Stopping for a few days before Lima not only made our travel time shorter but allowed us to see some more sights. Around 12km out of Trujillo was Huanuco, a small backpacker friendly beach town. Local fisherman paddle out to sea on totora boats called caballitos. They're high-ended cigar-shaped boats made from straw. The men knee on the back and paddle past the waves to catch the dish of the day! Despite the weather being cold, and the sea freezing, the finals of Peru's national surf competition was being held during our stay. We managed to watch a few surfers but sadly the waves weren't large enough for the majorly impressive stunts. We spent our first day wandering along the sea front and weaving in and out of streets. For tea we enjoyed a home-made taco dish which was delish! (We even recommended it to someone who turned out to be a travel writer so if you read about the Taco's in Huanuco in Rough Guide - that's our recommendation!) The hostel had semi-comfy sofas and plenty of recent DVDs that we decided to watch during the evening. Travelling for so long we do appreciate just curling up and watching a good film from time to time. Also saves pennies! Sadly Si fell asleep and I was left crying at Precious all on my tod. Our plan for Sunday was sightseeing. Most places are closed so it made sense to leave the beach town for the day. Chan Chan was our first stop. Its the site of the largest pre-Colombian city in America and is the largest adobe city in the world. It dates back to around 850AD and once contained 10,000 structures. The city was home to around 30,000 people until it was conquered by the Incas in the 15th Century. The remaining adobe brick walls were decorated with various designs. Some were patterns and other walls had small animals. After wandering round the site we began the 5km walk to the museum. Kindly a coastguard stopped and gave us a lift. The museum was a let down. We didn't hire a guide as we planned to read about it all in the museum but it was very small and disappointing. We caught a bus to the the next site. It was part of Chan Chan but sat in the middle of a residential area, beside a local football pitch. The guard let us inside and we had a quick wander round. It was a less impressive area and much smaller than the main site we previously visited. Walking about were ugly hairless dogs. Apparently their heat is used to help people suffering with arthritis. We hopped in a taxi to take us to the last site. As we drove along we saw masses of chairs lining the roads. There was apparently some sort of procession. The chairs seemed to line the streets for a good mile or two! The final site we visited was the Huaca de la Luna (temple of the moon). We'd definitely saved the best til last. This temple belonged to the Moche people and is around 700 years older than Chan Chan. A guide showed us around the structure and it was evident that archaeologist were still working on the site. The rooms we were shown around were all decorated in red, white, black and yellow. We were shown where sacrifices took place and were also shown around the temples. Each temple, after a period of time, was buried. A new temple, almost identical was built on top. Every brick used in construction was marked. There are around a hundred different markings, perhaps indicating who made them and donated them to the construction of the temples. The main entrance to the temple was very impressive and covered in art. We also went to a high point where we could see remains of accommodation. It was an impressive site yet funding and knowledge makes progression slow. Theres still a lot of the site which hasn't been uncovered.