Doing the Can Can in Chan Chan

Can Can in Chan Chan

Looks like Cake

So we hung around Ica for the day before we left. We were doing one of the awkward overnight busses. The busses here are great, more leg room than planes and quite comfortable seats, the toilets are questionable though... Despite this however the busses are great and make a good way to do long distance travel for a much lower cost. The only problem is the akward hanging around for the day, which is what we're doing today to go to Cuenca. Ica was great though, left our bags at the hostel after our late check out and went and had a really good pizza. We then caught our taxi to the Flores terminal. In order to go to Trujillo we had to go through Lima which has a variety of singular bus company terminals and other busses as well. We knew roughly the area we wanted to get to in order to just cross the road to another terminal towards Trujillo. Flores was the ideal company, but when we arrived we discovered that they actually went to Trujillo themselves, via Lima that is. So we bought our tickets and then were told that we had to go from a different terminal around the corner. So we walked down the road with a few minutes to spare to the terminal. Only to be told that this was the wrong terminal! As it turns out Flores has three terminals in Ica, we were soon rammed into a moto scooter (a motorbike with a cart on the back) and then whizzed down the road towards the correct terminal. 

Living in America

We boarded the bus and sighed a sigh of relief as we only had a few minutes to spare, but we had made it and were off to Lima where we had about an hour and a half to catch the next bus up to Trujillo. Being wise to the odd terminal layouts, upon descending, we asked the hostess on our bus whether this was the correct terminal. Her answer of yes, well maybe, should have been indicative that it would be a little more complex. We however took her advice and asked at the ticket counter. The woman there was less than informative and said 'No, it's down the road' whilst waving her hand about in a non-committal manner before stamping our ticket and declaring 'here's the address.' Which would probably have been more helpful if we knew Lima. But it's ok, we found another Flores Terminal on our map app and headed that way. Upon reaching it however the man informed us that it was the wrong terminal. Our terminal was down the road. So we headed back towards the original terminal (the one down the road) and asked a different lady, who promptly informed us 'it's down the road' waving her hand in the direction we had just come from. Having had enough of this I whipped the phone out for the map and asked if she could show us on the map. I watched her type 'Flores' in before studying the map for a little bit and passing it back declaring that this was where the terminal was. I looked at the map, zoomed it out a little bit, zoomed it in again before handing it back to her

The Plaza de Armas

'This is the terminal in Ica?' I asked in Spanish

'No, this is the terminal you need, Flores' She replied

'Yes, but this is Flores in Ica' I argued, feeling myself getting a little frustrated. 

'Well it's down the road that way' she says pointing in a different direction this time. 

Not filled with the most hope we headed off in that direction, finding another Flores terminal down there, I check with the front desk that it was the correct fabled terminal, they consent and I almost cheered with joy! We had made it with time to spare. 

All the colourful houses around

The rest of the bus journey was rather uneventful, we snored and slept and were woken up by a crooning old man wailing over the bus' sound system. But then we made it to Trujillo and did the usual trick of avoiding taxi drivers while retrieving our bags. This all done, we had a few hours before we could check in to our accommodation, another downside of overnight travel. So decided we would explore the main square, the Plaza De Armas of Trujillo. 

One of the Paintings in the Cathedral

We explored the Cathedral and the Archbishop house which were adorned with the most amazing paintings. We were also befriended by a local ticket tout, believe me there were many, who oddly was called Douglas. He seemed friendly enough but we just weren't really interested in a whole day tour around the area. But he also recommended a few places around the square to look at before we could check in, and also tried to get us to book a room in his hotel.

The Balamory-esque Cathedral

The main square here is a little odd and somewhat reminiscent of the Children's programme Balamory with all of it's colorful houses, although admittedly in a more colonial style than Balamory is. But it was nice enough and we also explored the local art museum. 

Another of the Paintings

Following this we entered our accommodation and went on the search for food. A lot of the restaurants in Peru tend to do a set meal type thing two courses and a drink for a very small fee. They are generally pretty good, but you never really know what you're eating. At one eatery we asked for this and it was a soup with pasta and random bits of meat chucked in, a chicken wing there, bit of kidney here. Interesting.  So we went to the local eatery across the road and had our chicken and rice and something brown to drink. Looked a bit like muddy water, I think it tasted orangy, like a kinda cold orange tea. We will never know.

The Archbishop's house or the Bishopobrick (As Olivia has decided)

Anywhoo the reason we came, was to visit these huge ruins that are like 20 km squared big, and see the temple part of it which has ancient latticed walls, a bit like an apple tart, but with fish iconography.  We walked here as we couldn't quite decide which bus to get from where, without having to walk 2 km in the opposite direction back to the Plaza de Armas. It was a hot day, but the winds form the beach were quite refreshing. As we walked we saw many condors, a rather large bird with a fantastic wingspan some of which are nearly 6 ft. The Ancients believed them to be god-like messengers that transferred messages and spirits between two realms. Which is totally logical when you see their size, and their enormous shadows on the ground chasing you like some terrifying pterodactyl from The Lost World. Even I was tempted to run, had I not previously been told that they're were scavengers. Still I felt the need to flap my arms a bit and look as alive as possible as we walked by them.

Terrifying Pterodactyls 

The ruins are called Chan Chan, which is ancient language for sun sun, so good they named it twice. It was the capital of the Chimor Empire and is the largest ancient city in South America. It was home to Artisans, Royalists and ordinary people all around. Before being ransacked it was home to almost 5 million dollars in gold. Nowadays it is still being excavated and we only got to visit a small part of it which was the temple or palace (a little unclear) and a few other sites around the city. The Chimor Empire, just to provide some context, was an empire that was a forerunner to the Incan empire, essentially they got invaded by the Incas who were very short lived before they themselves were conquered by the Spanish. 

Chan Chan

Whilst we were there, there were a few coaches of school children going round the exhibitions in small groups. I tell you the truth when I saw none of them were looking at the exhibit. We became the exhibit. Many of the children had not seen 'white people' before, or 'gringos' as we were called (though this can be a  derogatory term for white people and foreigners).  We were stared at throughout the exhibitions. Asked many questions about England, and introduced to a few children. One of which decided to tell me (Olivia) his name was Franco, so I shook his hand and told him it was nice to meet him. The poor lad was totally shocked and embarrassed, his teacher translated the 'nice to meet you bit,'

 much to the delight and excitement of the class. Upon which a whole host of children started to introduce themselves and sneakily take selfies with us. Something that reminded us of our time in China, where everyone wanted their photo taken with the funny looking people. At least non of these school children when running off and screaming about having seen Andrew, as one did in Puno, or punching him like they did in Uyuni, bless him I think he's getting a bit of a complex. 

A guardian

We head off today to Cuenca, in Southern Ecuador which will sadly make it our penultimate penultimate country. We are spending only a few days in locations as we travel through Ecuador so will lump them together and let you know where we are soon. 

The Wall at the Museum

Speak soon!

Andrew (for the first bit) and Olivia for all the rest! 

Apparently a Shark? More like a Blobfish

In the meantime

See some more of our posts

• Overview
• European Ecstasy
• Adventures in Asia
• Pacific Paradise
• Southern South American Splendour
• Central Celestial Scenes
• Incan Delights
• Get a sneak peek of where we go next: Heading North

Check out some more of our pictures here and what we're up to currently.