Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
but there is a model in the small onsite
museum
. Stop by the museum first if you're in
need of a guide, as you may be able to pick up a Spanish-speaking caretaker for S30.
To get here, a
mototaxi
(three-wheeled motorcycle rickshaw taxi) from Casma costs
around S6. Other early sites in the Sechín area have not been excavated due to a lack of
funds. From the museum, you can see the large, flat-topped hill of
Sechín Alto
in the dis-
tance. The nearby fortress of
Chanquillo
consists of several towers surrounded by con-
centric walls, but it is best appreciated from the air. Aerial photographs are on display at
the museum.
The entry ticket to Sechín also allows you to visit the Mochica ruins of
Pañamarca
,
10km inland from the Pan-American Hwy on the road to Nepeña. These ruins are badly
weathered, but you can see some of the covered murals if you ask the guard.
Sleeping & Eating
Hostal Monte Carlo $
( 41-1421; Nepeña 16; s/d/tr S30/40/70; )
Management somehow manages to be
gruff and helpful at the same time at Casma's best-value option, a clean and bright (too
bright!) hotel just east of the plaza. Fairly spacious rooms all come with cable TV and the
bamboo ceilings shake things up a bit. If you're walking from the Ormeño bus offices,
continue west until Plaza San Martín, where Nepeña splits off to the right.
HOTEL
Hostal Gregori $
( 9-631-4291; Ormeño 579; s/d S35/55; )
This once funky white hotel with random
potted plants in specially designed crevices and architecturally rakish wall angles is a little
more off white these days. But there's hot water and cable TV in the spacious rooms and a
few angled wooden chaise longues to kick back in.
HOTEL
Hotel El Farol $$
( 41-1064; Túpac Amaru 450; s/d incl breakfast S85/120; )
One of the (brace
yourself for poetic license)
fanciest
places to bed down in Casma, El Farol curves around
a fetching garden, complete with a dainty gazebo, bamboo-lined restaurant/bar and sea-
sonal pool (November to March). Though a little worse for wear, the walled-in compound
supplies an oasis of calm from the street clamor and there's a faded seaside glory about
the place.
HOTEL
Hotel Los Poncianas $$
RESORT
