Monday March 12
Today I had set up a tour with Travelers Tours Peru for just the 2 of us. http://www.travelerstoursperu.com We knew there would be a lot of walking and it seems people always overestimate their abilities and sign up for all day walking tours and have canes or can't walk more than a block or 2 without resting, so we kept it to just us.
We woke to the ships fog horn blowing at regular intervals. We were sitting still and it was announced that we couldn't move until the fog cleared. Eventually, we got in so all tours started later than planned. We found the tour company, but not one of them was holding a sign with our name on it. We asked and she said "oh, you're Annette, you are with me". They were getting larger groups not vans and we were taken last. We were told that the port was letting in larger vhices, but our driver in a regular car was not allowed in so they drove us out of the port and then got everyone in the correct vehicles.
it was a total white-out earlier
Our guide was Oscar, a very nice older man. However, his style of guiding is our least favorite. He spent way too much time talking about what we were going to see than actually seeing it. You had to maintain eye contact with him at all times while he was talking or he would quit talking. If you tried to take a photo he said we will see that later and would stop talking. When he was done talking, he would say now you can take photos. (as he then started to walk to the next place always ruining your shot as he walked into it) So, instead of seeing more with just the 2 of us we probably saw less. He was very slow.
Our first stop was at the Temples of the Sun & The Moon that are located on the Moche Valley and have flat-topped pyramids. The Pyarmid of The Sun was built with about 140 million adobes, while The Temple of the Moon. Moche religious temple, holds the most stunning and best-preserved murals throughout Peru. The Pyramid of The Moon walls are beautifully decorated with polychrome friezes, depicting the Moche deity "Aia-paec" and different themes mythical and ceremonial themes and characters like snakes, prisioners, dragons alluding their ceremonial rituals. From here we go to the Rainbow Temple. Our guide was Moche and he told us of how he and his friends played on the ruins as children.
Temples of the Sun & The Moon
Sacrifice Zone
murals of the superimposed patios
bricks with distinctive markings
the old temple of Huaca de la Luna
The Great Altar
reconstruction the murals
The Mural of the Myths
From there we drove to Truijillo to have a walking tour of the Colonial town where we saw the largest Main Square (Plaza de Armas) in Peru. It highlights the Freedom Monument, located in the center of the square. We also visited inside the Uquiaga Ccolonial Mansion, which is also a museum. We visited several buildings.
unscheduled stop while the driver added water to the over-heating radiator
Coke bottling plant
now we head to Truijillo
he showed us some different fruits and vegetables
we tasted this
local transportation - reminded us of Panama
selling eggs of various types of birds
Plaza de Armas
We were running late in our day due to our guide's style and it was past lunch time. He wanted lunch to be the last thing we did in the day. Normally would have been 2:00, but at the rate we were going today it would have been 3:00. I was super hungry and he said we could do the fishing village next and then visit our last stop of Chan Chan.
We drove to Huanchaco fishing village where we saw the "little reed horses" which are traditional pre-Columbian canoes which still are the main tool of the current Huanchaco's fishermen. They ride them like a horse as there is no place to sit in it. There we went to Las Sombreros for lunch and had a wonderful lunch of fresh fish and shrimp. Due to us running late we had no time there to walk along the water as scheduled.
Sombrero Restaurant - Huanchaco fishing village
restaurant
view from our table upstairs
little reed horses - their fishing boats
We went straight back to Chan Chan to meet the Chimu people and the UNESCO Heritage Site of Chan Chan Citadel, the largest pre-Columbian citadel of the Americas. Here we entered the Nik-An Palace, built with refined architectural technique, which includes impressive reliefs and exquisite geometric and zoomorphic designs and friezes depicting fish, pelicans, diamonds, originally painted in ocher, yellow and red tones. The Citadel of Chan Chan had ceremonial plazas, water reservoirs, defense systems and rooms designed to store food. Chan Chan population had about 60,000 inhabitants of the Chimu empire.
Chan Chan
I hear they have ugly dog contests in the States....
We then went for a drive through some of the rest of the area on our way back to the port. Larger vehicles couldn't do that so that was an added experience.
Our car did not have A/C so they had the windows open and this area is dry and dusty. There also was a lot of garbage alongside the roads that they were burning. My throat burned like crazy and I was getting tired of the wind blowing me in the face in the car. The burning garbage also did not smell very good.
There was a market set up near the ship so we wandered around there and I bought a pair of earrings before boarding the ship.
Kestral
from our balcony
Belcher's Gull eating a fish
Random bird shots throughout the day:
Coastal Miner
Coastal Miner
Coastal Miner
Coastal Miner
Blue & White Swallow
Long-tailed Mockingbird
West Peruvian Dove
I called Scott to discuss how Dad is doing.
We decided to do the "Crab Shack" upstairs for dinner. They close off one side of the buffet and make it a specialty restaurant. So, for an extra fee you get a 3 course dinner of appetizer and soup and you choose your crab boil. The appetizer was fried shrimp and hushpuppies which the shrimp were in a weird batter than was more like fried bread instead of crispy batter. The clam chowder was Manhattan instead of New England. Greg enjoyed the crab boil more than I did. They offer it occasionally on this ship.
The show tonight was Daniel and Kimberly Craig, a comedy acrobat act. Many people walked out as the first part dragged on where they would pretend to do something, but didn't. She was talented and flexible, but it went on a bit long for what they did. 10 minutes of talent and the rest just silly acting stuff.
I had thought that the smoke from the fires along the road burned my throat but I think I'm getting sick. Throat and chest are burning. and now an annoying barking cough.
At least we have a sea day tomorrow to rest.
Salaverry, Peru https://photos.app.goo.gl/OuKvImqhZ4wXotNt2
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