Temple of the Moon by daylight...

Well, the beach is a wonderful place, but yesterday we decided that we would try and escape the waves and sand and go into the big city of Trujillo. This area where Trujillo and Huanchaco are located, once used to be a large Moche city called Chan Chan. From the highway we can see the hundreds of adobe brick walls of the old city which are being erroded from the wind and rain (sad). Instead of visiting the city, we decided to go see the Huaca del Luna (Temple of the Moon). It was a religious site (c. 200 A.D.) where prisoners were once sacrificed, high priests drank their blood, and the people watched and worshiped their god. ugh

The site is still being excavated and there is a considerable amount of work going into the protection of the site too. Most of the temple is covered by tall, modern roofs to keep off the rain, and thatched grass walls to protect it from the wind. There are five different step-pyramids, all built on top of eachother (just like a set of Russian nesting dolls stacked neatly inside one another). Because of this, the walls of the inside pyramids have been well preserved and the paintings and carvings still have all their original colours.

The small bricks which were used to build the site were all donated by the families of Chan Chan. And in order for the priests to keep track of who was donating, the bricks were labeled with different figures and symbols, all of which are still visable. The site even is the home of two Peruvian hairless dogs (extreemely ugly animals which look almost like overfed rats) and used to be used for their bodyheat.

After our tour and packed lunch, we headed back into Trujillo, where we went grocery shopping (and left only with the things we had not planned on buying, but we finally found some peanut butter!) and Colin braved another haircut. We are hoping to go to Lima tomorrow (though we dont think we will stay in the city long).
Ciao.