Guayaquil, Ecuador to Chiclayo, Peru 11- 12 January 2006

Treasure trove in Tumbas Reales de Sipán museum

It was getting late by the time we had finished filing the second report at the police station, but we were determined to get the hell out of Guayaquil. We took off for Chiclayo at 5.40 p.m., knowing that it would be dark when we arrived at destination. We were still feeling depressed and sick to the stomach but our spirits lifted a little when we touched down at Chiclayo around 8 p.m. Arriving in a new country was a bit like starting out fresh again.
Chiclayo is known as the ‘friendly’ city and it didn’t disappoint us. The entry formalities were friendly and efficient. Everyone at the quiet airport was eager to please and, after a short taxi ride, we booked into a new hotel called Casa de la Luna where we were able to negotiate a good discount. It had been high season in Ecuador, but this was low season in Peru and prices were generally lower than all the other countries we’d visited. We drank our first Peruvian pisco sour, which tasted even better than the Ecuadorian ones, and enjoyed a good meal with a bottle of Peruvian wine (not bad, but not as good as and more expensive than Chilean wines).
The next day we hired a very knowledgeably tourist guide, Luis Tello Vega, and a driver to take us to the nearby Sicán museum, the archaeological site of Túcume with its 28 pyramids and the world-class museum Tumbas Reales containing the treasures found in the Royal Tombs of Sipán – one of the most impressive museums I have ever visited. The Sipán pyramids and tombs, built by the Moche (about AD 100) were discovered as recently as 1987 by local archaeologist Dr Walter Alva – although the huaqueros (tomb robbers) already knew of their existence.