South America footprint: CHICLAYO AND THE ADVENTURE- ONE DAY

MUSEUMS AND PYRAMIDES

Cecila and I decided to make a trip up to northern Peru to the famous Kuelap, unfortunately the awful weather forced us to change our plans and stay in our official “departure city”; Chiclayo.

After 13 hours in a night bus from Lima and the sad decision of no going to our original destination we start doing a quick research about our new “quick break” destination, luckily Chiclayo has a lot to offer.

How we pretty much wasted our first morning in Chiclayo (making decision and finding a hostel) we tried to take advantage of the day going to the closest place, LAMBAYEQUE TOWN located only 12km away from the city. There’s public transportation to go there from ELIAS AGUIRRE SQUARE. You either can take a colectivo (a regular car for 4 people / Cost: PEN 2.00 p.p) or a combi (a minivan for 12 people/ Cost: PEN 1.50 p.p). We decided to take the car and asked to be drop off close to the museums, that stop is right in the main avenue at INKA FARMA drugstore, which is a middle point; to the left for BRUNING MUSEUM or the right to TUMBAS REALES DE SIPAN MUSEUM, which is the most interesting and interactive.

TUMBAS REALES DE SIPAN MUSEUM must be one of the best museums in the whole Peru, it’s absolutely stunning and the building has been designed in the shape of the ancient tombs of the great Mochica civilization. Cameras or electronic devices aren’t allowed in and may be the best way to really see and enjoy all the extraordinary things displayed and not wasting time taking a million pictures. I recommend to take a guide, it cost only PEN.20 (USD.7.5) and will provide you a lot of interesting information, however if you prefer going on your own there are explanations in each room and in specific pieces but only in Spanish.

It‘s an hour and a half of a splendid museum that displays original pieces of the great LORD OF SIPAN and much more. At the end don’t forget to visit VILLA MOCHICA and try the delicious TORTA DE MAIZ (fried corn cake).

We walked back to the main avenue and took the public van to TUCUME (20km), from Tucume we took a Mototaxi (Peruvian version of a tuk tuk) and start the visit to the pyramids, depending of your guide the cultural visit may or not be interesting (our guide was really disappointing and I considered overpriced) but the the place itself, all these pyramids, built up 100% in mud bricks and eroded by the rain and wind, give impression we’re surrounded by mountains when in fact it’s all made by the hand of men. Make sure you climb both of the look outs and wait for the sunset, it’s stunning.