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Huanchaco is a small fishing village about 20kms west of Trujillo. We stayed at a hostel that overlooked the ocean - if not for the road separating us from the beach, we would have been perched right on the Pacific Ocean.
I took a tour of the Huanca del Sol and the Huanca de la Luna (the Sun Temple and the Moon Temple) - ruins from the Moche nation who lived in this region from AD 100 - 800. The buildings are constructed from sun-baked mud bricks, most of which have been eroded. The Sun & Moon Temples have remained largely intact however, and the Moon Temple is being gradually excavated and is now open for public viewing. The temple is a semi-pyramid structure, formed as each new temple is built on an older level of temple that is buried - each new layer mirroring the layout of the old, right down to the design and colours of the wall sculptures and murals. It is believed that each new layer is built to demonstrate the power and authority of each new ruler, but in part it may have been to replace the old temple which has been eroded over time.
After lunch we visited the ruins of Chan Chan (meaning Sun - Sun), the ancient city of the Chimus who lived here between AD 800 - 1400 until they were conquered by the Incas. The archaeological site comprised 12 palaces, which were estimated to have housed some 35,000 people - and were again constructed out of mud bricks with elaborate, ornamental sculptures along the walls, depiciting the life around them, eg. images of pelicans, waves breaking and fishing nets.
We boarded the night bus to Mancora. Not only were we 45 mins late in leaving but we were further delayed by another hour soon after we began our journey, as some pranksters had thrown a stone at the bus and broke one of the window panels upstairs. The passengers urged the bus driver to carry on as there have been previous incidents of bus robberies when buses were stopped precisely in this manner. The bus driver pulled in at a repair shop shortly after and managed to get the windows replaced in just 15 mins before we went off on our way again.
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