TRUJILLO AND CAJAMARCA

Trujillo

     I was surprised to learn that Trujillo is Peru's third largest city with over 1 million inhabitants since it seemed smaller and laid back.  It has done a good job of preserving its colonial center and early architecture, most of which is occupied and part of the business community.

     The coastal city of Trujillo was founded in 1535 and named after Francisco Pizarro's birthplace in Spain.  In the early days it was surrounded by a wall to keep the pirates out and was a main stopover for Spaniards making the overland trip between Lima and Quito on an otherwise lonely and unpopulated route.  In December, 1820, it was the first city in Peru to declare independence from Spain and from here Simon de Bolivar prepared his campaign for liberating the rest of Peru.

The old city gate

     The main reason to visit Trujillo today is to visit the archaeological sites of the Moche and Chimu cultures.  Like the rest of the Peruvian coast, it is extremely arid in the surrounding area but, like the Nile and Indus River valleys, a source of water provided the impetus for an early, sophisticated series of civilizations.
     The first culture in the area was the Moche, dating from 100BCE to 850CE.  It's main sites are the Huacas (temples) del Sol y de la Luna, two adobe pyramids separated by a plain on which the people lived.  The larger huaca, del Sol, is currently being excavated and was the administrative center.  The smaller huaca, de la Luna, was the religious site.

Looking at the Huaca del Sol from the Huaca de la Luna

Power flowed down from the sacred mountain into the temple

     The pyramid shaped mountain was itself sacred and its power flowed down and into the adobe pyramid constructed by the Moche.  The structure is actually a series of temples superimposed on one another to form a pyramid.  Unlike other huacas along the coast, the Moche covered the temple with beautiful, brightly colored murals. 
     It also became clear to me here how the ruling priests used gold and silver, the possession of which was tightly controlled and confined to the use of only the highest castes of priests and nobles, to wow the populace.   The pyramid is about 150 feet high and overlooks the main plaza where the population came for events.  The chief priest would appear on the top level of the pyramid covered in gold and silver, including the face and a large headpiece, reflecting the sun.  He would have been quite an impressive sight in an otherwise drab setting.

A slideshow of some of the design elements...

Between Trujillo and Cajamarca we visited three other pre-columbian sites, the Huaca Arco Iris (rainbow), Huaca el Brujo and Chan Chan.  Chan Chan has the distinction of being perhaps the world's largest adobe city, laid out over 7.5 square miles and inhabited at its peak by 100,000 people.  Its seven citadels were enclosed by a massive adobe wall.  It was the capital of the Chimu empire, a successor to the Moche.  The empire lasted from 900 CE to 1470 when it was overtaken by the Inca.  The Inca left the Chimu alone, only to pay annual tributes.  The sophistication of their irrigation and metal working was so advanced that the Inca sent many of the engineers and goldsmiths back to Cusco. There is some color at El Brujo but the main draws are the size of the adobe walls at Chan Chan and the carvings in the adobe walls at all sites.

Easy to appreciate the massive size of the walls at Chan Chan

Huaca de Arco Iris, rainbows can be seen

CAJAMARCA

     After leaving Chan Chan we headed into the mountains to visit Cajamarca, an agricultural and dairy center of 120,000 people.  We have come to appreciate the mountains and their people immensely.  Cajamarca had the distinction of being one of the largest cities of the Inca empire, though its founding predated the Inca by a thousand years.  In also has the distinction of being where Pizarro kidnapped Atahualpa, the Inca emperor, held him for ransom and ultimately killed him.
     Something I found very interesting here, and it is also true of places like Cusco, is that in spite of being one of the largest cities of the Inca empire, there is not a single thing left in Cajamarca from the Inca time except for the room where Atahualpa was held hostage.  Everything else was razed.  For those who don't remember the story, Atahualpa told Pizarro he would fill the room twice with silver and once with gold as ransom if Pizarro would release him.  The precious metals were delivered, Atahualpa was garroted, though after he had been baptized.

     Cajamarca is another city that has done a great job of retaining its colonial center and sense of character.  The Plaza de Armas (the name of the central square in every city in Peru) is still a meeting place where people hang out and converse.  There is a buzz of activity and business, it isn't just a staid museum piece.
     There are a couple of good churches, the Catedral Santa Catalina and Iglesia San Francisco along with the Belen complex with a nice chapel, museum and 16th century hospital.  At the top of the hill in the picture on the right is a carved rock seat said to have been used by Atahualpa to look down over the city.

This is the only structure remaining from Inca time, quite a poke in the eye of the Inca if you ask me.  If you look at the picture to the left, you will see a sign on the wall.  This is the height to which the room was filled with gold and silver.  The king of Spain was initially upset with Pizarro for taking it upon himself to kill Atahualpa since regicide was something a sitting monarch couldn't take lightly.  However, when the gold and silver started arriving, the king decided to make Pizarro governor of Peru rather than punishing him for the crime.

There are a couple of sites outside of town that are worth seeing, too.  The first is the Ventanillas (little windows) de Otuzco.  The "windows" served as an ancient burial ground, predating the Inca by more than 500 years.

Another area we visited was Cumbemayo.  The first reason to come here is to take a great hike in a beautiful place.  The area is studded with huge rocks that have been eroded into many interesting shapes.

The last site we visited here was to see a double irrigation channel dug in solid rock 1000 years ago to supply drinking water to the city 24 kilometers away.  Sharp turns in the ditches prevent the water from moving too fast, as do slight inclines engineered into various section.

A turn to slow flow

Sacrificial slab for llamas, not humans

Finally, no bird pictures this entry.  Instead, there are hats.  Every community in the Andes has a variation in hats and dress, dating at least as far back as the Inca empire.  The Inca made every community dress in a distinct way for social control.  The typical hat in Cajamarca is very different from other places in the mountains but the faces are all just as interesting.  A slide show of hats...