Chiclayo, Trujillo, Lima

[no comment]

I've been back from Peru about 5 days now and I'm still trying to shake this sickness I got in the latter part of the trip. Headaches, sore throat & congestion.... not too bad now but it took some fun out of the experience.  The first part of the trip was in the two northern Peru cities of Chiclayo & Trujillo, and then on to Lima to meet up with some amigas I met online. Being sick doesn't help in making a first impression.
Arrived in Jorge Chavez airport about 10pm on a Sunday without time to check in to a hotel. A flight to Chiclayo would leave just after 4am. So I wandered the airport and tried to sleep in chairs. Went to Chiclayo and got picked up for the transfer to the hotel before dawn.  Had time to shower and sleep a bit before a tour of the city at 2pm.  With all due respect to Chiclayo, there's nothing to see in Chiclayo. Maybe they've got some fine cuisine but not sights. We visited the central market where there are 'shamans' peddling their herbs. Leather shoe makers are there, also straw hats, artesenias, souvenirs, junk.  What caught my attention was what looked like a green squash about 10 inches long called "San Pedro," aka peyote.  The tour wrapped up and I had plenty of time to kill.  I walked back to the market thinking maybe I'd just sample that cactus back at the hotel. I didn't know how to prepare it and left without it. The next day I spoke to my guide, a 47 year old German expat who said it is prepared by boiling and the toxic foam is removed. The broth is then consumed. This German guy would have some tales to tell on this board, he's living there now with his Peruvian wife and three children (oldest is 10 years old), speaks four languages and has travelled and lived in Asia, Brazil, Colombia & now Peru.  He has been to Iquitos & sampled Ayahuasca and peyote in Chiclayo.
Next day we set out for the archaeological site of the tomb of el Señor de Sipan over some bad roads and past a lot of sugar cane fields.  The Lord of Sipan was a Moche ruler and the tomb is a relatively recent discovery. The Moche were a pre Inca civilization and the discovery of the tomb with artifacts intact invites comparison to the discovery of King Tut's tomb in Egypt. After viewing the dig, we went to Lambayeque to visit the museum dedicated to displaying the artifacts found at the tomb. An impressive museum and some good eats at a local Lambayeque restaurant afterward.
The guide warned me of an impending nationwide transit strike scheduled for the next day, when I was scheduled to go by bus to Trujillo. It was decided that I should leave that evening to avoid being stranded. At the bus station the television was featuring a telenovella with a transvestite storyline.
Next to Trujillo...

[fathertime]

Keep it coming NC, as you continue to recover from your illness!  I am curious about Trujillo.  Did you meet any women in Chiclayo?


Fathertime!

[no comment]

FT, the first part of the Peru trip in the north was to see some cultural sights, arranged with a tour agency. I had phone numbers to meet women in Lima when I arrived for the 2nd half of the trip. It's possible to meet women in Trujillo or Chiclayo (Singlefather proves that) but there are just more women and more women with computers in Lima. Here are some population stats which include the outskirts of the cities:
Chiclayo - 495,415
Trujillo - 644,547
Lima -7,753,439
Trujillo is an older city than Chiclayo and has more interesting colonial architecture in town. It's also got the ancient adobe complex of Chan Chan, and the Huaca de la Luna (temple of the moon) on the outskirts of town. Those are impressive ancient sites that are still being excavated. 15 minutes away by taxi is the Huanchaco Beach Resort where you can get some good seafood. There are surfers there and also local fishermen who use caballitos de totora (little horses of tortora reeds), traditional rafts to fish as they have since pre-Columbian times. Caught a flight to Lima after two days.

[singlefather no more]

 An impressive museum and some good eats at a local Lambayeque restaurant afterward.

no comment,

Did you go to this restaurant in Lambayeque ? It was kind of a open roof restaurant in the middle... I can't remember the name..

http://picasaweb.google.com/ChiclayoNovia/MyTripToChiclayoPeruToVisitMyNovia/photo#5189350834251209266

"The Lord of Sipan was a Moche ruler and the tomb is a relatively recent discovery. The Moche were a pre Inca civilization and the discovery of the tomb with artifacts intact invites comparison to the discovery of King Tut's tomb in Egypt. After viewing the dig, we went to Lambayeque to visit the museum dedicated to displaying the artifacts found at the tomb."

I was impressed with the museum also .. I did not get out to the Sipan Tomb..

Did you enjoy it , was there much to see , are there washrooms and places to eat there ?

singlefather


..

[no comment]

SF, the Museum dedicated to the Lord of Sipan tomb discovery is more worthwhile than the archaeological site. The site of the dig is out in the boons over bad road. Not really any restaurants out there. The restaurant in Lambayeque near the museum is El Rincon del Pato. Good food. They list a website www.elrincondelpatoperu.com but it doesn't come up on my server.
I caught a flight to Lima from Trujillo. Hooked up with four women I had met on two websites, latinamericancupid & latinlovesearch.  I had their #'s and contacted them on a rented cell phone when I arrived in town. Tried to arrange some more dates and it should have been easier because there's always some one from Lima online for chatting.  Internet cafes are common in Miraflores or if you have a laptop the hotel will probably have net access in the room. I didn't manage to make any more dates than the four. Latinperuviansingles is an agency and I followed their directions from their website to drop in. They're supposed to be in Miraflores but I couldn't find the building and couldn't get anyone on the phone during business hours.

[singlefather no more]

no comment,

I really liked the museum and how it is shaped like a pyramid.. Real cool..

There are some very nice beaches that I guess you did not get to see in Chiclayo.. I have to try surfing one of these days there..

Surf's up Dudes.. lol lol ..

singlefather

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[singlefather no more]

no comment,

What Hotel did you stay at in Chiclayo ? What did you pay a night and how did you like it ?

I stayed at the "The Gran Hotel Chiclayo" .

singlefather

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[no comment]

SF,
Stayed at the Hotel las Musas.
www.lasmusashotel.com.pe
A three star hotel, so it's affordable.  Four star hotels can get too pretentious for me.  Nice restaurant on the 6th floor of the hotel.

[RJS]

I liked Trujillo the most of the 3 cities you visited. The Libertador there is quite nice and the main square is nicer than in Chiclayo. I spent very little time in lima. It's not much of a city, really. I can't believe you went to peru without going to Cusco or Machu Picchu though. Both are far more impressive than anything in Chiclayo.

[no comment]

RJS,
What did you do in Trujillo?  Did you get out and see the ancient sites of Chan Chan & la Huaca de la Luna?  Peru is not just Machu Picchu and Incan civilization.  There were ancient cultures that pre dated the Incas. I love history and those ancient ruins were fascinating to me.  There is still much to be discovered about the ancient history of the new world.  For example, satellite imaging is still turning up undiscovered ancient sites in Central America. With proper marketing and some better infrastructure including an international airport in Cusco, Peru could crank up the tourism business.  I left a visit to Machu Picchu for the future.
As for Lima, why do you think it's not much of a city?  Miraflores is a very modern district and has dining, gambling and night life.  The city has historical sites like the Museum of the Inquisition and the Convent of San Francisco with a tour of the catacombs next door.  I took a date to those two sites which were within walking distance of each other.  Did you know that the catacombs were used for burial for about 300 years and there are estimated to be 75,000 dead buried there? Isn't that romantic?  There is a well underneath the cathedral and it's filled with bones and skulls arranged in a circle and who knows how deep those remains go.  It put many things in perspective to contemplate all the torture of the inquisition and the centuries of death represented by piles of human remains and the dismemberment and human sacrifices of the ancient indigenous cultures.  It goes to show you how brief it all is... life I mean.  Carpe diem....  go for it.

[Researcher]

   Hey RJS,
        I'd stay away from the peyote, unless you have someone to babysit you for a while....

[no comment]

That restaurant in Lambayeque..... they had a postcard that listed their website as www.elrincondelpatoperu.com, but that didn't come up on the computer.  On a whim I tried www.elrincondelpato.com and that came up. An excellent restaurant with great food.  Now that you will have ties to the north of Perú you might want to visit the El Señor de Sipan museum in Lambayeque and check out that restaurant afterwards.

[singlefather no more]

Yes , that is the restaurant I was talking about.. Great food.
My Novia's parents took my Novia and I out to dinner there. Yeah I went to the museum it was very impressive.. I did not make it out to the Tomb.. Did you take the 1 hour ride out to the Tomb ?

Some of the sauces they make are to die for.. I am getting hungry thinking about that. lol

singlefather

.

[no comment]

Singlefather, if you didn't make it to the archaeological site you didn't miss much.  They're working on some building there to display artifacts so maybe it will be more interesting in the future.
 
Peru photos can be seen at picturetrail.com.  User name "Zanzibar"

[RJS]

RJS,
What did you do in Trujillo?  Did you get out and see the ancient sites of Chan Chan & la Huaca de la Luna?  Peru is not just Machu Picchu and Incan civilization.  There were ancient cultures that pre dated the Incas. I love history and those ancient ruins were fascinating to me.  There is still much to be discovered about the ancient history of the new world.  For example, satellite imaging is still turning up undiscovered ancient sites in Central America. With proper marketing and some better infrastructure including an international airport in Cusco, Peru could crank up the tourism business.  I left a visit to Machu Picchu for the future.
As for Lima, why do you think it's not much of a city?  Miraflores is a very modern district and has dining, gambling and night life.  The city has historical sites like the Museum of the Inquisition and the Convent of San Francisco with a tour of the catacombs next door.  I took a date to those two sites which were within walking distance of each other.  Did you know that the catacombs were used for burial for about 300 years and there are estimated to be 75,000 dead buried there? Isn't that romantic?  There is a well underneath the cathedral and it's filled with bones and skulls arranged in a circle and who knows how deep those remains go.  It put many things in perspective to contemplate all the torture of the inquisition and the centuries of death represented by piles of human remains and the dismemberment and human sacrifices of the ancient indigenous cultures.  It goes to show you how brief it all is... life I mean.  Carpe diem....  go for it.

Late reply, but yes, I did see Chan Chan. That's where i got roasted by the sun. In Chiclayo we went to Tucume and the gold museum or whatever it was called. Spending time in the jungle was the real highlight for me, even though I took a fair amount of archaeology at university. I was completely in awe of it. As for lima, the catacombs and museum of the inquisition sound interesting. My brother had been there before me and hadn't been impressed with Lima, so when i was planning i basically left it out in favor of other things. Besides, I have fancy night clubs and high-end restaurants where I live, and have been to more than enough of them, so they're not really an attraction for me. If i'm ever in Lima again I'll definitely check out the catacombs though. Btw, there's also a cool torture museum in London if you're in to that stuff.