Diego de Almagro founded the city of Trujillo in 1534 as an express assignment ordered by Francisco Pizarro. He founded the city on the Moche River Valley to tatake advantage of the political prestige of its Caciques. Thus, the Chimor Valley has preserved its cultural hegemony, since beginning of our era. Despite the Saint Valentine earthquake in 1619, the fertility of the valley and the determination of its people have contributed to its development. The valley is a rich artistic province and a Republican Viceroyalty.
Due to the limitless cordiality of its people and its unceasing intellectual activity, Trujillo has not only become the “Respite of Travelers”, but the “Cultural Capital of Peru”. It is enough to mention The International Spring Festival. The National Marinera Competition, the Caballos de Paso (typical Peruvian Pace Horse) Competition, the Totora Raft Exhibition, the Contemporary Art Biennial and the International Ballet Festival, among others.
Trujillo has a spring climate without marked extremes of hot or cold. During the summer (December-March) the mean temperate is 24 degrees Celsius. The rest of the year is moderately temperate with sunny days.
Access
- Aerial: The Carlos Martinez de Pinillos Airport is located approximately 10.5kms. From the city of Trujillo via highway toward the Huanchaco bathing resort. The Trujillo – Lima flight is approximately 45 min. long.
- Terrestrial: Via the Panamericana Highway. Trujillo is connected to all the cities on the Peruvian coast, as well as all the provinces of the La Libertad Department.
Climate
Trujillo has a dry climate with an average temperature of 21°C. The summers can reach temperatures over 32°C and the winters are never colder than 14°C. Most of the year, the temperature stays in the low to mid twenties.
Trujillo is known as “The City of Eternal Spring”, because of its very sunny and pleasant weather year-round.
TOURIST PLACES IN TRUJILLO
Chan Chan
The nucleus of the Chimu culture (XII century). It is considered the largest mud city in the world and UNESCO has declared it a Cultural Patrimony of Humanity. In an area of 14 krn2 are scattered palace remains, popular city districts, cultivation fields, cementeries and all that was achieved by this culture extended on the North Peruvian coast.
Chicama
Is a port and small coastal town in northwestern Peru, located in the La Libertad Region, north of the city of Trujillo. The town and beach are also called Puerto Malabrigo.
Chicama is famous for its surf break, which has been widely touted to be the longest rideable wave (excluding tidal bores) in the world (about 2.2km, and up to 4 minutes), although a Peruvian Surf Guide published in the early 2000s states that another nearby wave at “Pacasmayo” actually produces even longer rides (around 2.5km, and over 4 minutes). The distance from ‘the point’ to ‘the pier’ at Chicama is about 2.2km, which locals confirm has been ridden on a single wave, although the whole cape upon which the waves break, to their most westernmost end, is 4km long.
Beachs of Chicama
Locals have called the waves at Chicama, from the top of the Cape to the pier, “Malpaso”, “Keys”, “The Point”, and “El Hombre”. “The Point” is considered the best part of the wave and is the most famous, which will break for around 1km up to about 6 feet in size (Hawaiian scale), but to ride longer than this all the way to the pier (about 2.2km) on a single wave needs a swell >6 feet, which is quite rare.
The larger the waves, the better the wave will generally be and the main point will have at least 10 feet of Hawaiian scale (i.e., about 20 feet of faces). This waves tends to speed up and slow down alternately, and it is rare to ride a single wave along the tip for this reason. There is also a middle section along the point which is rocky, generally hollower, but also fast and difficult to make after about 1000m, but locals claim to have achieved a single ride all the way to the pier, for a distance of about 2.2km, in 10 foot swells.
Even this distance is not as long as the length of the pointbreak at Pacasmayo, which is at least 2.5km long, and which has also been claimed by locals to have been ridden all the way along on a single wave, on very large swells.
Climate
The water is cool (17-22o C), like much of Peru, due to cold currents from the south. Climate is warm and springlike (15-28o C), however wind chill is a factor, created by the venturi effects from the headland. A 2-3 mm wetsuit is recommended as well as booties for walking up the beach.
An interesting footnote is that in addition to local fishermen on “Caballitos de Totora”, other surfers may have ridden the surf at Chicama long before. Casa Grande, Peru’s largest sugar plantation is located in the Chicama River Valley.
Chimú
Were the residents of Chimor with its capital at the city of Chan Chan, a large adobe city, in the Moche valley of Trujillo, Peru. The Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui led a campaign which conquered the Chimú around 1470 A.D., just fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish in the region. Spanish chroniclers were able to record accounts of Chimú culture from individuals who had lived before the Inca conquest. Archaeological evidence suggest that Chimor grew out of the remnants of Moche culture; early Chimú pottery had some resemblance to Moche pottery. Their ceramics are all black and their metalwork is very detailed and intricate.
The Chimú resided in the north coast of Peru: “It consists of a narrow strip of desert, 20 to 100 miles wide, between the Pacific and the western slopes of the Andes, crossed here and there by short rivers which start in the rainier mountains and provide a series of green and fertile oases.” (30) The valley plains are very flat and well suited to irrigation, which is probably as old as agriculture here. Fishing was also very important and was almost considered as important as agriculture.
Religion
The Chimú were also known for worshiping the moon, unlike the Inca who worshiped the sun. The Chimu viewed the sun as a destroyer. This is likely due to the harshness of the sun in the desert environment they lived in. Offerings played an important role in religious rites, and one common object for offerings as well as an item used by artisans was the shell of the Spondylus shellfish, which lives only in the warm coastal waters off Ecuador and is associated with the sea, rainfall, and fertility. Spondylus were also highly valued and traded by the Chimú.
Ceramic chimu
The Chimú are best known for their distinctive monochromatic pottery and fine metal working of copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbago (copper and gold). Its pottery often has the shape of a creature, or has a human figure sitting or standing on a cuboid bottle. The shiny black finish of most Chimú pottery is not achieved by using glazes, but instead is achieved by firing the pottery at high temperatures in a closed kiln which prevents oxygen from reacting with the clay.
Chimú vessel showing a sexual act (Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain).
There are also several examples of Chimú pottery depicting homosexual acts (This is mentioned in William S. Burroughs’ novel Queer).
Huanchaco Bathing Resorts
Located approximately 12 Kms, northwest of the city. Since inmemorable times, this bay was named Guaukocha which means “Beautiful Lagoon of Golden Fish” – In the highest part of the resort sits a beautiful, ancient, Colonial church. The Virgin of Succor, put ashore the 2nd of January, 1537 under King Charles V’s commands, is venerated here. Dean Saavedra, a miraculous saint whose body has been maintained intact in an urn since 1707, is also venerated. It is the only ing fishing bay in all of the Peruvian North that maintains still standing thee totora rafts that were inherited by its ancestors.
Moche Village
Located 15 kms. south of the city. Founded 1535 and on December 13th, 1724, its church was built with Santa Lucia de Moche as its patron. Moche was a cultural center since the Stone Age, remains of this period were found in the High Chorobal south of Moche. Subsequently, here one finds the beginning of the Early of Formative Horizon demonstrated by the Cupisniques whose remains can be appreciated in the Complexes of Dead Horse east of Laredo and those of Salinar and Viru that existed until the II century A.D. The presence of the famous burial grounds of the Sun and The Moon in the Archaeological Complex of Moche, -indicates that this area not only continued to be intensely occupied by the natives, but that it was considered as the political and religious center of the Mochica Culture (II to MAD.).
San Pedro de Lloc
Is a town in the La Libertad Region of northern Peru. It is the capital of the coastal Pacasmayo Province. San Pedro de Lloc is also known to be the last place of residence of the Italian-born scientist Antonio Raimondi. His home is located within a block of the main plaza and is open to the public as a museum.
Temples Of the Sun and the Moon
These were the religious center of the Moche culture in the II-VIII centuries, and they extended from Ancash to Piura. They are constructed out of adobe, forming superimposed platforms that reach a considerable height, which allows them to dominate the valley. They are located left of the Moche River.
The City of Otuzco
Is located in the highlands of La Libertad. It’s the capital of the Province of Otuzco, and it is well known because there is the sanctuary of the Gate Virgin. The Otuzcans, lead by Don José Corcuera (députée by the Province of Huamachuco) and Don Enemecio Orbegozo (son of the former President Marshal Luis José Orbegozo), who in 1856 have propossed a Law Project, that was unaccepted, later proposed a second Law Project, that was accepted by the National Congress on April 17, 1861, date when it’s given the “Law of Creation of the Otuzco Province”, in the Department of La Libertad.
The Otuzcan area has been inhabited since the upcoming of the first human groups in the Region of La Libertad. It was inhabited by the Yungas and the Quechuas.
Otuzco is an andean city inhabited by descendants of the old people of Perú, who mixed their blood with the people came from Spain, since the first years of Spanish domination. The ethnic is majoritary Mestizo.
The Brujo Archaeological Complex
Just north of Trujillo, La Libertad Province, Peru, is an ancient monument of the Moche culture. It includes Huaca Prieta (from preceramic times and later extended by the Cupisnique culture) and nearby colonial remains (Salinar, Moche, Lambayeque, Chimú).
Huaca El Brujo (or Cortada/Partida) and Huaca Cao Viejo (or Huaca Blanca) were built by the Moche between 0-600 A.D. Huaca Cao Viejo is famous for its polychrome reliefs and mural paintings, and the discovery of the Señora de Cao, the first known Governess in Peru. Both appeared in National Geographic in July 2004 and June 2006, the site officially opened to the public in May 2006 and a museum exhibit was proposed for 2007.