Labour Day Long Weekend

In Peru (as in many other countries), Labour day is celebrated on May 1st, and my team got a four-day weekend to celebrate. I decided to take advantage of the time off to head north to Trujillo and Huanchaco - a colonial city and fishing town, respectively. The drive north from Lima was beautiful, with huge sand dunes and cliffs lining the Pacific Ocean

The first day I spent in Trujillo and on a tour to the archaeological sites of the "Temple of the Moon", "Temple of the Rainbow", and "Chan Chan". The Temple of the Moon is a temple built by the Moche culture over 600 years, ending around 600 AD. The walls of the temple were covered in sand, which preserved the adobe sculputure and paintings of the main god Ai-Apaec and other images.

Excavations and restorations only began on the site in 1991, so there is a still a great deal of work being done. Each archaeologist apparently works on an area ~20cm squared each day,

so that it looks like this:

Chan Chan was built by the Chimu culture around 1300 AD and is over 28km squared - the largest adobe city in the world. Unfortunately, much of the site was destroyed by the Spaniards and subsequent grave robberies, and there is only one temple open to the public - but it's a beautiful temple with carved walls that were once painted:

The next day I strolled along the beach in Huanchaco, where boats have been prohibited and the fishers still use the traditional reed boats that have been used for over 2000 years.

But the best part of the trip was who I shared it with....Gabby came down from Mancora and we had a great time catching up, strolling along the beach and munching on seafood by the sea!