It was getting late by the time we had
finished filing the second report at the police station, but we were
determined to get the hell out of Guayaquil. We took off for Chiclayo at
5.40 p.m., knowing that it would be dark when we arrived at destination.
We were still feeling depressed and sick to the stomach but our spirits
lifted a little when we touched down at Chiclayo around 8 p.m. Arriving
in a new country was a bit like starting out fresh again.
Chiclayo is known as the ‘friendly’ city and it didn’t disappoint us.
The entry formalities were friendly and efficient. Everyone at the quiet
airport was eager to please and, after a short taxi ride, we booked into
a new hotel called Casa de la Luna where we were able to negotiate a
good discount. It had been high season in Ecuador, but this was low
season in Peru and prices were generally lower than all the other
countries we’d visited. We drank our first Peruvian pisco sour, which
tasted even better than the Ecuadorian ones, and enjoyed a good meal
with a bottle of Peruvian wine (not bad, but not as good as and more
expensive than Chilean wines).
The next day we hired a very knowledgeably tourist guide, Luis Tello
Vega, and a driver to take us to the nearby Sicán museum, the
archaeological site of Túcume with its 28 pyramids and the world-class
museum Tumbas Reales containing the treasures found in the Royal Tombs
of Sipán – one of the most impressive museums I have ever visited. The
Sipán pyramids and tombs, built by the Moche (about AD 100) were
discovered as recently as 1987 by local archaeologist Dr Walter Alva –
although the huaqueros (tomb robbers) already knew of their existence.
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Mirador over the Tucumé pyramids
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