligations (or at least the female
contingent did to much shoulder shrugging from Papa) and went
shopping for ceramics, necklaces etc. We have still resisted the
temptation, partly because of the challenge of getting them home in
one piece and partly because we know we would simply stuff them in a
cupboard when we get back.
From
here we went to La Huaca Arco Iris (The Rainbow Temple). This is a
Chimu site and is much much simpler. Most of the site was
reconstructed in the 1960's but it still has original walls with
decoration. It is a single temple in the shape of a truncated
pyramid. Around the edges are huge storage bins into which were
lowered offerings to the gods - food, clothing, ceramics, other
textiles etc. Allegedly these bins were only open at the top but I
was left with a feeling that they must have been emptied from time
to time.
Our
next stop was the small museum of Chan Chan. This had exhibits of
pottery, textiles etc and had maps showing the overall size and
layout of the Chan Chan site. Its main site is nine different temple
palaces, each built by a successive king of Chan Chan. There was
also a chronology of South American civilisations comparing them to
civilisations in Europe and Asia. We do not really have a concept in
Europe that anything happened in America pre Colombus but there is a
huge wealth of history, tradition, religion and civilisation here
that captures the interest.
Heading into the Chan Chan site you can only (safely) see one of the
palaces, Tschudi (named after a Swiss), that has been partially
excavated and opened to the public. This is a huge site which would
have again been primarily used for religious purposes. The entrance
opens into a main ceremonial plaza with a raised platform at one end
where the king would have sat. They were revered as gods and after
death they were mummified, in a seated position, and wheeled out for
successive ceremonies as they were deemed to still be alive in
the afterlife. At each ceremony, young women were offered as
sacrifices and three hundred female skeletons were found next to the
burial chamber in this palace.
Behind
the main plaza is a range of audience rooms. Here people brought
their offerings which again were stored in big bins, similar to
those at the Rainbow Temple but these were accessible at ground
level. This was a complex are of interlocking rooms, highly
decorated with symbolism for fishing nets and the moon. The wealth
of these place must have been staggering.
Behind
the audience rooms is a further, smaller plaza for more closed
ceremonies. Beyond that is a huge well, more like an enormous pool.
This too was ceremonial but is now home to reeds, water lilies and
birds. Past this is a further smaller plaza with the mausoleum for
the king. Around the main tomb are many more smaller ones with
servants, sacrificial offerings and goods that the king (now a god)
will need in the next life.
Looking forward to the night bus
All of
these sites are suffering from erosion from the elements. Made of
adobe bricks they are simply worn away, with the effects of El Nino
being particularly devastating. Attempts are being made to preserve
the original features by shielding them with metal roofs and/or
putting protective layers on the surfaces of walls. However,
centuries of damage have taken their toll. From the road you would
have no idea that these sites are here holding such a wealth of
information. As at Nazca, the PanAm has ploughed through the edge of
the Chan Chan site.
After
Chan Chan we were taken to Huanchaco, a local seaside resort, for
lunch. Stef tried the Ceviche - a Perúvian speciality of raw fish
marinated in lemon juice. He went for a mixed plate which had
scallops, crab, fish and unidentifiable shellfish (which to me
looked decidedly dodgy). Here we also saw the reed boats that the
locals use to go fishing. They are heavy to handle are are replaced
about every three months as the reeds start to rot.
Back
in town we were dropped off at the Plaza de Armas. We've got a few
hours to kill until we leave tonight on the night bus to Mancora, a
small fishing village on the north coast. We will be staying at the
Mancora Beach resort for a few days R&R before heading up into
Ecuador.
As
expected, our previous bad experience with a night bus looks set to
be repeated. Stef's knees were digging into the seat in front of him
before the guy sat in it reclined his chair. It was stuffy and
someone had taken their shoes off wafting a smelly sock odour
throughout the bus. It was full so we couldn't even spread out! We
both knew that a long eight and a half hours was ahead of us. Not
helped when a Steven Seagal film was put on the TV - they seem to
have a thing about him and violent films in buses in South America.
