Chao Trujillo!!!

We left Trujillo Tuesday night (November 25) to go to Lima. I must say... we were happy to leave. Trujillo was definitely not our favorite place so far, but it did have one saving grace; art, specifically street art. Every time we passed through the main plaza something was happening: a play with a crazy drunk man as the main character, a humorous reenactment of the history of Peru, a small musical group involving several men wearing tights, some drummers and a dramatic portrayal of slavery, an art exhibit about the flooding over the recent years in Peru... (perhaps an Arabic dancer?) It seemed the government was doing everything possible to promote the arts. Laura and I did have a taste of fame when we were asked to perform at Thursday Cultural Night and Friday Neighborhood Cultural Night. They even paid us (not exactly a hefty sum, we prefer to think of it in soles, the currency of Peru, than in dollars.)

Although our experiences with the people of Trujillo were not the best, we did meet two quirky, old ladies (sisters) that were kind enough to invite us to lunch one day and entertain us with their funny, but odd stories and their ability to eat A LOT of food (more than Laura!) This was our introduction to Lomo Saltado; a Peruvian favorite (beef with onions and tomatoes, rice and a heap of french fries), not exactly a lite meal, but in Peru and Ecuador you can never really eat too many carbs. They explained to us that they had decided to never get married, because they have seen that it only results in pain. (Oh and one of them is allergic to... cold; meaning she can't drink, eat or touch anything cold... hmmm interesting...) The other lady, Maria Ester, was so impressed with Laura`s dancing that she called it a dream. I would agree.

We did visit a few sites while we were there. A strange toy museum (we accidentally stumbled upon) that housed old toys and dolls dating back to 1900. We found the first room with dolls of all sizes and colors hanging from the ceiling to be a little disturbing, but not as weird as the odd puppets which we found later.

We spent one day visiting Chan Chan, the largest adobe brick city in the world, built in the year 1300 AD by the Chimus (before the Incas). We were able to visit one of the temples which has been restored. There are practically no remaining treasures from the temples, because it was looted and everything was stolen years ago. The structure itself was really impressive however and we met two nice French Canadian girls who we spent the day with. (We knew we would be friends immediately, because they were the only two other people who opted to take the cheap city bus to the site, get out and walk down the loooong dirt road to Chan Chan, rather than get in a nice tour van like the rest of the tourists.)

The next day we met up with our new Canadian friends again and went to visit the Huacas de la Luna y del Sol (where we had un up-close encounter with the famous "Peruvian Dog." A dog which is completely furless/hairless, besides a little tuff on the head and tail- not pretty!) The Huacas de la Luna y del Sol, built during the Moche period are 700 years older than the Chan Chan temples. We were able to enter the Huaca de la Luna which has been preserved in a much more natural state than Chan Chan. While Chan Chan has received several touch ups, La Luna still contains the original paintings and designs on the walls. It's diffcult to explain the feeling of being inside, but it's really incredible to think that almost 1500 years ago a completely different civilization inhabited that space and people stood and even died right where we were standing! We saw the exact place where they did human scrafices and years later found the decapitated remains of many people. We also learned that in most of these cultures when the leader died, his wife and all his other women (usually much younger than him, in their 20s) were also scraficed. (Now that doesn`t sound very fair.) Due to the position in which the remains were found (the women appeared to be trying to sit up), they have concluded that they were usually buried alive.

On Tuesday, after a visit to Huanchaco, the local beach, we said goodbye to our Canadian friends, rushed back to the hotel, grabbed our things, and in the chaos of almost missing our bus to Lima left our towels behind. We happily waved goodbye to Trujillo, more than ready for the next stop.