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Duration 3 Days and 2 Night
Departures Daily departures
Activities According the below itinerary
Airfares Not included, available upon request
DAY 1 LIMA TO CHICLAYO: THE "CRACKED PYRAMID", TÚCUME,
AND THE ROYAL TOMBS OF SIPÁN.
We take an early morning flight from Lima to the
northern city of Chiclayo (Airfare Not Included), Upon
arrival transfer to the hotel and after some rest time
we set off for the mud-brick pyramid that made world
headlines in 1987 with one of the most sensational finds
of recent archaeology. Known as the Huaca Rajada -- the
"Cracked Pyramid", because of the deep gulleys weathered
into its flanks -- this eroded adobe platform yielded
fabulous ancient treasures from a series of deeply
buried tombs of the pre-Inca Moche culture, who lived in
the valleys of Peru's north coast 1,500 years ago. To
get there we drive east up the broad, flat Reque valley
past fields of sugarcane studded with varicolored pastel
foothills of the great Andean chain, then arriving at
the modern village of Sipán. Here we see the tombs
themselves, with superb reconstructions of the burials
of priests and chieftains, together with their
sacrificed guards and companions.
A highly informative site museum tells the story of this
extraordinary civilization, who created some of the
finest pottery, jewelry and goldworking of the Americas
-- while also staging macabre costumed rituals of
combat, sacrifice and propitiation as they sought to
mediate a never-ending struggle between the forces of
Order and Chaos.
We return to Chiclayo for a delicious lunch of Peru's
northern-style cuisine, and then continue on to
Lambayeque, where we visit the Royal Tombs of Sipán
Museum. This modern building, representing the style of
a Moche pyramid, was built to house the stunning and
priceless objects unearthed at Sipán. (A single looted
object from the tombs was intercepted at an auction in
the U.S. -- carrying a reserve price of $1.6 million!)
Here we see the incredible array of precious symbols and
images, stones and shell necklaces, ear-plugs and
headdresses that were worn and displayed at Moche
ceremonies, and also learn what is known of their
meaning. This astonishing visit ends at an "animated
waxworks" exhibit of the lords and retinue of the Moche
court, allowing us to glimpse and imagine the world of
an unfamiliar but dazzling civilization that thrived
here at a time when Europe was sliding into the Dark
Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire.
After these sensational experiences we drive to an oasis
of calm at Tucumé, today's final destination. Here we
see the chronological sequence that followed the fall of
the Moche, at a site where their descendants, the Sicán
culture, continued to amass millions of adobe bricks for
the building of mighty pyramids -- including the longest
of its kind in the world, at more than 700m/2,300ft --
but were now influenced by highland tribes, and began to
abandon their old ways. The history of this scenic site
-- extensively investigated by the famed Norwegian
explorer Thor Heyerdahl -- leads us all the way to the
Incas, who conquered the region not long before they, in
turn, were conquered by the Spanish. We can climb to a
viewing platform with superb views of the surrounding
pyramids and the dry woodland habitat of the Leche
valley. We can also visit the small, intimate and
low-tech site museum, to enjoy the excellent collection
of excavated objects, dioramas of daily life, and models
of the pyramids.
We return to Chiclayo for an overnight stay. (L)
DAY 2 CHICLAYO TO TRUJILLO: ACROSS THE NORTH PERUVIAN
DESERT TO TRUJILLO AND THE MOCHE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN AND
MOON.
In the morning, we'll travel with our guide by private
car or bus to Trujillo. This half-day journey south down
the Pan-American highway offers a shifting panorama of
scenes from coastal Peru, alternating irrigated river
valleys such as the Jequetepeque and Chicama, with
stretches of arid dune and rocky desert. We make a stop
at pacasmayo to enjoy a delicious lunch.
Upon request optional visit the archaeological site of
El Brujo: This site featured in National Geographic
magazine after the sensational discovery here of the
mummy of a tattooed priestess, buried with a variety of
ceremonial and military accoutrements. An extraordinary
array of multicolored murals dating from seven or more
phases of construction depicts both scenes from the
daily lives of the Moche, and gory rituals of sacrifice.
Additional: $76 per person based on single and $46 based
on double
We arrive in Trujillo in the early afternoon. This city,
founded in 1534 on the orders of Francisco Pizarro,
maintains a colonial atmosphere, with its spacious main
square, and marvellous colonial-period adobe buildings
in the coastal colonial style, featuring huge barred
windows and massive wooden doorways. We continue
onwards, driving a short way from Trujillo, to visit the
Huaca de la Luna, and the Huaca del Sol, two huge
flat-topped pyramids built by the Moche culture between
0 and 600A.D. The Huaca de la Luna is an extraordinary
demonstration of what patient long-term archaeology can
achieve. Here, at a site that has been well known and
frequently looted for centuries, excavations have
revealed layer upon layer of ancient construction,
uncovering wall after wall of colorful friezes that were
intentionally buried by the Moche, and had not seen the
light of day for one-and-a-half thousand years.
Bloodthirsty fanged deities and exotic gods in the form
of spiders, snakes felines, octopi and other marine
creatures rub shoulders with lines of dancers, warriors
and naked prisoners, and scenes of ritual combat. One
wall is covered with such a multitude of mystifying
symbols that it has been labeled simply "The Complicated
Theme" -- until some future archaeologist can offer a
plausible explanation of them. A site museum to display
material unearthed here is under construction, and when
opened it will be part of this visit.
We return to Trujillo to spend the night. Overnight. (B,
L)
DAY 3 TRUJILLO TO LIMA: COLONIAL TRUJILLO, THE
PICTURESQUE BEACH RESORT OF HUANCHACO, AND THE PRE-INCA
CITY OF CHAN CHAN.
In the morning we tour the historic center of Trujillo,
a city whose heart still pulses with colonial splendor.
We visit the immense main square and the spacious
mansions built by Spanish and Creole gentry during the
17th and 18th centuries. Then we make our way through
Trujillo towards the coast, arriving at the great Chimú
center of Chan Chan, the largest adobe city ever built.
It was in fact an elite settlement, a series of nine
enormous palaces belonging to successive rulers of the
Chimú realm. At its height the population here may have
reached 50,000 people. Many of them were artists and
craftspeople, who made the sumptuous goldwork, textiles
and pottery for which the Chimú were famous. At the
Tschudi palace enclosure we enter a labyrinthine series
of courtyards lined with clay friezes of fish and ocean
birds, and walled in places with an open meshwork adobe
building style believed to represent fishing nets. We
visit inner patios, residences, administrative
buildings, temples, platforms and storehouses, and a
huge reservoir where "sunken gardens" may have produced
specialized crops for the Chimu nobility.
We continue on to the nearby beach resort of Huanchaco,
where we have a chance to try the superb seafood of
Trujillo at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Here fishermen still paddle out to sea, kneeling on
caballitos de totora -- little one-man reed rafts which
have been used for millennia to collect the abundant
bounty of the Pacific ocean.
In the afternoon we drive to the airport in time for our
flight to Lima. (B, L)
END OF THE SERVICES
*IMPORTANT:
1-Please note that on Mondays the Museum of Royal Tombs
of Sipan and the Museum of Sican are closed.
Instead we may offer the Bruning Museum.
2-The city tour in Trujillo suggested program Monday
through Friday between 9 am and 2 pm.
Outside these hours that may be widescreen or
alternative views.
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