Chiclayo

We toured into Chiclayo for the day to hit a few museums and more ruins. Chiclayo is about 3 hours away from Trujillo, so it was a pretty long day!  First off, we visited Huaca Rajada - Sipan, a great museum with countless remains and treasures recovered over the years from the tomb of the Lord of Sipan, a very great Moche leader in this valley.

They have replicated a few of the super important tombs.  They have one of the Lords tomb, which included a wooden coffin, surrounded by hundreds of gold, ceramic and semi-precious mineral objects, his wife, two other girls, a boy, a military chief, a flag bearer, two guards, two dogs and a llama. And this second tomb, of the Sacerdote, or priest, who was accompanied into the afterlife with an equally impresive quantity of treasures, as well as a few children, a guardian whose feet were cut off and a headless llama. Archaeologists don't understand why the body parts were removed but they believe that important members of the Moche upper class took with them in death those who composed their retinues in life.

This site was initially found by looters, however when local archaeologist Dr. Walter Alva saw a huge influx of intricate objects on the black market in early 1987, he quickly realized there was a near by burial site, and it was being ransacked.  After some hunting around, and asking many questions, he located the pyramids, constructed from millions of adobe bricks - which to the untrained eye just look like huge earthen hills. El Nino - the weather phenomenon which causes major fluctuation in the surface temperatures of the eastern pacific ocean - has wreaked havoc over the years with heavy, unremitting rains and floods along Peru's costs, playing a major role in the collapse of both the Sican and Moche civilizations. This weather condition happens about every 2-7 years and can last for up to two years. It has also been responsible for washing away much of the infrastructure including roads, bridges, and entire towns and destroying nearly all of the coast's crops.

The Sipan locals were not thrilled when their treasure trove became protected for it's archaeological value, but to solve this problem, the locals were invited to train to become excavators, researchers and guards at the site, which now provides steady employment to many of them. Below is one of the areas that has been excavated, however much of the area is still undergoing excavation, and who knows what else they will find!

Next, we headed to the museum of the Tombs of Sipan, which is said to be one of the best museums in all of Peru.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, you can't take photos in much of the museums, but this particular one had a great animated piece at the end, we piled into a room, which had many mannequins in full dress of the people of the time, the statues moved in small ways, and we were able to get a feel for what life might be like.

We arrived back in Huanchaco about 11:00 after the commute.  A very tiring, but super interesting day!