Chiclayo is the 4th most important economic city in Peru. It doesn{t have the beautiful colonial structures like Trujillo as most was built in the early 1900s. The little taxi motorcycles race everywhere in the city and seem to have their own rules of the road. Like most cities here there are very few traffic lights...and very narrow sidewalks. Haven{t quite figured out how it is decided who goes thru the intersections.
We arrived here after a long busride from Trujillo...long because the bus was not at the standard we would like to become accustomed to. Our luggage road on the top, the A-C was minimal and the legroom didn{t accommodate the men. But, it was an adventure. Part of the trip was to a rather inaccessible ruin of the Moche people...that meant an hour ride down a potholed road with a very dusty component. The dust found all the little holes in the bus so we had to shake out our clothes at the end. But the ruins were so interesting. They found a young girl mummified in the top of this temple who was obviously a royal personage. The paintings and friezes still had some of their colour and view from the top of the structure looked to the Pacific ocean several hundred metres away. Just as interesting is the conclusions the archeologists make from all of this. Surrounding the temple were hundreds of little holes....all evidence of grave robbers over the years. The amount of loot they have taken is unfathomable, and it still goes on in places as the country is so poor. Experts believe that eventually though this northern area of Peru will rival the Valley of the Kings in China with the number of pyramid type mounds yet to be excavated and examined.
Today we visit a museum with one of the most beautiful examples of a tomb excavated here. Its discovery helped convince the government of the need to protect the treasures buried in the peruvian soil and they finally passed laws to prosecute looters 20 years ago.
