People go to Chiclayo, our first stop (we flew directly from Lima at 5 am after landing there at about midnight) to enjoy the tremendous gold treasures and beautiful art of cultures dating back thousands of years. The Lord of Sipan is just one example.dates toabout 1,700 years ago I think, and this was an important man buried under at least 6 separate layers of gold and beautiful shell beads and fabrics and silver, and then lying on top of a few more layers, and buried with many gentlemen,ladies, .llamas and dogs who all chose to go to the afterlife with him. There is a fabulous, fabulous museum there which takes you down into the tomb.it is actually in the smaller, more traditional town of Lambayeque, where we stayed at the pleasant and traditional hotel San Roque which alas is way too overpriced. but nice. and since we stayed one night but arrived at 7 am one day and left at 5 pm the next, we did have a lot of tlc from this hotel.
The very, very best part of our stay was day two, when we took combis (shared microbuses) north from Lambayeque past the town and ruins of Tucume,up to the town of Pacora, where we met up with this neat swiss lady in her 30s who lives with her Peruvian husband, 7 year old daughter, 7 Peruvian paso horses, 37 chickens,4 dogs, at least one cat, at least one cow, at least one sheep in a 2 acre little farm with humble adobe buildings. you can stay there for 25 soles a night, about 8 dollars,which sure beats the60 dollars we spent for the HotelSan Roque. but, I digress. we went out with her (her name is andrea,and the web site is http://www.cabalgatasperu.com/, on 3 lovely horses,out 2 hours across fields into a mesquite forest and to some fabulous ruins ' Batan Grande . This is where the Sican, not Sipan, culture thrived. imagine our pleasure to climb on ancient pyramids then go to one where about 35 joyous archaeology diggers took time off fromtheir soccer games and long lunch hour to carefully, carefully excavate an amazing tomb and sacrifice that promises to be as amazing as the prior ones. at this time they have discovered about 4 human sacrifices, 1 llama, 1 dog and many ceramics. below our feet was they believe the tomb ofsomeone very, very wealthy. it was very exciting to be standing right on top of one of these.
Another great thing on this ride was burrowing owls. our horses dance daintily along, that is what pasos do, and the one I was on did not particularly like sand,and so paced a bit faster when we got to a sandy area. in this sandy area was a large number of burrowing owl nests! they nest rightin the ground and they stand in 2s and 3s fearlessly by their nests. like prairie dogs. light grey with happy little owl faces. not fierce at all. maybe I or Craig will find a picture of the pottery sculptures that the Moche culture made of these owls. they had at least one owl-human type god figure you see a lot. and looks just like these owls.
the forest was very pleasant, widely spaced mesquite and a few other trees. The coast this time of year has morning cloud cover, light breezes, andso even though it is deserty, it was very pleasant. the huge, huge pyramids around here are all made of adobe bricks, thousands and thousands, and the local people often live in very similar adobe homes so you see the bricks drying everywhere as they have for at least 2500 years. the people are friendly and inquisitive, love to talk story with you and we had a lot of fun crowded into the little cars and larger minibuses that act as local transport. costs about 1 sol, 37 cents US, to travel 40 minutes and you see a lot of local life. friendly little kids who always gaze in wonder at Craig with his blue eyes and Indiana Jones fedora. they never seen anything like it!
The food. food in northern peru is deeeeelicious. lots of fresh fish usually served in ceviche or a version with tasty little sauce all over it, lots of savory duck and young goat and lots of yummy tacu tacu which is like a fried rice but with a more western style kind of savory gravy holding it all together.
The peruvian paso is a lovely horse, here is a picture of one in high style
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