Barbara and Greg's Adventures: Chiclayo

We took a 1.5 hour plane ride north from Lima to Chiclayo.

The next day we went to our first ruins - Tucume which dates to around 800AD.

We walked through this farm to get to the excavation.
Luckily all the animals were chained since there were no fences.

Election advertisements were painted on fences and buildings, including houses!

We had a delicious and intereting lunch at a hacienda with a paso fino horse show. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was fun to see all the locals enjoying the show. (We were the only tourists there.)

Earlier in the day, we had been to the museum of the Lord of Sipan who is like the King Tut of Peru. His tomb had not been raided and was full of amazing gold, silver and precious stone artifacts. The museum was great but you couldn't take any photos inside.

After lunch we visited the excavation of his tomb (and servants and bishops) from around 300 AD. Replicas of the artifacts we saw in the museum are in the graves.

The next day we went to the Mercado de Brujos.

Note the tonic with the muscle man on the bottle.

These are herbs used in witchcraft which is apparently widely practiced in Peru.

The roads were so bumpy with speed bumps everywhere

that I can't imagine how these cakes made it to their destinations!

Road Scholar arranged for us to visit a pre-school and asked us to bring school supplies to give to the children. Road Scholar also purchased supplies and juice for us to pass around. They were VERY appreciative and did a song and dance for us as a thank you.