Drunk Scotsmen, Human Sacrifices and Curry

Trujillo and Huanchaco

We got into Trujillo around 7ish and got a cab to Huanchaco for 15 soles. Arrived at our place pretty early and everything was shut. The door was opened by a Peruvian woman who invited us in. As we filled in our names and stuff, the owner came out. He was an old British guy called William. As he started to talk, I knew we were in for an entertaining few days. He was f-ing and blinding about having to get up at 5 to get his kids off to school and how he had just got back from England and had some teeth out so he'd had a few whiskies last night to numb the pain. We sat and chatted and had a coffee with him while our room was cleaned. By 'chatted', I mean we listened while he talked about his life, his various adventures in South America, how he gets money very easily by taking suitcases full of cheap Peruvian handicrafts back to the UK and flogging them for 10 times the cost. We were very interested in this bit as we had discussed this idea when in Bolivia and now also thinking about taking some stuff to Oz – try to pay for our wedding... Apparently, William built up an English Academy business in Venezuela and had it all – raking in 50 grand a month, cars, boats, motorcycles – then 'the revolution struck' and he had to flee across the border with his Peruvian wife and 2 little kids, losing it all. He gradually built himself up again, going back to the UK and creating, then selling, various window cleaning businesses before buying up this property in Huanchaco and setting up as a hostel/restaurant/bar. His daughter was due to enter some sort of Spring Queen competition at school today so he had to 'f-ing shave and put a f-ing suit on' so we left him to it and had a rest for a few hours. I asked him what the password was for the wifi and he said it was his daughters birthday but he couldn't remember what it was. After asking his wife he told me it was '1987'. I spent a good hour trying to connect, thinking there was something wrong with the laptop and trying to do all the sorts of computer stuff that I really don't know how to do before I started to think that it was odd that a 23 year old girl was getting dressed up for a Spring Queen competition for school. I took a guess that his daughter was probably 13, not 23, re-entered her new birthday and was connected straight off. By this point, we had judged William to be a 'character' and a probable alcoholic.

      After a good sleep, we went out for a wander, and to find a cash machine. After a little walk, we decided that there was literally nothing in the town and were considering going into Trujillo. We saw William again who directed us down the one street we hadn't been. It turned out that there was a decent sized and fairly busy town hidden there. The beach was full of rubbish and had quite harsh sand but it was pretty enough – lots of straw canoes. We got a bit of lunch somewhere and headed back. Later on, we went to order the curries from our place as we had been assured they were very good and authentic. The famiy came back in high spirits. The daughter had won the competition and was crowned Spring Queen for the whole school - “She's very beautiful, works on the TV doing dancing and that!” - William told us that he was going to drink “a whole bottle of whisky” to celebrate. We left him to it. The curry was very nice.

Plaza de Arms in Trujillo

   The next day we got a cab into Trujillo and had a wonder round. It didn't take us long to decide that there was nothing to see or do there. We booked a tour for the next day to see all the archaelogical sites then went back to Huanchaco. Took it easy for the rest of the day, strolled along the beach, had a drink, ate cheap in a spaghetti place, went back to our room. 

The colonial buildings and colurs in Trujillo

Us at the Temple of the Moon

      We had to get up early, nearly 10 in the morning (!), as we were being picked up by cab for our tour. It arrived around 40minutes late and had to rush to get us to the tour place on time. Once there we were placed in a large van with a mix of Spainish speakers and English speakers and headed to the Temple of the Sun and Moon. It was around 20 minutes out of Trujillo but when we arrived we were told we couldn't go to the Temple of the Moon as it was still waiting to be excavated and that it was also a solid building used for the adminstartion of the Moche empire at the time. We then went to the Temple of the Sun which was actually a really amazing place. The guide we had spoke good English and was very passionate about the sites in Peru and the history of the place. She reminded me of a cross between Jasumami and my Psychology teacher at A-Level. 

Our lovely guide at the Temple of the Dragon

Like most of what we had learned in South America the temple was also used for Human Sacrifice but unlike Huaca Pucllana in Lima the sacrfices were not women or children but men who fought like Gladiators and the loser (whoever took the others hat off) was then sacrificed, their blood was placed into a cup and taken to the top of the temple to the priest where it is poured into the soil as a offering. The temple was amazing as it isn't just one temple but 6, each built on top of each other every time the high priest died. The place had many room with some amazing examples of the art and drawing they used throughout the temple and the colours (see pics).

The Mountain God

     We then were taken back to town for lunch before we went to our next tour which was of the Temple of the Dragon and Chan Chan. Chan Chan is the biggest adobe city in the world. It was built 1300AD (pre Inca) by Chimu society (who were the Moche orginally but due to the Floods moved closer to the sea, as this was their god). It is a city built with around 11 palaces and took almost 50 years to build each one. Although some of the city has been cleared due to the expansion of the cities you can still see the walls and the size of the place. We went to one palace and were amazed by the sheer size and scale of the place.

At Chan Chan

Chan Chan Palace

There was a large cemetry for the king, a freshwater pool, large plaza for religious ceremonies and offerings to the king by it's people. The place really took your breath away and again our guide was great and told us loads of things about the Chumi people (no human sacrfices here). One thing to add about the tour was that their were many school groups (hate kids right now) and they seem to find Neil's height funny and make faces and gestures behind his back when he was taking photos.

    After having a look around Chan Chan we headed to the museum where we learnt and saw a lot of tools they used in their day to day living, wooden scupltures and lots of living hairless dogs, a endangered species in Peru (very ugly looking though). 

The Endangered Hairless Dog....

After a long day of sightseeing we went back and chilled out in our hostel for a bit before having another curry and chatting to the infamous William and another backpacker about his travels. William went on about his business (import and export) company, the numerous window cleaning business he set up while in Britain so he could send money to his family in Peru and how he spoils his kids a lot, his daughter is a dancer, won Spring queen and all the other storues we heard when we first arrived. After a few beers we headed off to bed, we think William continued to drink through the night....

For the next two days we chilled out and got up late, went to the beach, relaxed, drank a lot of rum and coke and enjoyed the chilled out atmosphere of the small town. We had booked a bus to Mancora and this would be a overnight bus to more sun and sand...can't wait!

     On our last day, we had to check out of the room at midday, but had to hang around all day as our bus wasn't until quarter to midnight. We basically sat around, messed around on the internet planning our Australia wedding and chatted to people. William was around all day so sat and told us his stories again. He poured himself a whisky at around 1ish and explained that he 'didn't drink' but he had been to the dentists so needed to 'rinse his mouth' a little. He was in trouble with his wife for getting so drunk the other day, so was limited to 'one beer' per day. He had his beer with us and we joined him for one, as it was the afternoon. We had curry again and had a few cuba libres. William just drank coke but oddly seemed to get progressively more drunk.  He said that he liked Bindya because she "had an open personality", while demonstrating her openess with a gesture that looked suspiciously like one used to portray large breasts.  Just before we got in our cab, he gave us a complimentary drink, nervously checking over his shoulder to see if his wife could see what he was having with his coke. To be fair, I don't want this to sound bad as we both had a great time at their place and they were the loveliest people.  We got our cab into town and waited another three hours for the bus as it was late.  

Huanchaco at Sunset

Photos 

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