Sep 4 - Oct 9, 2016: Peru

Sep. 9, 2016.  Chiclayo, then night bus to Trujillo, Peru.  Hospedaje El Conde de Arce, Trujillo, Peru.

• Walked to the Mercado Modelo to see the section called the Mercado de Bruno's (witch doctors' market), with all sorts of plants (including, apparently, hallucinogenic cacti, though I didn't ask), and animal parts.  Breakfast in the fish market for a nice piece of - you guessed it - fish.  Then a minibus to Ferrenafe to see the Museo Nacional de Sican - gorgeous but completely empty - I was the only person for my entire visit.  Had a few nice gold pieces, which I was allowed to photograph, but nothing like the Museo tumbas reales de Sipan.

• Sipan v. Sican: The Sican were descendants of the Moche (AD 100 - 800), and flourished in the same region from AD 750-1375.  They are the ones that made such gorgeous gold / silver / arsenic copper stuff.  Sipan is the name of the hamlet where the Moche / Sican stuff was found.

• OK, back to Chiclayo and a meal of black conch ceviche, then onto a bus at 1:15 for Trujillo, arriving four hours later, through dry, sandy, dirty hills and towns.  Glad I decided to not get off at Guadalupe and hunt down Pakatnamu (when I asked about it at the Museo National de Sican, nobody had heard of the place).

• Once in Trujillo, I booked my Sunday overnight bus to Lima, checked into the Hospedaje al Conde de Arce, and had a pizza at Casona Deza, in a beautifully preserved colonial home, the Casa Ganoza Chopitea mansion (c 1735).  I am now back in my room, the only possible negative the presence of an electric band practicing just outside my door in the hostal's common area.  Thank goodness I'm hard of hearing.  Tomorrow I plan to book a tour of the Trujillo surroundings.