We’re back out into the desert areas again, through town and heading away from the coast. We pass an archeological museum and find ourselves on a long narrow road approaching huge sand dune like hills, and a large walled area in the distance.
We turn into the parking lot, and driver/guide (should have gotten his name) tells us we have until 3 pm (Tres y punto – got it). We all troop through the high walls in a maze like structure, with requisite dead ends and openings that lead to nowhere, before we finally emerge at the entrance of Chan Chan.
At the ticket counter, we get into a little disagreement over exchange rates. It is $4US each, but my Argentinian friend (correctly) says it should be $3US with the exchange. The Chan Chan people aren’t budging, so its $4US or nothing. We opt for the $4. And well worth it (exchange rate be damned).
Entering into the complex (which is actually a palace) we begin to see all sorts of adobe structures and carvings. We follow an English speaking tour into the first open area, and find that it was used for ceremonial gatherings, including sacrifices. It’s huge,and lined with those imposing wall structures. How did they do all this back in the ages?
Next we follow the “fish” directional signs into a corridor lined with incredibly detailed carvings of fish and birds on one side and, what we will find in a few minutes is a standard geometrical design of the palace, on the other side.
There is a tour guide here, but we don’t want people (all ship people on tour btw) to think we are eaves dropping, so we sort of linger on the outskirts taking pictures. The carvings are amazing and we later find out in a little booklet we buy – at the behest of the translating Argentinian – and all in Spanish I might add – that everything in the palace is related to the sea – the fish, the birds - which are all sea birds – the sea stars, etc.).
We proceed on into the Audiencias or what I think might be the “auditorium.” At any rate, it is a huge area with loads of great carvings. There is a huge tour group on the viewing platform, so we skirt around them and go out into a 2nd Ceremonial plaza which wasn’t any different from the first one. At this point, we were on a time crunch, having only 15 more minutes to get back to the bus – so we turned around and went back to the Audiencias – where the crowd had thinned and we could take pictures of the massive structure they were building above the excavation, and the carvings themselves. It still boggles the mind how they did all this!
Crazy. We retraced our steps – purchasing our little Spanish booklet – and taking pictures of Ed up against the wall – so you can get a perspective of just how huge this structure really is…
…then back on the bus for the ride out past more semi-uncovered walls and sloping desert hills.
The last stop was supposed to be the beach, but we think the Argentineans nixed that and asked to be taken back to the ship. That’s ok – this has been a great day for $20 and we are very content to watch the city, sights and people on the streets pass by our bus windows on the ride back.
Back at the ship, this time the bus goes all the way into the port and drops off off right at the gangway. Cool! We’re early enough we can even peruse the little tourist market set up there. So, we say goodbye to our drivers and follow the Argentineans over to the stalls. Its all the same sort of stuff we saw at the first craft area, so we just meander around, until we come to the guy with the Alpaca sweaters. They are totally cool. He wants $20 for them, but we don’t have enough. As we walk away, Ed and I debate negotiating, and finally I give in – it’s a really cool sweater! – and we count out what dollars we have remaining: $16. So we go back, and the vendor negotiates down to like $19 or something. We tell him, look, we literally only have $16 – no BS – and we’ll gladly give you that but no more. So – you know we have the sweater! Probably could have done more negotiation, but we were really happy with it and now I can’t wait to wear it….next year when it is winter again!
So a very nice ending to a great day. We sit on our balcony for a while, in the sun, and then watch Trujillo fade into the distance as we sail away.
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