Day 383 – Trujillo
Thousand year old mud ruins of Trujillo
Today we left the fancy Hotel Alexander after breakfast. Before leaving, we asked reception how to get to the Chan Chan ruins. They were really helpful.
Getting to Chan Chan Ruins
As per directions from our hotel, we went to Ave Los Incas to catch the collectivo known as a microbus here. The microbus was going to Huanchaco and only cost 1.50 PEN ($0.67 AUD) per person (p/p). We asked the driver to drop us off at the Chan Chan museum.
Chan Chan Museum
At the museum (Museo de Sitio Chan Chan) we were able to purchase the entrance ticket. The ticket is only 10 PEN ($4.44 AUD) p/p and includes entrance to the museum, the site and two more smaller archaeological sites in the area.
The Chan Chan museum is small but impressive. It’s an introduction to the region and the site. The museum has pockets of impressive features. The presentation (Spanish with English subtitles) is really informative and impressive. Another modern twist is a hologram like exhibit.
It’s really worth a visit.
Chan Chan Archaeological Site
From the museum, you can take a taxi, but we opted to walk the 15 or so minutes to the site. As we walked to the entrance, we could see massive walls made of sand and mud bricks that seemed to be eroding away. This type of brick is called adobe. However, for mud buildings exposed to the elements since 1000 – 1470 BCE, the buildings look great.
Since our research had told us that there is no information, we decided to get a tour guide. There was a Spanish speaking group of 4 people who went before us. If our Spanish was any good, we could have joined. However, we had to get a private guide which cost us 50 PEN ($22.19 AUD) for the two of us.
The guide was super informative and explained heaps about the symbols and architecture of the site. The region was ruled by the Chimu people, who were later conquered by the Incas. The Incas never destroyed the civilisation, and more integrated them into their society, requiring tributes. It was very interesting to see this ancient civilisation.
Huaca La Esmeralda
After the tour, we walked back to the main road. From the bus stop, we caught a collectivo going into the city. Again, this cost 1.50 PEN ($0.67 AUD) p/p. After a few minutes we told the conductor that we wanted to get off at Mansiche Church (Iglesia Mansiche).
From here, it’s a short walk to Huaca La Esmeralda. This site is just one building and is very empty. At the site, we saw a few hairless Peruvian dogs. Not really my type of dog.
The rest of the site is just a super small version of Chan Chan, with some nice decorative artwork. Besides that, not much else is happening here. We were glad that it was included with the entrance fee for Chan Chan.
Huaca “El Dragon” Complejo Arqueologico
The final site included with Chan Chan was Huaca “El Dragon” Complejo Arqueologico. The site is also called Huaca Arco Iris. There is a way to get there by public bus, but since we had recently downloaded the Android app ‘Easy Taxi App’ which is owned by Cabify we had 3 half priced journeys as a signing bonus. We decided to use this, which cost us 4 PEN ($1.77 AUD).
Again the ruins are just one building, but the murals on the walls are super large and impressive.
After walking around, we asked a staff member for advice to get back into town. We caught a bus going to the City Centre for 1.25 PEN ($0.55 AUD).
Trujillo Historic City Centre
The bus dropped us off, only a few blocks away from the Plaza de Armas de Trujillo. As we were crossing the road, a man followed us and was trying to give us tourist information. We didn’t really understand him, but he said what he was showing us was free, so we followed him. He took us to a building, which was a small exhibit for the town of Salaverry. From the exhibit, there wasn’t anything that really appealed to us. We thanked the gentleman and went back to the colonial city centre.
Back in the plaza, the buildings and cathedral look nice. We had a late lunch at a restaurant called El Rincon De Vallejo Café.
After this we just walked back to our hotel to chill and plan the rest of our time in Peru.