Day 392 – Chiclayo to Mancora

Today we had breakfast with the lovely owners of the home stay, Santa Victoria House and our friend from Chachapoyas. We would be checking out today and travelling to the beach town of Mancora on a night bus. 

Sipan Museum and Tombs

But first, we wanted to check out the actual Sipan Museum and Tombs. Therefore, we walked to the collectivo Terminal Epsel. The terminal is really large, but not in the most touristy part of town. It felt rougher, but we didn’t have any issues. 

At the terminal, there is a section of collectivos leaving to Sipan. However, each collectivo is essentially a different company, so you need to pick the most full one. We ended up waiting for 30 minutes, until the collectivo was full, so we could start the journey. The collectivo ride only cost us 3 PEN ($1.32 AUD) per person (p/p) and took an hour.

The collectivo stopped just outside the museum. Entrance into the museum and tombs is 8 PEN ($3.53 AUD) p/p. The exhibits are really impressive. However, the staff were really relaxed.

There is an introductory movie in English Spent an hour at the museum. Then we got to explore the various tombs in the area, with detailed explanations of each. It was done really well.

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The tickets also include the actual tomb site too. Therefore, we walked across the road to Huaca Rajada. Similar to yesterday (Day 391) there is a mound that used to be a temple. 

The tombs are recreated, in the way they would have been found. Obviously they didn’t use real gold, but everything else looked real. As we were walking around the site, a blow fly got behind my sunglasses and bit me. It was painful.

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We walked around the site for around 30 minutes, since it’s quite small.

Afterwards, we went back to a restaurant near the collectivo drop off point. It looked empty, but a simple “Hola” got the owner out and chatting with us. He was super friendly as we drank an Inca Cola. The curator of the site, had told us that the return collectivo would come every 30 minutes. We had to wait for 20 minutes at the restaurant, so it may have been true. Once again it cost 3 PEN ($1.32 AUD) p/p. The drop off point is the terminal.

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Chiclayo

Back in Chiclayo, we had an early dinner and bought some snacks for the bus along the way to the home stay. We chilled in the lounge with our friend from Chachapoyas until we had to go to the bus terminal. 

The hosts organised a taxi to take us to the bus station. The taxi fare was 6 PEN ($2.65 AUD), which the host double checked as we got in. They were a super lovely couple.

The ITTSA bus terminal was empty, except for us. The one staff member took forever to serve us as she was busy cutting paper! We had purchased the bus tickets a few days ago using the Red Bus App for 50 PEN ($22.07 AUD) p/p. The bus was scheduled for 11pm. As it got closer to 11pm, another 6 passengers were at the terminal. The bus was apparently coming from Trujillo, so already had passengers. We left Chiclayo at 11.15pm.