Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna visits in Trujillo

As we go up the Peruvian coast, we are exploring older civilization than the Incas. Today it’s the site of Chan Chan which was a massive city made of mud of the Chimu civilization. We can visit one of the Palace there.

We decide to attempt today’s visit using public transport. Chan chan is quite straightforward, we waited at this corner of the street and took a bus that goes direction to Huanchaco.  

The bus driver dropped us off opposite the Museo de Chan Chan where you can buy your tickets. ( but you can also buy them at Nik an palace directly too ). The museum is very small, in 30min we were through with it, the most interesting exhibits is a huge maquette of the site itself. It’s impressive to see it before walking to the site itself.

There we also found our guide ( or more, she found us ), Lucy, and for PEN60 she went with us to the site. The site itself is 1.6km from the main road with an entrance a little further to the left of the museum. We hailed a taxi from the road side and for PEN6 et dropped us off to Nik An palace.

What is really being worked on and visible at the moment are the palaces – the common people’s urban section is not accessible. And you can see along the road a lot of walls, but only Nik An is open for public. 

It’s an impressive complex, and not the biggest one ! outside walls are 10m high and inner wall at least 3m. The mud bricks are carved in places with bas-reliefs. Where the Incas were smooth rocks, here we finally get a glimpse at some wall decorations. It makes this site really intriguing. 

There was half of the palace dedicated to religious activities with mini chapels and intricate wall decorations.

On the way back we walked the 1.5km to the entrance. You get a better idea of the size of the entire city. Because it’s what it is a giant urban center with housing organized by class. Right at the end of the path, as soon as you reach the main road there is a covered bus stop. We just wait there and got not even 5min later another collective back to town. ( he was shouting pisaro / centro – pisaro is one of the main plaza in town ).

Since it was just about lunch, we found a simple family restaurant downtown. Then crossed the town to Calle los Incas. From there, we were supposed to be able to catch another bus to Huaca de la luna. 

This didn’t go as well, we got into a bus because the driver said it was OK. In the end, we had a whole tour of the nearby suburb before he got us off the turn from the main road to the site. But this was actually 5km walk left to do ! We ended up on our phone and got an uber to close the distance to the museum and the site. We arrived there around 2pm. 

The museum of Huaca de la luna takes about 40min to complete and the visit of the ruins themselves are guided. The next visit was at 3pm and it takes about 1hour to walk around. 

Huaca de la Luna was occupied for 600years and the epicenter of the Moche culture. The Chimu are the direct descendants of the Moche civilization that declined after a particularly violent episode of El Nino. Most of the rise and fall of the older civilization are due to El Nino. Or this climatic event is the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Huaca de la Luna from the outside doesn’t look like much, the site is covered in metallic roof and protective walls. But here you see colors! The mud bricks have kept their colors and are completely carved with intricated designs. The site is only part of a whole. Opposite the mountain on which it stands is the pyramid of Huaca Del Sol. The latter being the administrative center. To date, Huaca Del Sol has not yet been excavated and remain as is. Huaca de la luna was the religious center of the Moche civilization. 

I enjoyed this visit, there is a wall with more than 15m of colored carvings – I am unsure if the pictures really give back the scale. It was quite beautiful. 

And surprise! as we exit the Huaca de la luna, we see a collectivo. It goes back to Calle de Los Incas directly and stop by the entrance of the Huaca del Sol… we just didn’t take the right bus the first time. 

Well, here is the route map – in case it helps someone. All the collectivo going to Huaca de la Luna, had written on their windshield “Huaca del sol”. 

On the way back, we pick up some groceries for diner and the next breakfast. We are trying to find a way to go to El Brujo, another Moche site. But it seems quite difficult or expensive ( it’s about 50km away from Trujillo).

The guesthouse has a nice little terrasse – with a super fat cat that is so blaze to any kind of petting…