Duration 3 Days and 2 Night
Departures Daily departures
Activities According the below itinerary
Airfares Not included, available upon request
DAY 1 LIMA TO CHICLAYO: THE "CRACKED
PYRAMID", TÚCUME, AND THE ROYAL TOMBS OF SIPÁN.
We take an early morning flight from Lima to the northern
city of Chiclayo (Airfare Not Included), Upon arrival
transfer to the hotel and after some rest time we set off
for the mud-brick pyramid that made world headlines in 1987
with one of the most sensational finds of recent
archaeology. Known as the Huaca Rajada -- the "Cracked
Pyramid", because of the deep gulleys weathered into its
flanks -- this eroded adobe platform yielded fabulous
ancient treasures from a series of deeply buried tombs of
the pre-Inca Moche culture, who lived in the valleys of
Peru's north coast 1,500 years ago. To get there we drive
east up the broad, flat Reque valley past fields of
sugarcane studded with varicolored pastel foothills of the
great Andean chain, then arriving at the modern village of Sipán. Here we see the tombs themselves, with superb
reconstructions of the burials of priests and chieftains,
together with their sacrificed guards and companions.
A highly informative site museum tells the story of this
extraordinary civilization, who created some of the finest
pottery, jewelry and goldworking of the Americas -- while
also staging macabre costumed rituals of combat, sacrifice
and propitiation as they sought to mediate a never-ending
struggle between the forces of Order and Chaos.
We return to Chiclayo for a delicious lunch of Peru's
northern-style cuisine, and then continue on to Lambayeque,
where we visit the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum. This modern
building, representing the style of a Moche pyramid, was
built to house the stunning and priceless objects unearthed
at Sipán. (A single looted object from the tombs was
intercepted at an auction in the U.S. -- carrying a reserve
price of $1.6 million!)
Here we see the incredible array of precious symbols and
images, stones and shell necklaces, ear-plugs and
headdresses that were worn and displayed at Moche
ceremonies, and also learn what is known of their meaning.
This astonishing visit ends at an "animated waxworks"
exhibit of the lords and retinue of the Moche court,
allowing us to glimpse and imagine the world of an
unfamiliar but dazzling civilization that thrived here at a
time when Europe was sliding into the Dark Ages after the
fall of the Roman Empire.
After these sensational experiences we drive to an oasis of
calm at Tucumé, today's final destination. Here we see the
chronological sequence that followed the fall of the Moche,
at a site where their descendants, the Sicán culture,
continued to amass millions of adobe bricks for the building
of mighty pyramids -- including the longest of its kind in
the world, at more than 700m/2,300ft -- but were now
influenced by highland tribes, and began to abandon their
old ways. The history of this scenic site -- extensively
investigated by the famed Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl
-- leads us all the way to the Incas, who conquered the
region not long before they, in turn, were conquered by the
Spanish. We can climb to a viewing platform with superb
views of the surrounding pyramids and the dry woodland
habitat of the Leche valley. We can also visit the small,
intimate and low-tech site museum, to enjoy the excellent
collection of excavated objects, dioramas of daily life, and
models of the pyramids.
We return to Chiclayo for an overnight stay. (L)
DAY 2 CHICLAYO TO TRUJILLO: ACROSS THE NORTH PERUVIAN
DESERT TO TRUJILLO AND THE MOCHE PYRAMIDS OF THE SUN AND
MOON.
In the morning, we'll travel with our guide by private car
or bus to Trujillo. This half-day journey south down the
Pan-American highway offers a shifting panorama of scenes
from coastal Peru, alternating irrigated river valleys such
as the Jequetepeque and Chicama, with stretches of arid dune
and rocky desert. We make a stop at pacasmayo to enjoy a
delicious lunch.
Upon request optional visit the archaeological site of El
Brujo: This site featured in National Geographic magazine
after the sensational discovery here of the mummy of a
tattooed priestess, buried with a variety of ceremonial and
military accoutrements. An extraordinary array of
multicolored murals dating from seven or more phases of
construction depicts both scenes from the daily lives of the
Moche, and gory rituals of sacrifice.
Additional: $76 per person based on single and $46 based on
double
We arrive in Trujillo in the early afternoon. This city,
founded in 1534 on the orders of Francisco Pizarro,
maintains a colonial atmosphere, with its spacious main
square, and marvellous colonial-period adobe buildings in
the coastal colonial style, featuring huge barred windows
and massive wooden doorways. We continue onwards, driving a
short way from Trujillo, to visit the Huaca de la Luna, and
the Huaca del Sol, two huge flat-topped pyramids built by
the Moche culture between 0 and 600A.D. The Huaca de la Luna
is an extraordinary demonstration of what patient long-term
archaeology can achieve. Here, at a site that has been well
known and frequently looted for centuries, excavations have
revealed layer upon layer of ancient construction,
uncovering wall after wall of colorful friezes that were
intentionally buried by the Moche, and had not seen the
light of day for one-and-a-half thousand years. Bloodthirsty
fanged deities and exotic gods in the form of spiders,
snakes felines, octopi and other marine creatures rub
shoulders with lines of dancers, warriors and naked
prisoners, and scenes of ritual combat. One wall is covered
with such a multitude of mystifying symbols that it has been
labeled simply "The Complicated Theme" -- until some future
archaeologist can offer a plausible explanation of them. A
site museum to display material unearthed here is under
construction, and when opened it will be part of this visit.
We return to Trujillo to spend the night. Overnight. (B, L)
DAY 3 TRUJILLO TO LIMA: COLONIAL TRUJILLO, THE
PICTURESQUE BEACH RESORT OF HUANCHACO, AND THE PRE-INCA CITY
OF CHAN CHAN.
In the morning we tour the historic center of Trujillo, a
city whose heart still pulses with colonial splendor. We
visit the immense main square and the spacious mansions
built by Spanish and Creole gentry during the 17th and 18th
centuries. Then we make our way through Trujillo towards the
coast, arriving at the great Chimú center of Chan Chan, the
largest adobe city ever built. It was in fact an elite
settlement, a series of nine enormous palaces belonging to
successive rulers of the Chimú realm. At its height the
population here may have reached 50,000 people. Many of them
were artists and craftspeople, who made the sumptuous
goldwork, textiles and pottery for which the Chimú were
famous. At the Tschudi palace enclosure we enter a
labyrinthine series of courtyards lined with clay friezes of
fish and ocean birds, and walled in places with an open
meshwork adobe building style believed to represent fishing
nets. We visit inner patios, residences, administrative
buildings, temples, platforms and storehouses, and a huge
reservoir where "sunken gardens" may have produced
specialized crops for the Chimu nobility.
We continue on to the nearby beach resort of Huanchaco,
where we have a chance to try the superb seafood of Trujillo
at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Here
fishermen still paddle out to sea, kneeling on caballitos de
totora -- little one-man reed rafts which have been used for
millennia to collect the abundant bounty of the Pacific
ocean.
In the afternoon we drive to the airport in time for our
flight to Lima. (B, L)
END OF THE SERVICES
*IMPORTANT:
1-Please note that on Mondays the Museum of Royal Tombs of
Sipan and the Museum of Sican are closed.
Instead we may offer the Bruning Museum.
2-The city tour in Trujillo suggested program Monday through
Friday between 9 am and 2 pm.
Outside these hours that may be widescreen or alternative
views. |
Click to enlarge
Funeral apparel of the Lord of Sipán, Lambayeque |
Cusco &
Machupicchu 
