Peru - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 794

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the way to the car park of the Huacas
(20min; S1.40). From Huanchaco,
simply take the larger combi “H Corazón”
all the way to Ovalo Grau (30min;
S1.50) and change. A taxi to the site from
Trujillo costs around S15 (20min).

To get here , take any combi going
between Trujillo and Huanchaco and ask
the driver to drop you at the Museo de
Chan Chan. There is no public transport
between the different sites on the ticket,
so hire a taxi from Trujillo (see p.794) to
take you round and wait (depending on
sites visited and distance covered, expect
to pay S30/hr), or take a hat and lots of
water if you plan to walk; the desert sun
is unforgiving.

The Chan Chan complex
It's possible to see the Moche influence
in the motifs around CHAN CHAN , the
huge, stunningly beautiful ruined capital
city of the Chimú Empire , located across
the other side of Trujillo from the
Huacas. Just as impressive as the Huacas,
if not more so, the site stretches almost
the whole way between Trujillo and
Huanchaco and represents the largest
pre-Columbian ruins in the whole of
South America. While most of the area is
little more than melted mud walls, there
are a few remarkably well-preserved areas,
giving a great insight as to what the city
may have looked like. The main areas to
see are spread out and comprise the Nik
An temple complex, a site museum, the
Huaca El Dragon and the Huaca La
Esmeralda (all with the same hours: daily
9am-4pm; S10 for 2-day pass to all sites;
T

Huaca Cao Viejo
Equally impressive but less visited
(perhaps because it's 60km northwest of
Trujillo) lies another fascinating Moche
ruin, the HUACA CAO VIEJO , part of an
archeological site known as “El Brujo”
(The Wizard). Only discovered in 2006,
the huaca contained a mausoleum in
which an extremely well-preserved
woman was found, buried with enough
pomp to suggest that she was an
important Moche leader (the first female
discovery of this type in Peru). The site
is run by the Fundación Wiese, and the
heavily tattooed señora is due to go on
display in the adjoining modernist
museum, along with other discoveries
from the area (daily 9am-5pm; S10;
W

044 206 304).
It's best to start at the museum , which
you'll find about halfway to Huanchaco
on the main road, although you can buy
tickets at any of the sites. It has some
good background information, but most
importantly it has an enormous model
of what the city would once have looked
like, which helps as you tour the site
proper. From here, hop on a combi or
take a taxi (they wait in the car park) to the
Nik An Palace , a series of open-air temples
and passageways with some extraordinarily
beautiful patterns and lattice-work. Not far
away, the Huaca Arco Iris (The Rainbow
Temple; also referred to as Huaca El
Dragón, or Dragon Temple) was a
ceremonial or ritual pyramid rather than
a citadel, and sports more geometric and
zoomorphic designs, especially of dragons
and rainbows. On the other side of this
enormous city, Huaca La Esmeralda was
similar in function to Arco Iris but is much
older (around 1100 years old) and has
intricate designs, which have been restored
with relish if not historical perfection.

fundacionwiese.com).
To get here from Trujillo either visit
with an organized tour or take a bus or
colectivo from the Santa Cruz stop to
Chocope (45min; S3). From Chocope
take another bus to Magdalena de Cao
(20min; S1.50).

CHICLAYO
Apart from building a few convents
the Spanish never really bothered with
CHICLAYO , and tourists, too, would be
forgiven for missing out Peru's fourth-
largest city if it were only for the city
itself. Though not an unpleasant place
to spend a day or so, it's full of casinos,
banks and bus stations and not much else.
The attractions here are the remarkable
archeological finds in the nearby
countryside, which are of huge importance
to Peruvian culture and identity. It's well
worth spending at least a few days in the
area getting to grips with the different