We arrived in Trujillo in the morning after an overnight bus ride from Lima. Bus travel in Peru is pretty good. We usually travel with what could be considered 2nd class- seats that lean fairly far back on the top section of a modern bus. The lower section (what I'd consider 1st class) has seats that become beds.





Our main reason for being in Trujillo is Chan Chan

as well as the Huacas del Sol and Luna. I was a bit worried that Chan Chan would be a disappointment. It is the largest adobe city in the world but since it is 700 years old and has weathered floods and rains, how much could be ecpected to remain? I was worried it would just be bunches of mud piles.

Well, a lot of it is but that is because it hasn't been excavated yet. However, the part we went to, the Tschudi Palace, has been restored in sections and was quite impressive. The palace was surrounded by high walls, though the guide assured us they had been a lot higher before they were destroyed by El Nino floods. What I found really unexpected were the designs on the inside. There were rows of pelicans, some stylized into weird geometric abstractions, waves of fish and rows of fish net patterns, all fashioned from mud.




In the center of the complex was a huge pond filled with water lillies, ducks and reeds.

After lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, we went to the Huaca de Dragon, another Chimu site. It is a huge pyramidic structure covered with strange stylized murals of a rainbow arch, dragon like creatures and weird humanoid characters. The design seemed to be repeated all over the Huaca.





In the evening while relaxing at the hotel, the air became filled with a tremendous ammount of drumming. Our room overlooked the street so we could see what was going on from our window. There was a procession of children carrying colored lanterns in the shapes of fish, dinosaurs, and other animals and characters. The lamps were made of colored cellophane and each had a candle inside.