Trujilla, Huanchaco and Chan Chan - West of Peru

We took a bus and went to Huanchaco which is a fishing village in the west of Peru by the coast line. It is also very popular for surfing. Our hotel was right by the shoreline and sitting at the balcony you could see the waves coming and hitting the shore. Our team leader, Manuel took us to a nice restaurant for lunch and the food was really good. I walked around the place after lunch, then surfed in the net for some time. I was looking for an ATM to draw some money. It charged me 10 bucks for drawing money but did not even prompt me about it, just took my money! I bought some magnets as I collect them from all over the world wherever I go. But when I gave a note of 50 Soles to the shopkeeper in the store to pay for my magnet, she did not have any change, so she went to look for change from other stores and finally it took her almost 25 minutes to get some change. I realized that the sale was quite poor in most of the souvenir stores, probably it was not the peak season for tourists, I suppose.

We went to the neighboring towns in a guided tour next day and stopped at the city center of Huanchaco. There was a nice square in the middle as most of the south American cities. The buildings were nice and colorful and the designs and architecture was quite interesting. We then went to see some pre-colombian archeological sites.

The amazing archaeological city of Chan Chan is located just a few miles outside of the city of Trujillo. The valley in which it is found is known as the Moche Valley, and in terms of importance, Chan Chan figures among the most prominent historical sites in all of Peru. The Chan Chan ruins are spread over a fairly wide area. Chan Chan was very interesting among the other archeological sites in Peru. It was all made of mud, so they had to protect those from damage by rain and erosion by covering them properly. Part of it was remaining of the original built but most of it was restored afterwards copying the form of original built. Both Huanchaco and Chan Chan are within Trujilla. The meaning of Chan Chan is probably Soul Soul, as the locals think, but the word comes from Pre-Inca time, so it cannot be confirmed.

We had some nice dinner at one of the beach restaurants and went to the bus station for our night bus to the next destination, Mancora.