A great city to visit with so much to see in the surrounding suburbs and beautiful buildings in the city centre. I stayed at the Colonial Hotel with a great room for $17 and so close to everything. They had a lot of cheap tours organised going out to the sites so that's the way I went.
First afternoon I went out to the over restored Rainbow temple where I saw my first hairless dog. Hairless because of their body temperature and they do not have a full set of teeth, which is handy if they snarl at you! Onto the huge site of a former Chimu adobe city built in about 1300AD called Chan Chan. The size is staggering but because it was built of mud bricks a lot of it now looks like shaggy sandhills. The restoration going on includes topping the walls with cement and then digging down to find the good bits of which there is plenty on display. This is a world heritage site and a lot is yet to be uncovered. Final stop was out at Huanchaco beach where they make a big thing of the reed fishing boats that single fishermen take out through the surf. A nice jetty give you a good view of that surf that needed a bit more size and punch when I was there. Great spot though and once more its a left hand break--goofies eat your hearts out!!
Next day we went out to the other side of the city and saw the fabulous Temple of the Moon and the yet to be developed, huge, Temple of the Sun. Five layers of temples have been built on top of one another by new dynasties and the various layers have been exposed by the Spanish, grave robbers and now the archaeologists. Its a very special place looking at this civilisation from its legacy of beautiful artwork left on walls. The Temple of the Moon was great and what awaits us when they start on the bigger Temple of the Sun?
Righto--enough culture---back to Chicama for me to try and catch the biggest wave in the world!!!!
