TRAVEL AND TOURS

InTrujillo, spring never ends. The sun always shines, filling with light every corner of the capital of the department of La Libertad. This light brightens the spirit of a friendly and cordial people, who live proud of their adobe citadels built by the Chimus and Mochicas before the Incas; their stately mansions, heritage of the vice royalty times and the beginnings of the Republic; and of the 'marinera', the Peruvian national dance, a whirl of sensuality and gallantry from which love is born.

Trujillowas founded in 1534 by Don Diego de Almagro in the northern coast of Peru. Almagro, on stopping in the valley of the Moche river on his advance toward Pachacamac (Lima), "found the place promising and suitable for founding a city", and named it after the Spanish city where the conqueror Francisco Pizarro was born. From the day of its foundation, the city grew rapidly owing to the productivity of the valley and the tenacity of its people; builders of stately mansions with dazzling artistic window railings in wrought iron, adding a touch of distinction and elegance to Trujillo's architecture.

Yet the enchantment ofTrujillogoes beyond its vice-Royalty past and slips back into the pre-Hispanic era. The city of Chan-Chan is also in the Moche valley, capital of the Kingdom of the Great Chimu, considered the largest city built out of mud (adobe) in the world and covering an area over 20 square kilometers. This colossal urban area is only comparable to Teotihuacn in Mexico or the ancient cities of Egypt.

The Huaca del Sol, a stepped pyramid 20 meters high; the Huaca de la Luna, with intriguing murals representing the rituals of the Mochicas, and the Complejo del Brujo (El Brujo complex), distinguished for an adobe pyramid 30 meters high and over 15 centuries old, are evidence of the creativity of the first peoples to inhabit the north coast of Peru.

The past centuries have proven Don Diego de Almagro right, as indeed, the Moche valley was promising and suitable for founding a city. Of this there is no doubt and everyone who visits Trujillo, the land of sun and eternal spring, is well aware of the fact.

ATTRACTIONS

Trujillo is such a agreeable and captivating town that one can spend hours simply walking through the same streets or sitting on a bench of some romantic square, Despite this feeling, which you're sure to experience if you go toTrujillo, it's best to escape, if only for a moment, from its seduction. You can visit the archeological sites in the city outskirts or nearby beaches, like Huanchaco, where you can watch brave fishermen who still ride out to sea on fragile "Caballitos de Totora", a traditional pre-Inca craft made with compressed reeds.