Moche Valley + Chan Chan, Peru 77F (25C)
The ship docked
at Salaverry, Peru, just outside the town of Trujillo and we got off the ship
early for our booked tour.
 |
| From the Bus Window |
We had booked
this excursion with the Ship. It would have been too cumbersome to do it any
other way.
I want to take
you back in history in this blog, way back… before Ice Cream and Television.
You know there were people living in Rome, Italy before the Romans took over,
right? (We call these old civilizations
the Etruscans).
There were also
people and Empires in S. America before the Incas or the Aztecs.
 |
| Two Minutes Later From the Bus Window |
Well this area we
are in now was the land of the Moche and they left some ruins and relics lying
around that even the Spanish Conquistadors just shrugged their shoulders at; well,
AFTER they pillaged and ransacked the remaining buildings and graves and
temples, that is! They were such nice people, those Catholic Spaniards. God
gave them the right to do that. Kind of reminds me of how the ISIS people look
at Islam today. Ah, but I digress! No
politics in this blog, Hans!
 |
| Lots of Walking At the Temple of the Moon |
We took the bus
to a pyramid-shaped temple, built totally out of adobe brick. Millions of those
bricks piled up. The Moche called this pile of mud the “Temple of the Moon”.
 |
| Some of the Adobe Brick Is Crumbling - Temple of the Moon |
The Moche believed that the moon god was more powerful than the sun god,
because one can see the moon during the day AND at night. Well, that belief lasted
for a while but then some shaman convinced them that the sun was a more
powerful god and they built an even bigger, higher pyramid, the Temple of the
Sun. (Huaca Del Sol). Huaca is an Inca word meaning
‘holy place”. All this happened right after Christ.
 |
| Huge Adobe Structures |
I am
talking about the years 100 to 700 AD; The dark ages in Europe; or the end of
the Roman Empire, really.
Then some
other tribe, the Chimu, took over the ‘Valley of the Moche’. They had their own
belief system. Now we are talking from about 800 to 1450 AD; the ‘Middle Ages’
in Europe.
Now
those Chimu built a large city, today it is called Chan Chan. Again they built
the whole of the city of Chan Chan using adobe bricks; mud bricks. Those adobe
bricks were baked in the sun; they were not fired like the European bricks are.
When it rains hard, those adobe bricks dissolve.
Sorry
to be so long-winded, but all of this is important.
 |
| Reed Roof - Waterproof and Shade - Temple of the Moon |
The
Incas conquered the Chimu, just before the Spanish arrived. The Incas subdued
the Chimu, forcibly took their best people, artists to Cusco and made them work
just for the Inca. The Chimu became slave labor.
The
Chimu were terrific metal artists, were great in weaving clothes. Were very
productive people but did not have a strong enough army to withstand the
marauding Incas. The Chimu lost to the Incas when the Incas arrived in about AD
1500 or so.
 |
| Part of the Sacrificial Hall - Temple of the Moon |
And
then… the Spanish came, The Spanish came from far away… to face the Incas.
Diplomacy was tried but the Incas had just too many gold, silver and fine jewel
treasures to be left alone. The Incas were not ‘believers’ in the Christian
God, and the priests of the Spanish said it’s ok to subdue all of the Incas.
 |
| A Prisoner Being Sacrificed - Temple of the Moon |
You
know the rest………conquest… Conquistadors….
murdering, pillaging and destroying a culture that had been around for
Millennia.
We
visited Chan Chan or what was left of it after the Spanish had their way. The
Spanish diverted the Moche River to swamp Chan Chan, to dissolve the adobe
bricks.
 |
| Huge Site At Chan Chan |
 |
| Inside the Large Complex at Chan Chan |
 |
| Murals - Chan Chan |
You
cannot imagine how large this place Chan Chan is. We walked for hours but only
saw a small part of it. About 40,000 people lived here during the height of the
Chimu era. Oh, those Chimu were no holy men either. The offerings to their gods
were human sacrifices. The Chimu sprayed human blood all over; they drank it,
too. The Chimu pictures and their art depict monsters, holding beheaded human
heads. The Chimu, like the Incas, had ‘holy’ knifes that were venerated for
their efficiency in cutting through human necks with ease.
Religion
is a strange thing, what people do to each other or what they do in the name of
religion has always puzzled me.
And
then my old question arose, why here? Why this spot on earth, why was the
village built here, the temples built here? What made this a ‘holy’ place?
 |
| Murals - Chan Chan |
The
Moche River running into the Pacific Ocean, in an otherwise dry area might have
been a reason. The Moche used the river water for irrigation, the Chimu did,
too. I am sure the Incas followed suit, because when the Incas took over from
the Chimu the area was established already by previous occupation. Still, why
this spot?
I
asked one of the guides and he explained something to me I never thought about.
 |
| More Murals - Chan Chan |
According
to the latest studies for Chan Chan, it was at this spot that the priests of
the Chimu decided the golden egg arrived on earth:
 |
| Many Niches - Unknown Purpose - Chan Chan |
The
traditional founding ruler of the Chimu was Taycanamo who was considered to
have been born from a golden egg and then arrived from the sea.
Not only that,
but I learned that the most important part of any being or creature on earth
are the fluids that are within that being or creature. The blood so to speak is
the extension of the waters the golden egg came from. And the spot where the
golden egg
 |
| Intricate Design Underneath the Niches - Chan Chan |
rolled ashore is Chan Chan.
Far out!
Trujillo, the
city nearby was founded by Pizarro (the Spaniard who conquered the Incas), who
just used the easy way out and added his town close to where Chan Chan was; a
no-brainer for Pizarro.
I told you, I
like mysterious history… I could go on and on but I will stop here.
 |
| Reed Boats |
 |
| Reed Boats Are Straddled and Cargo Is Put In the Opening |
I had a good time
on this tour. We walked our tails off; we went back to the Plaza des Armas in
Trujillo after we visited Chan Chan but then took the bus to Huanchaco and a
beach place where people
still fish using the reed boats of the ‘Incas’, some of which were
stacked along the shore to dry out. Those boats have been used in this area for
nearly 4000 years, some plaque told us. So again, we have not even touched on
what happened here BC.
 |
| But This Was Carol's Lunch - Yum! |
I had ceviche
for lunch, a Peruvian delicacy. It was part of the tour.
 | |
| Daniel and Kimberly |
The entertainment
at night was a man and wife acrobatic team, Daniel and Kimberly, and he was on a kind of large hula hoop
wheel.
 |
| She Is a Former Canadian Figure Skater |
Judge yourself on
the video (highlighted names above) if it’s something for you.
 |
| Daniel In the Wheel |
