NORTHERN PERU (2003)

NORTHERN PERU

PLANNING
Armed with a single rucksack, a return ticket to fly, a Lonely Planet guide, and an email booking for a couple of nights in Lima, we were off on a two month search for Paddington Bear in deepest Peru. Adventure enough for an OAP with a dodgy knee and an equally ancient wife with a pair of artificial ones. Time is the one luxury all pensioners have, leisurely travelling extracts maximum benefit, and at an all in cost no higher than a short package trip to the same country.


It was obvious enough that we had to include the usual southern circuit of Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and Arequipa. In the event we spent even more time in the little visited north of the country.

DISCOVERING PERUVIAN CIVILISATION

The excellent Museo de la Nacion in Lima brings Peruvian history to life. They divide time into pre-Ceramic, about which little is known, and pre-Columbian, meaning before Christopher Columbus discovered America. The Indians never did have a written language, so their history can only be interpreted from beautiful painted pottery, textiles and jewellery. Like the Egyptians their wonders were preserved by ceremonial burial in pyramids in the desert.


The Incas are comparatively recent and their strength was military conquest, not until the Spanish arrived could their history be written down. They ruled Peru for just a single century before being overthrown by the Spanish Conquistadors, who in turn were expelled around 1820.


TRUJILLO
Those who haven’t experienced luxury bus travel in South America along the Pan American highway have a nice surprise awaiting them, Royal or Imperial Class is a cut above National Express. Few Peruvians own private cars so the traffic was just a few lorries and buses.


Trujillo vies with Arequipa for the title of second city. It features a magnificent Plaza de Armas with stylish colonial buildings on four sides and a formal park area in the middle. At the centre of this one is a fine monument with sculptures celebrating the ousting of the Spanish in 1820. Every city, town, and village, has such a plaza but this is an especially splendid example.


What more could we want than a good hotel, an excellent choice of restaurants, and a small evening venue with live music ranging from Spanish guitars through traditional songs to Andean flute music. Well there was the discovery that a good lunch, consisting of an excellent soup, a main course, a desert and corn drink, could be had for 60p for those to prepared to lunch with the local inhabitants. We relaxed knowing we were going to enjoy our time in Peru.


COASTAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Our original intention was only to stay a couple of nights using Trujillo as a convenient staging post for the journey inland to the Andes. In fact we stayed six days to explore the archaeological wonders hidden in the desert.  Chan Chan was the capital of the Chimu Empire, dating back to around AD 1000. It was built entirely with adobe (mud) brick, indeed Bam, the site of the recent tragic earthquake in Iran, brought memories flooding back


Even more impressive are Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol. These belong to the Moche era, which in the first centuries AD produced the finest pottery and precious metal of Peru. The pyramids of Huaca de la Luna are being excavated now to reveal the complex structure of several levels. Each level represents about 100 years, and has a bigger floor area than the previous one. The one below was encapsulated in brick to form the foundation for the next level, thus protecting its own exterior wall decoration from El Nino floods and years of sand blasting.


Cassinelli Museum, a tiny fortified dungeon in the modern city of Trujillo, has a marvellous collection of Moche pottery. It may well be that much of the display has been purchased illegally over the years from grave robbers, and that some pots are reproductions, but the collection is a fine testament to the life-time work of an ageing enthusiast.


For these trips to the sites we hired a taxi for £2/hour, but from then on we followed the advice of ‘a German couple from Edinburgh’, and learnt how to use the minibuses, or ‘colectivos’, which are the locals transport. The drivers compete volubly for trade like old time market traders. In a poor country with few private cars local transport is plentiful, cheap and crowded, but great fun.


CHICLAYO AND THE ROYAL TOMBS AT SIPAN
Bustling Chiclayo, known as the ‘capital of Peruvian friendship’, lived up to its reputation with the exception of the razor artist, who noticing my bulging trouser pocket slashed it in the crowded market to reveal nothing but the spine of my Spanish pocket dictionary.


Peru’s most impressive precious metal artifacts were found at Sipan after modern grave robbers flooded the antiques market with exquisite jewellery. With the help of armed guards archaeologists opened, the grave of Lord Sipan, and a couple of years later the deeper grave of the Old Lord Sipan.


These nobles were given ceremonial burials with companions, priests and protectors, and all parts of their bodies were adorned with funeral masks and other decorations. The Moche used gold and silver, inlaid shells, and chemically electroplated gold onto copper well before the discovery of electricity. All is now on display in the brand-new world-class museum opened in November 2002 at Lambayeque. Museo Tumbas Realas de Sipan mimics the multi-level pyramid. Entering at the top you see the most recent tombs first, then work down the levels to the grave of the Old Lord. There is a wonderful photographic record of the actual excavation, but the superbly displayed explanations of exhibits are in Spanish. Unbelievably we were the only foreign tourists to visit the museum that day, it cannot be long before it becomes a well-known tourist venue.


Walter Alva, director of the superb wide-ranging Bruning Museum in the same town, led the excavations. The National Geographic Magazine featured the discoveries at Sipan and the Moche civilisation in Oct 1988 and June 1990. Thor Heyerdahl researched his Kon Tiki theories here, both in terms of cultural similarities with Pacific Islanders and in studying construction of the caballitos or little horses, local sea going reed boats.


Guide Jose Jimenez took us by car to the sites at Sipan, and Tucume. This young man spoke fluent English and we quickly developed a rapport and learnt not only the background to the excavation of Sipan, but also much of the lifestyle, economy and politics of modern day Peru.


CHACHAPOYAS and KUELAP
Chachapoyas, ‘the land of the clouds’, a backwater on the wet eastern side of the Andes was our next destination. It is reached by overnight bus, and we were warned to prepare for a trip without a proper toilet stop, though it did stop on request at the roadside - not ideal for females in trousers!


It was a fertile rural area, with bullocks ploughing, hand tilling and threshing, and bird-life. Each village was instantly recognisable by the vivid colour of freestanding corrugated iron toilets, part of a new drive to improve sanitation in the homesteads. They are a hard working population and nobody walked idly along the long country roads. If the women weren’t spinning or knitting, they were carrying a hand plough or a chicken, or leading a pig on a string.


We shared a taxi with Janis, a young Greek traveller, for a 30 km day trip to the mountain top city of Kuelap, about 800AD. Until recently the only access was a long hard climb from the old town of Tingo, now destroyed by flood, but the road to the new town leaves visitors with only a stroll up a stone paved path. It provides magnificent views of green-topped mountains, and the most enchanting display of wild flowers.


The ruined city is entered by a steep path leading from a narrow break in a stone wall over 30 feet high, the other side is protected by a sheer rock face. There were 400 round houses but only some bases remain, many decorated with geometric friezes, and only a single house has been restored with its high conical thatched roof. The site has been magically reclaimed by the cloud forest, with many trees bearing huge orchid flowers. The wondrous setting of this ancient city made us think Machu Picchu would be an anti-climax. It wasn’t, but neither was there that wonderful feeling of discovery we got at deserted, overgrown, Kuelap. We noted with some pleasure that we were the oldest visitors of the year, but then we three were the only visitors that day.


LEYMEBAMBA
The next decision was whether to backtrack to Chiclayo in the comparative comfort of an overnight bus, or proceed to complete a circuit to Cajamarca by one of the roughest, hairiest, but most spectacular journeys across the Andes. We hired a taxi for the day to take us to the halfway point, and were delighted when the driver asked permission to bring his wife and young son along. Our modest £50 fare was funding a two day outing for them.


First we made a side trip to Revash, where there are spectacular red and white burial houses, or sarcophagi, in a cliff 1000 metres above the valley floor. It took us several hours to climb and we might still have been defeated by the final ascent had not a park warden appeared from nowhere to hack steps into the slippery muddy path with his machete. Back at the car Joan beamed with delight, her confidence was back, after several years of immobility with arthritic knees.


This style of overhanging cliff burial is a feature the area. Indeed at that night’s destination, Leymebamba, a museum opened in June 2000, provides a controlled environment for research into the two hundred mummies recovered from Laguna de los Condores. The story of the discovery was recently broadcast on Channel Five.


We could spend a whole holiday walking the countryside around that sleepy village, watching the boys play a war game with spinning tops, seeing how the river was diverted to clean the streets in turn and provide a supply of running water for the washing. It was no surprise to learn that Austrians had helped fund the museum, for it’s their kind of country.


CROSSING THE ANDES
The tough road first climbs the cloud forest of the eastern Andes before dropping steeply down to the Rio Maranon basin and climbing the western peaks before descending to our destination, Celendin. The usual options for the twelve-hour drive were uncomfortably by small daily bus, very uncomfortably by bumpy colectivo, or excitingly with superb views from the top of a cattle lorry. Instead we persuaded the owner of the Raymipampa restaurant to take us in his four-wheel drive for £50. It was a good decision for, although the weather was disappointingly overcast, this narrow, unmade, precipitous switchback was undoubtedly a highlight of our holiday. Celendin was the first obviously Indian town, where the women were dressed in tall hats and wore multiple layers of brightly coloured skirts. We had finally entered the Andean Peru of our expectation.


The early morning bus to Cajamarca left at first light. From our high vantage point we watched the countryside come to life. The peasants sat leaning against the walls of their adobe brick houses to warm themselves in the first rays of the sun. At one point the driver, realising he was being pursued on horseback, stopped and backed up to the nearest hair pin bend to wait for the market produce which was following by pack horses. The bus stopped for breakfast at a simple, isolated, restaurant.


Then, as we neared Cajamarca, we entered a patchwork of fertile fields in vivid colours of lush grass, ripe maize, wheat, barley and artichokes, with rows of cactus for field boundaries, earth of red and rich brown, and a ever changing sky of blue and grey with dramatic cloud formations. A sight so impressive that the very next day we persuaded a taxi driver to drop us on that deserted unmade road, just so we could spend a whole day breathing it in, as we walked slowly back to town.




CAJAMARCA
Cajamarca is the milk producing area of Peru. They send 300,00 litres a day to Lima and still have enough left over to produce the only good cheese we found in Peru. It is a lovely colonial town, with a good choice of hotels and restaurants, and the atmosphere of a market town. Peru, like the Zimbabwe of today, underwent a forcible redistribution of land to the people in 1974. The then military Marxist government paid the owners pitiful compensation, like 20p for a milking cow. It was often said that the farming productivity has never recovered to its former level. The same political upheaval was blamed in Chiclayo for the demise of the sugar cane producing/exporting industry, though they also had to contend with the increasing subsidised production of sugar beet in the developed world.


HUARAZ, THE HIGH ANDES
At this point the high Andes were formed in two ranges as the Pacific plate pushed under the continental plates, forming first the Cordillera Negra to the west and then the snow capped Cordillera Blanca to the east. In geological terms the Andes are recent and still developing, in an area still subject to major earthquakes.


Since Peru is close to the equator the snow line is high, over 5000 meters, so the presence of fifty peaks over 6700 metres makes this not only the climbers Mecca but also a place of great beauty for us mortals. One attraction for climbers wanting to get full value from a short vacation applies equally to the more mundane tourist, and that is ease of access to the mountains. Colectivos run frequently and cheaply on unpaved roads past the farmsteads right up to the snow line. As one climber remarked ‘it’s remarkable how quickly they turn into taxis if you want to go beyond their normal route’. Go out by colectivo in the morning, walk around in majestic scenery, and flag down a colectivo when you are ready to return.


Huaraz is the only major tourist destination north of Lima, but there is none of the hassle that makes it impossible to do your own thing in the centre of Cusco. Perhaps this is because it attracts largely climbers and independent travellers of all nationalities, including Peruvian, but not so far package tours. It is a good base for side trips by bus tour to say Chavin de Huantar, the centre of a refined civilisation BC, or to the glacier of Pasto Ruri, where we walked few hours in bright sunlight at 5200 metres, our highest ever.


CARAZ
A long valley divides the Cordilleras running north past the town of Yungay, which was destroyed by earthquake in 1970, up to Caraz and beyond. From this quiet mountain village we arranged a taxi to take us to Laguna Paron. Even the scenic mountain road had not prepared us for that stunning first glimpse of a huge, sparkling, turquoise, glacial lake sided by high snow covered mountains falling to the glacier at the far end. We had this sanctuary to ourselves until late in the day we met two young American climbers contemplating tomorrow’s assault on the mountain that serves as the icon for Paramount Pictures.

Laguna Llanganuco is a little more popular since it can be reached cheaply by colectivo via Yungay. Though a wonderful place it couldn’t dislodge that first magical view of Paron. But the biggest surprise was yet to come.


On Sunday morning we were woken at five by the arrival of buses and the excited talk of children. They divided into school groups and started to draw huge chalk pictures of Christ, doves and other Christian symbols on the four roads around the Plaza de Armas. Then they proceeded to fill in the designs with flower petals and coloured wood chippings. We had unknowingly arrived for Corpus Christi. We last saw such a complete decoration of the streets thirty years earlier, in the small village of Massanet in the Spanish Pyrenees. Then one by one small-groups of Indians from the mountain hamlets marched into town, banging home made drums, playing home made pipes and shouldering statues of Christ on sedan chairs, on route to the church. Once inside they paraded around paying their respects in music to each of the earlier statues before setting down their own.


The church was packed for the service, the priests were of pure Spanish descent, the congregation of town dwellers was mostly of mixed blood, but standing, so that the church was packed like a rush hour tube train, were the Indian farmers from the hills. After the service the priests led a procession very slowly around the plaza, stopping at each corner for a ceremony. When it was over the Indians reformed in groups and marched in procession into the hills. Those that remained sat in the shade on the steps of the church.

This parading of statues of God was so reminiscent of the Hindu festival at Kullu, south of Kashmir in the Indian Himalaya. It was another case of similarity of rituals of people born into like environments, albeit on the other side of the world and in spite of totally different religions. Both Kullu and Caraz are valley towns in areas where poor people live by agriculture in isolated mountain communities.


One of the inspiring delights of travel comes from the highlighting of essential human needs, which are so much easier to discern in less sophisticated communities. If you’re still interested then start planning soon, for May to September is the best period in the Peruvian Andes. It takes courage to start with nothing but outline plans, thereafter the freedom is amazingly relaxing.




Brian Corbett            3000 words                21 Jan 2004



FACTFILE

KLM to Lima via Amsterdam £587
Iberia to Lima via Madrid
Internal Aero Continente

CASH
Budget £40/day for two in Peru
Peruvian Soles (US$ currency rarely used)
ATM’s are everywhere, they offer Soles or US$

PERU GERIATRICKING

GERIATRICKING
We are nearing the half way stage of our holiday adventure, so it’s time to take stock. Before we set out we both wondered if at our age and both with obvious physical frailties whether this would turn out to be one step too far. But we both knew that if we didn’t try we would never know what our limits were, it was this year or chickening out for ever. Nevertheless it was a big step. Five years after similar expeditions to Sumatra and India in the first year of retirement, and with the additional hazards of large numbers of pickpockets and violent street crime.


Whatever happens now, and it probably will, this trip is one of the highlights of a well travelled life. One to rival cycle touring on the continent at 16, driving across the Excited States of America at 21, real backpacking with the family along the Grandes Randonnees of France, delivering New Beneteau Yachts to Greece, or this style of travel to Nepal, Sarawak, Sumatra and India. Joan has gained new confidence in her footing and balance, it’s hard to realise that she fell over several times this winter walking on the relatively flat but muddy cliff paths of Gower, or slipped over a cliff in Cinque Terra last autumn only to be saved by Blackberry brambles. Strength and confidence has returned at last to her ankle, which was in plaster 18 months ago. Her back too seems to have fully recovered from that painful slipped disc. All that remains is difficulty and pain in straightening her leg to stand up after sitting, she always lifts herself with the good left leg. As the Chilean doctor, we met, remarked, it’s a testament to her spirit and determination. I just hope we are not overdoing it now, because otherwise it will be all for the good physically.


We have been absolutely delighted with the warm reception we have received everywhere, crime is a thing apart, but we did anticipate resentment of our buying power. In a land where so many are unemployed and most of the workers whether teachers (who are now on strike) or farm labourers earn the minimum wage of 410 soles per month, 85 pounds. But there is not the sign of great wealth that so disfigures India, the States and increasingly our South East. For all the terrible poverty this country at least aims for reasonable equality. There are very few private cars on the streets of Lima and almost none elsewhere, so the streets are full of cheap taxis. Using taxis to get through dangerous areas is the first rule of street wisdom. Still since diesel is about 2 pounds a gallon, and cars and parts are going to be similar, if not higher costs than our own, and the roads are so poor many British drivers would refuse to risk their precious possessions on them, the juddering and tire wear are far beyond anything encountered today in Europe. It seems amazing to me that they can make any money. One upside of using taxis is that I rarely have to carry the rucksack, but we have had to change style, so instead of walking around a few hotels before settling on one it is important to know exactly which hotel you want to try first. The taxi drivers as always want to take you to the hotel where they will get a good commission.


On the basic side, it’s a pity we left valuable slide film at home and brought two bars of soap, two large towels and two toilet rolls that we have never had to use. The minor difficulty of getting into the bottom pocket of the rucksack means Joan has clothes she has never worn. I too have too many unused, but we shall need the warm clothing when we more up to 4000 metres, the next step. We took 2.5 kilos of washing to the laundry today, which means the same old clothes can be recycled for the vast cost of 3 pounds. The stainless steel rucksack security net has been worthwhile, since it essentially means I have my own portable safe and so can leave at least half the valuables locked inside. Given the risk of violent crime valuables are far safer in the relative safety of the hold of a bus or a hotel room than they would be hidden on the person. We expected diarrhoea to be a major hazard, but so far our bowels have been extremely well behaved, which I attribute to eating in popular restaurants with a reputation for good food even if some are in the 50p category. We are however beginning to get tired of the diet, so few vegetables, just meat or fish often with rice and potatoes. You even get tired of quality beef steak and chips after a while. The plus side of the diet are the superb home made soups, a meal in themselves as Heinz would claim, and real freshly made lemonade. Another craving is for nice fresh bread, though we have recently discovered they make quite good brioche.


ATM are available everywhere, they clearly weren‘t when the Lonely Planet was updated in 1999. Getting cash with cards is no problem at all, as long as the machines don’t swallow them (Cinque Terra) or pickpockets steal them (Palermo).

 
One of the beauties of having no fixed itinerary is that you decide from day to day where to go next. Before we left home we imagined that Cajamarca would be our first stop but we stayed first at Trujillo and then Chiclayo and then on the advice of the Germans from Edinburgh went to Chachapoyas next, so three weeks later here we are at Cajamarca. Tomorrow we were going by bus to Huaraz in the high snow covered Andes, but on reading today’s paper we learn that the farmers are now blocking the roads and bus travel is not possible. So tomorrow we fly to Lima where we will try for the earliest flight to Cusco. So now it’s Machu Pichu etc, Lake Titcaca, Arequipa, Nasca, Pisco and back to Lima, so Huaraz will be our last stop. This really is their winter of discontent, a transport strike and road block held us in Trujillo, immediately afterwards the teachers went on strike and they are still out, now the farmers are blockading the roads. We might get our 90 days here yet!


Our budget was 50 pounds a day all in, so far we are running below that figure, but no doubt the popular tourist area of Cusco will be more expensive, and it looks as if we will have to fly more than intended. We will see.


As for my Spanish it is improving, I’m beginning to have confidence in the ability to make myself understood, even if I don’t understand all they say to me it’s enough to wheedle out the meaning. I wish I could stop saying grazie (Italian) instead of gracias, and qui (French) instead of que, and roll my r’s then I might get the intended cordero (lamb) instead of conejo (rabbit), though that didn’t prevent me sending it back! The major problem is that my vocabulary is far too insecure and limited, and my grammatical knowledge is far in advance of what I need for really good survival. There are only a few travellers in the north, but almost all of them speak fluent Spanish (even the English!) and obviously understand the replies, again vocab is probably the root of my problem. The only word difference I’ve noticed is the use of boleta instead of billeta for ticket, though they use chancho as well as cerdo for pork. Given the huge difference there is between French and French Canadian the lack of diversion is amazing, and they kicked the Spanish out in 1820.

PERU MOCHE CULTURE

PERU'S MOCHE CULTURE


Think Peru.  Think Moche, a society who told their story to the world through wonderful three-dimensional pottery, delicate metal work in gold, silver and copper, and fine textiles. Their enormously rich society was based on sea fishing, mining and agriculture. They ‘greened’ one of the world’s most hostile deserts, by a complex system of irrigation channels, so as to spread wide the waters flowing from the Andes to extend the natural oases which today are again confined to the borders of the major rivers. The Incas by comparison are renowned above all for their military achievements, the efficiency and speed with which they established their far-flung empire and built a ‘Roman’ road system along and across the second highest mountain range in the world. But Inca rule lasted only one hundred years before being overthrown by the even more remarkable military skills of a small band of Spaniards, operating in a wholly different environment half way across the world.


We set out to travel in Peru oblivious to the legacy of civilisations much older than the Inca’s. Luckily this ignorance was quickly revealed by a visit to the excellent Museo de la Nacion in Lima. It traces Peru’s history chronologically over tens of thousands of years from the hunter gatherers who first crossed into the Americas via the Bering Straits into Alaska and gradually made their way south to the Incas and built the famed Macchu Picchu. The important transition to the ceramic age occurred just before the birth of Christ. Their beautiful pottery was produced using moulds. They also left the finest ceremonial versions of this pottery, metal work and decorative woven textiles in the tombs of their nobles. What struck us most forcibly was the way the artistic quality declined with each succeeding culture, down to the not very inspiring pottery of the Incas. So although the indigenous races never did establish a written language they recorded so much of their culture in picture form on pottery and masonry.


Most tours follow a well-trodden circuit south of Lima. But to experience something totally different head north. To find out more we took a luxury bus to the coastal city of Trujillo, founded by the Spaniard Pizarro in 1535. It competes for the title of Peru’s second city, and like Arequipa has the pleasant feel of a refined working city, with none of the tourist hassle of Cusco. All Peruvian towns are built round a Plaza de Armas in the centre, but few can match the, colourful, colonial buildings that surround the square in Trujillo, with their elegant wrought iron window railings. The centrepiece, a monument with fine sculptures, celebrates the freeing of Trujillo from Spanish rule in 1820. Our hotel, La Almeda del Peligrino, was in a small pedestrian precinct a short walk from the plaza. Before leaving Britain we had expected to stay just one day, but, partially due to the road blockades signalling Peru’s own winter of discontent with their first truly democratic government for years, we stayed for six, and concluded we couldn’t have been stuck in a better place.


There are two major tourist attractions in the surrounding desert, the Moche site of the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna, and the ruins of the large Chimu walled city of Chan Chan, which was built a thousand years later only to be taken over by the Incas. Being new to Peru we hired a taxi to each site and asked him to wait for several hours whilst we looked around, at an all-in cost of under £2 per hour this was hardly prohibitive. With a little more experience we would have reduced the cost to near zero by waving down one of the ‘collectivo’ minibuses instead. Huaca del Sol was plundered centuries ago by the Spanish conquistadors in their search for gold. However the pyramid of Huaca de la Luna is being excavated today. An enthusiastic young English speaking archaeologist from the local university showed us around with one other couple. We read recently that another 300 million dollars had been given to fund continuation of the work. He will have been delighted.

These Moche pyramids were built one level at a time. Every hundred years or so a level was sealed in vertically by adding a flat roof and laterally by extension of the sides, thus providing a bigger base for the next level. The resultant appearance is of huge flat roofed oblong structure matching the colour of the local sand, because it was built of Adobe (mud) bricks. (Such bricks are still hand made throughout Peru and used to self build houses.) A more important effect of the resulting encapsulation of the earlier lower level is that the beautiful exterior decorations of the walls have been preserved from the sand blasting of centuries punctuated with earthquakes and the destructive coastal flooding which results every few years from the El Nino, the effect of which is felt across the pacific from Australia to South America. It is this decoration multi level structure and the wall decoration which now being revealed.


   
Also recommended is a visit to the Museo Cassinelli in Trujillo. Here an almost blind old man will take a few people at a time into locked dungeons to view his lifetime collection of Moche pottery. Doubtless much was bought over the years from grave robbers, but it now has a good home. The pots are arranged in themes, animals, fish, mythical figures, gods, copulation, physical deformities, musical instruments and even abstract designs. But whatever its source, whether it is original or copy, the collection of fine pottery makes compulsive viewing.


Changing plans, on advice from fellow travellers, we carried on north by bus instead of heading straight into the Andes. There is nothing visually attractive about the city of Chiclayo, but we had been told to allow at least four nights because there was so much to see in the vicinity. In fact we spent six nights in the Inca Hotel, and when we left the friendly recepcionista gave us a doll in traditional Spanish dress, which we duly carried around Peru in a separate black plastic bag. Sipan is without doubt the jewel in the crown of the northern coast. Its newly excavated discoveries were featured in a series of articles on Moche culture in The National Geographic magazine in 1990.


It was discovered only twenty years ago when valuable artefacts started to flood onto the antiques market. They had come from grave robbers who had sunk a shaft into the tombs. Luckily expert archaeologists soon took over with the help of armed guards, and they have so far excavated three previously unopened tombs. Those of Lord Sipan and at an earlier lower level the Old Lord of Sipan were major discoveries of Egyptian proportions. We first visited the site of the tombs with an excellent, young,
English speaking guide. They are now laid out with replicas to illustrate how they appeared when first opened. Next day we visited the world-class museum of Tumbas Realas de Sipan, opened just one year ago at the nearby town of Lambayeque, where all the discoveries are displayed. This museum is built in several levels mimics the real tombs. It is entered at the top where it displays the treasures found in the tomb of Lord Sipan and you slowly work your way down, and back in time to the contents of the tomb of The Old Lord of Sipan.


This is the most important display of precious metalwork in South America. The nobles were prepared for burial being adorned with elaborate funeral masks, golden head and nose ornaments, chin decoration, ear rings, large elaborate metal necklaces, huge coral pectoral pieces, strings of stone beads, figurines, ornaments and jewellery. They were given a ritual burial with the consequential sacrificial death of wife, favourite concubine, servant and warrior, and guarded from invasion by the seated soldier at a slightly higher level.



Unlike a conventional museum it is focussed on a single theme, Sipan, and supplemented by excellent photographic evidence of the tombs as they were being excavated. All wonderfully displayed and interpreted in large easy to read textual explanations. (Unfortunately for the more general tourist industry this information is given solely in Spanish.) The excellent well established Bruning museum in the same town presents a much broader view of Peru. It too is essential viewing, but on a separate day so as to avoid losing the impression of the first mentioned. Walter Alva, the Bruning’s Director, led the excavation of Sipan.

Another day trip took us to site at Tucume, the largest sacred site in South America.