DAY 190
Welcome to pre-Inca Peru! It might not be clear if you just visit the Andes region but there was a life before the Incas. Caral was home to the 2nd most ancient civilization of the world. It began here in 5000BC in these fertile valleys surrounded by desertic mountains. It's Peru's coastal trademark it seems. The white-yellow-brown mountains are for sure very scenic. The site, discovered in 94, is huge and impressive. Most of the pyramids have been excavated but there's more to the site than just that. It was a full city, capital of a group of 18 city-state, with its amphitheaters, workshops, altars, etc... The city was build on a desertic hill to keep all the fertile land for farming. They also had a system to channel the water from higher up in the valley. There's still a lot to do on the site obviously but so far it appears that though they were Eco savvy and well organized, they didn't use metals or ceramics yet though.
Back on the panamerican, we head north. We have quite a bit of driving to go all the way to Trujillo. The landscape doesn't change, it's still very desertic; Rocks and dune and virgin beaches. Hues from white to beige to brown to red without any touch of green. It's another world every time we enter a valley, an explosion of green, an oasis in the desert. The sunset on all of that is spectacular. Driving after sunset is not fun though. Buses and trucks overtaking us at 120km/h with little to no visibility... Irresponsible. A truck on its side reminds us this kind of driving comes with a price. We reach out destination at 10pm... alive!
DAY 191
As soon as we're out of town, it's the same rocky desert again. The first site we visit belongs to the Mochica culture. The flagship is the "huaca cortada"; a hill made of bricks that was cut in two. The nearby museum has a trove of artifacts and interesting insights on that culture when men and women had the same power. They were already using totora reeds to craft their fishing boats, a practice that continues to this day. The famous and well preserve queen is at the very end of the museum. Outside is the main temple. It's a huge adobe pyramid with poly-chrome bas-relief figures. Inside are well restored rooms with more poly-chrome bas-reliefs. As in Caral, temples were built on top of each other. At the end of the religious circle, the previous one was filled and buried (along with members of the clergy!) and a new one was added on top as an extra layer. They did it 5 times!
DAY 192
Awful night! After so many months on the road we just had our first serious food poisoning; the ceviche probably :/ We can't dwell too long on it anyway, Chan chan is waiting for us. Built around from 850AD to 1300AD by the Chimu, it's the largest adobe city in the world and the largest pre-Colombian city of the Americas. At its peak, it was home to 60,000 people! It's wall are huge (up to 15m high) and the city is indeed immense (20 km2). It was conquered by the Incas after a 10 years siege shortly before the Spaniards arrived. Inside the temple occupies 11ha and has walls decorated by bas-reliefs of sea birds, waves, fish, fishing nets, chipmunks and pelicans; Things that were key to their way of life. They were actually using the pelicans to fish! They also had lamas in the region strangely. The animal had less wool and shorter legs and neck than its mountain counterpart as an adaptation to the warmer climate. They disappeared with the introduction of the horse by the Spaniards. In the Royal section, the alleys are built with perspective illusions, like the canal in Versailles to give the illusion its width is always constant.
Back in Trujilo, we check out the Plaza de armas and its painted colonial buildings. The cathedral is yellow, a hotel is brown, some other buildings are red and blue. It's Nice! The inside of the church is modern, decorate with bright colors and paintings. We then head to the famous restaurant "Mar picante" but it's closed. Luckily we stumble upon the owner and he gives us a lift to one of his other restaurant. Too bad, they don't have ceviche like the other one but at least they have chicken soup for Mar (chicken soup is the go to food for when you're sick!)
DAY 193
Today we start heading south, it's time to go back to Lima. But before we do so we have to visit the Huacas del sol y de la Luna. These are tombs from the Moche people. They lived there from 150 to 800 and are ancestors of the Chimu. Just like the Mochica, they were building on top of existing structures. These tombs have been used and re-used for 600 years, each time a new level was added on top of the previous one. The Huaca del sol is closed which makes sense, it's cloudy today;) Lots of skeletons were found during the excavation. They were doing sacrifices to the God of the mountain. The chosen ones were the losers of ritual fights. Thanks to their construction technique, the bas-reliefs are well preserved since they were buried by the next iteration of the tomb.
This civilization collapsed due to failure to deliver results from the religion. Non stop rains wouldn't stop despite sacrifices. The next thing they did was to get rid of the god and its priests... Religion can be a dangerous business when you can't deliver. It seems that every 500 years or so, a very powerful El Niño causes so much trouble that civilizations in the region collapse. Dozens of years of chaos ensue and a new civilization reappears, close by, loosely based on the previous one. Some pockets of the previous one survive and when the dust clears, they start something new.
The nearby museum has many gorgeous potteries. The work is delicate and the potteries have been spared by time. There we also meet what has to be the ugliest dog in the world. It's endemic and has actually a medical purpose ;) With its temperature of 39-40C it's perfect to treat arthritis. Yes, they were using these dogs as heat source :D