Down 10,000 feet to the beach....

I love the mountains and the Andes from Huaraz are incredible.  I am still amazed by the setting and my breath is still taken away almost daily.  However, I am water addict….this could be blamed on the fact that I have lived my entire life within 15 minutes of the water or that I am a Pisces!  Earlier this week I realized how much I was craving open waters.  The past three, almost four weeks, here have probably been the longest I’ve been away from the water my entire life, or at least close to the longest!  Thus, I decided I needed to escape the mountains and flee to the sea.  Living at a hostel definitely has its advantages at times; for instance when you are seeking travel advice.  ‘The gringo trail’ in South America is pretty well worn.  Therefore, it is pretty easy to find people who have just come from the Pacific or are heading there shortly.  Talking to quite a few people, I realized the easiest choice would be Trijillo (just one night bus away from Huaraz).  However, it’s a pretty big city and I wanted to escape all of that – thus I choose to stay Huanchanco, a beach town about 20 minutes away (also well worn on the Gringo trail)

Previously a fishing port, Huanchanco is quickly becoming a popular tourist destination for both Peruvians and ‘gringos.’  The setting is beautiful, the climate perfect, the beach gorgeous, the city laid back and relaxing, and the waves great for surfing!  The four days I spent there were so relaxing and mostly filled with lying around reading on the beach.  The city was surprisingly busy (considering peak tourist season ended weeks ago) and the hostel I planned on staying at was full….thus I spent my first night in a budget hotel for $5 a night.  That first night I rediscovered an ‘old friend;’ television.  I have been purposely avoiding it my entire time here.  Once at breakfast, I watched an hour or so, but other than that; none.  However, having a private room with cable and knowing no one in the city was a bad combination….I spent that first night watching way too much TV.  Which wasn’t relaxing or really enjoyable at all, and definitely not the reason I had left Huaraz!!       

Thus the next day I sought alternative accommodations – I wanted an ocean view – somewhere I could sit all night and read listening to the ocean!  I quickly found the perfect place….after much negotiating I got the woman to cut the price in half.  It still completely blew my budget, but was worth every penny!  Thirty dollars really isn’t that bad of a price for what I got, actually it was a good deal – but considering that my two nights staying there cost me the same as two weeks at Caroline it seems a little pricy!  My room was gorgeous though, right on the beach with a balcony and comfortable chairs to sit outside and read in.  Furthermore, the restaurant downstairs was great and my room included a huge delicious breakfast (I love trying to justify the price to myself!)  Furthermore, traveling as a single woman to Huanchanco is pretty unheard of, and I didn’t feel completely comfortable being there on my own (received more attention than normal and the men were harder to discourage!)  Thus I also justified the higher price for safety!  I could watch the sunset every night from the restaurant downstairs or my balcony and not have to worry about walking back to my hotel late at night in the dark!

While I spent a lot of time on the beach relaxing, I also visited Trijillo.  Being a large city, I didn’t exactly fall in love with it….however, it is an old colonial city and they have done a great job preserving a number of the colonial building.  The main plaza and cathedral were nice enough, but full of people trying to sell you tours etc, thus it was sort of difficult to enjoy – you couldn’t really stop walking without being surrounded by people.  Out of necessity, I have once again perfected the act of ignoring people – if you even make eye contact you won’t be left alone for awhile.  I love that once again people assumed I was French, oh stereotypes.  I did discover a great café though, I spent quite some time reading there and felt like I was in the middle of Paris!

Trijillo is also known for its pre-Incan ruins, which there are a number of.  I voted to only visit Huaca de sol y Luna (supposedly the best) due to finances and that I didn’t want to overdose on ruins (after visiting Machu Picchu nothing seems to compare and it is pretty easy to try to see too much – which makes it harder to appreciate what you do visit!)  This site was really amazing though.  They have only excavated a fraction so far, which makes it all that much more impressive.  Your entrance fee pays for a guided tour and being American they assumed I needed an English speaking guide (I probably should have gone with the Spanish group for practice…but I really wanted to fully understand all I was learning and not have to worry about missing anything).  It worked out for the better though….I ended up being the only English speaker so received my own personal guide and basically a private tour, plus I ended up speaking Spanish with him over half the time anyways! 

So the ruins….amazing, of course!  I will try not to go into too much detail as this blog entry is already too long, and anyone who is really interested only has to wiki search the ruins to discover a ton of information!  Basically, Huaca del la Luna y del Sol were build during the Moche empire, approximately 1-700 A.D.  Only in the last 20 years or so have excavations really taken place and they are discovering more daily; including ‘some of the most dazzling and best-preserved murals in all of Peru.’  Here’s a little blurb from my guidebook about their creation; “Archeologists believe the Hauca’s first single, compact platform was build around 100 A.D.  But every century, the Moche apparently sealed the bodies of the deceased rulers into the Hauca and then completely covered the platform with a new, stepped platform above it.  In this way, over 700 years, the L-shaped temple evolved into a 100-yard-long stepped pyramid with as many as eight stepped levels.  The overall shape is oddly similar to temples of the Maya, a culture that some say influenced the Moche.”

While, much of the original gold has ‘disappeared’ since colonial times (robbers), the murals that still exist are incredible.  There are elaborate designs throughout the sites, and the quality is amazing – the colors are still strong even after 2,000 years!  One of the most interested and studied aspects of the sites is their history of human sacrifice.  In 1996, archeologist discovered the skeleton remains of over 40 men.   It is believed they were sacrificed to stop El Nino rains which destroyed part of the temple and eventually lead the Moche to relocate (there are also many hieroglyphs which support this theory).  Additionally, the view from the top of Huaca de la Luna, ten plus stories up, is impressive and offers views of what is left from the original settlement (it is estimated 20,000 people lived at the base of the site and they are just starting to excavate the former city) and Huaca del Luna. 

Huaca de la Luna is believed to be the administrative center for the Moche while Huaca del sol is thought to have been the religious center.   Built with an estimated 100 million adobe bricks, Huaca del Sol is argued to be largest adobe structure in the world.   Unfortunately, in the 17^th century the Spanish conquistadors diverted the Rio Moche (in an attempt to uncover treasure).  They were unsuccessful in uncovering treasure but did succeed in helping Huaca del Sol erode…While the remaining structure is still quite impressive it is depressing to think of what it was before the Spanish diverted the river. 

Overall, the site was incredible!  What really impressed me though was how much is still being uncovered.  Barely any excavation has occurred at Huaca del Sol and constantly during my tour of Huaca de la Luna my guide would point out certain areas that had just been excavated and other areas they had just started uncovering.  Amazing to consider how much is still left to be discovered.  One could easily return in a year and have a completely different tour! 

Okay, this is much too long!  I still have more to add, but enough for now!  More to come soon…..including my experiences with the ‘famous hairless Peruvian Pooch!’ 

Almost forgot....here's the link to photos!

Peru 2009;