NORTHERN PERU – TRUJILLO & CHICLAYO
Two Days
ITINERARY
DAY 1: LIMA / TRUJILLO
Trujillo – City Tour, Sun and Moon Temples, Huanchaco and Chan Chan
Transfer to your hotel upon arrival. Tour the city of Trujillo, known as “City of the Eternal Spring”. Tour includes the Main Square, the Cathedral and the beautiful residential and commercial areas with magnificent colonial houses and well preserved porches, balconies and churches such as the Colonial Mansions of “Casa Iturregui” and “Casa Bracamonte”. Visit the National University of Trujillo Museum where you will find cultural expressions of Peru´s diverse Pre-Hispanic periods.
Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon
Experience the amazing adobe engineering of the Temple of the Sun, the tallest pyramid in the Americas at a height of 48 meters, which is estimated to have involved over 200,000 workers in its construction and over 140 million adobe bricks. A step away is the temple of the Moon, the political center of the Moche State.
Huacas of the Moche Museum. Lunch in Huanchaco
Continue to Huacas of the Moche Museum where visitors will be able to observe numerous artifacts and tombs of the Mochica Culture which ruled Northern Peru about 1700 years ago. Lunch is included at the seashore village of Huanchaco, known for its totora seahorses – a typical small reed boat used for fishing.
Chan Chan
Afternoon visit to Chan Chan, the former capital of Chimu State. This culture reached its apogee in the 15th century, not long before falling to the Incas. The planning of this huge city, the largest in pre-Columbian America, reflects a strict political and social strategy, marked by the city’s division into nine ‘citadels’ or ‘palaces’ forming autonomous units.
Day 2 Trujillo – Chiclayo – Lima – Sican Museum and Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum
Morning transfer by private coach to Chiclayo. This three-hour journey down the Pan-American highway offers a panorama of scenes from coastal Peru, alternating irrigated river valleys such as the Jequetepeque and Chicama, with stretches of arid dune and rocky desert.
The Sican Museum exhibits the treasure of pure gold artefacts discovered in the tombs. These pieces reveal their culture’s surprising command of metallurgy and its exquisite artistry in gold and silver, in addition to its known excellence in ceramics. Lunch at a typical restaurant.
Continue to the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum, this museum was inaugurated in November 2002 and it has been rated as one of the most outstanding archaeological museums in South America, the building is modelled after an ancient pyramid of the region. Here you can find a reproduction of the tomb of Lord of Sipan, dubbed the “Tutankhamen of the Americas” because of the golden splendour of his tomb. It also showcases hundreds of pieces of pottery and exquisite gold jewellery.
Tour ends at Chiclayo airport for your return flight to Lima.
This program is also available for stays of 3 and 4 days.