Feliz año

Judith visited for Christmas. We celebrated Noche Buena in Callanca with my host family. Noche Buena typically consists of a huge meal at midnight at which time the family places the baby Jesus in the manger, everyone eats, exchanges gifts, sings carols, plays music and dances. In my house we ate at 10 o’clock, Judith and I handed out our gifts, not really expecting anything in return and receving exactly what we expected, and everyone went to bed.

Just as well because the next morning we left early for Trujillo and Huanchaco, a beach near Trujillo. Trujillo and Huanchaco are located in La Libertad, the department south of Lambayeque (where I live) and about three hours from my site.

I suffered my first robbery in Trujillo. Oddly enough, they chose to swipe my glucometer and insulin. We were celebrating on Christmas night in the city plaza in Trujillo along with a huge crowd of trujillanos. I knew this would be a paradise for pickpockets so I was carefully protecting my wallet and camera. Since I was thinking that a glucometer would be of no value whatsover to any person other than a diabetic I wasn’t as concerned about the glucometer but of course the pickpocket didn’t know it was a glucometer. To him it must’ve looked like a camera or God knows what high-buck gringo gadget.

So we spent Christmas night and all morning the 26th hunting down replacements for the glucometer and insulin. Not easy tasks in Trujillo, Perú. Somewhere in Peru there’s a pickpocket resting easy knowing that he’s maintaining tight control of his glucose levels.

So the vacation didn’t really get started until the afternoon of the 26th. But we made up for lost time. We took a combi to Huanchaco, the beach town, and wandered around until we located our hostal, Naylamp, which is named for a Moche god and turned out to be a beautiful and tranquil spot. Our room was on a hill overlooking the beach and it felt very good to be impersonating a tourist instead of trying to promote international understanding at the retail level.

We visited La Huaca de la Luna y del Sol near Trujillo and also Chan Chan. These are vast adobe ruins left behind by the Moche and Chimú cultures of northern Perú. Their civilizations date back to pre-Incan times, the first thousand years after the birth of Christ.

A “huaca” is a burial site and huacas are scattered throughout northern Perú. There are several in my site, Callanca. But the ones that Judith and I visited are grand and spectacular, the remains of giant pyramids. Since they were built from adobe—mud mixed with seashells—they haven’t survived well the dozens or hundreds of El Niño events that have taken place since the first centuries after Christ. The rains along with accumulations of windblown sand have turned the once impressive structures into nondescript mounds into whose flanks rivulets of rainwater have carved deep fissures. Archeologists are beginning to uncover what’s left of the original structures underneath the debris and what they’re finding is impressive indeed. They’ve discovered murals that still bear the colors with which the Moche painted them and individual rooms with honeycombed walls (designed thusly to provide ventilation) within fortresses that the Chimú built to defend themselves from the invading Incan armies.

We also visited pyramids at Túcume and toured the incredible Museo Tumbas Reales del Señor de Sipan and saw the reconstructed remains of a Moche king and the various gold, silver, copper and turquoise embellishments with which he was buried. The Moche custom was to bury the dead king along with his wives, his priest, his dog and his llama, as well as one or two guardians and hundreds of small handmade vessels bearing corn and chicha and other provisions to sustain him during the trip from this world to the next. One of the most interesting stories we heard was that of one of the guardians. One guardian was buried horizontally next to the king. Before burying him they cut off his feet so that he wouldn’t abandon his post during the afterlife. The other guardian they buried in an upright, crouched position in an alcove above the dead ruler. Like most other ancient tombs the tombs at Sipán had undergone extensive looting until their discovery by archeologists in the 1980s. It’s said that the looters left the Señor de Sipán’s burial site intact because, when they discovered and finally broke into the burial chamber, they encountered the crouched skeleton of the guardian. So the guardian, even though 1000 years had passed, faithfully fulfilled his duty.