Chiclayo & Sipan (July 17 & 18, 2006)

This morning we had breakfast at My Friend’s again and walked down the beach one last time before leaving to catch a bus to Chiclayo. We caught a bus at 11:00 which was supposed to take 2 ½ hours but it ended up taking around 3 ½ hours. We stayed at the Hotel Paraiso, which is a 3-star hotel a few blocks from the Plaza de Armas. The rooms aren’t anything spectacular, but the service is good with fresh towels every day, cable TV, and surprisingly a free wireless internet connection. We were in heaven! We walked around the city for a while and had dinner at a quirky little restaurant on the plaza. The food was very good, and the price even better. Food in this city is the cheapest we have found yet. We never saw any other tourists either, which means that not many come here, which means no touts again – yay! We even managed to find some flannel boxers for sleeping in to replace the ones I had thrown out due to the big holes they had developed. I was very happy!

We spent a lot of time on the internet, catching up on emails and the website and adding captions to pictures. We even watched some TV too – episodes of 24 (you’re right T&E – it is a good show!). Lincoln spent a lot of time making maps of some routes we have taken using Google Earth. We’ve added these images to the website under the Peru and Bolivia photo galleries.

:: July 18 - Sipan ::

We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning, again super cheap (7 soles for both of us, which is around $2). There are combi’s (minivans) going to the town of Lambayeque where the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum is located, so we walked to the street where they leave from. We thought we were in the right spot and asked at a bakery where the combis were, but he called his friend over who had a collectivo (more expensive) so we ended up going in that. Cost us 6 soles instead of 2, but he did bring us right to the front door of the museum.

The museum turned out to be one of the best museums that we have ever been to. The tombs of the Moche leader the Lord of Sipan, 1700 years old, were discovered near Chiclayo in 1987 and amazingly enough they had never been looted by grave robbers. Some looting was done before the authorities could arrive at the scene, but for the most part the tombs were excavated entirely intact and the artefacts found were painstakingly restored and are housed in the museum. This was the most important archaeological discovery in all of South America and can be compared to the finding of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt. The museum is set up in layers, the same way the items were found, and many of the items were absolutely exquisite. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the museum, but pictures and descriptions can be found on this website (in Spanish, but it has good pictures) http://sipan.perucultural.org.pe/. Even the Lord’s remains themselves are on display. There were actually two lords found buried in the tombs, with the second one being called the Old Lord of Sipan because he was buried earlier. Each of the lords had other people buried along side them – wives, servants, and guardians, and each of these graves are described and displayed as well. It was really fascinating.

The only thing that detracted from our enjoyment of the museum were the hundreds of school children that were on a field trip that day, but eventually they all passed us and there was some peace and quiet to enjoy the mystical atmosphere. A few of the kids kept running up to us to chat and say hello – I think we were a more interesting exhibit for some of them than the stuff in the museum! Entering the museum, they wanted me to take pictures of them, but then they never even asked to see them on the camera. Again, we didn’t see any gringos at the museum either – all the other people there were Peruvians.

Our original intent was to go visit the actual archaeological site of Sipan in the afternoon, but by the time we finished seeing the museum and eating lunch it was almost 2:00, and we figured that seeing the museum had been enough. We had been to excavation sites already and while it would have been great to see the actually place where the pyramids and tombs were found, all the real artefacts are at the museum and we were tired. We caught a combi back to Chiclayo where we walked around a bit more. I had seen a jean store that looked like it had some jeans that might actually fit me properly (most of the women here have very skinny legs and larger stomachs, which is the opposite of me). I had been told that the quality of jeans in Peru is very good because of the cotton they use, and they were also cheap. I found a pair that fit well (hard to find even in Canada) and only cost 35 soles ($11), so Lincoln talked me into buying them. They were a little bit tight, but I’m hoping to loose a couple more pounds before this trip is over (I think I have already lost around 5 pounds but don’t have a scale to weigh myself; Lincoln has lost around 10 pounds! It's all the walking around we're doing).

We went back to the room to indulge in the free internet again, and then went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, again super cheap at $4 for both of us.