- Arrival in Trujillo early in the morning
- Look for another hotel that nobody opens when you have reserved
- Organize tours
- City tour through lively markets, magnificent colonial buildings and a visit to the longest mosaic in the world
We arrive in Trujillo early in the morning. Take a taxi to the hotel reserved via Booking.com. but nothing moves at first. A helpful neighbor calls, but that doesn't help either. It's getting too colorful for us, so we march further into the center, looking for a place to stay. Not far from the spacious Plaza de Armas we will find it.
A little later we explore the city center on foot, after all we want to book a tour to Chan Chan and the Moche pyramids near the city for tomorrow as well as a bus ticket for the onward journey to Chiclayo. In the Cafe Olé near the main square there is a fruit salad, where we talk to the owner. Paul is fluent in German, owns a travel agency and informs us about tour offers. So we book an alternative city tour for the afternoon, the all-day standard tour to the ruins, and the onward journey to Chiclayo, including an afternoon tour to Sipàn and Túcume.
We march to the Mercado Central for something to eat. On the way back we discover something that we have never seen before: there is a big box Caiman head and a dead snakewhich are probably used for local shamanism. After a short city tour with lunch at the market, we start in the great heat City tour.
The first thing we'll see is that longest mosaic in the world at. The walls around the extensive university area are from scenes from the Peruvian history adorned. Well worth seeing, even if it shouldn't be mentioned in any travel guide.
It continues through the shady streets of the Mercado Mayoristawhere pretty much anything imaginable can be bought. Paul shows us how everything is recycled here, gives us sugar cane juice to try, and explains all sorts of alternative healing methods. Finally, there is a walk through the historic center with a focus on the most magnificent Colonial buildings and churches the city. Including the magnificent one Palacio Iturregui and the Casa de la Emancipaciónwhere Trujillo proclaimed its independence from Spain and thus paved the way for Peruvian sovereignty.
