Fascinating North
Lima-Trujillo-Chiclayo (6 days / 5 nights)
Day 1: Lima
Assistance and transfer to the selected hotel.
Meals: None
Day 2: Lima – City
In the morning, guided sightseeing tour to the most attractive and important sites in Lima. The tour starts passing through the modern suburbs of San Isidro and Miraflores where we see the Financial Center, the Golf Course, the Olive Grove Park and the Huaca Pucllana, archaeological precinct built in the IV century A.D. It was a ceremonial and administrative centre which was considered by the Incas as a sacred site. The tour continues passing through the Historical Centre, with its colonial mansions and its Moorish style balconies, San Martin Square and the Main Square with their different buildings: Government Palace, Archbishop’s Palace, Cathedral Basilica and the Town hall.
Then we visit San Francisco Convent, which displays the largest collection of religious colonial art in America, and where we can appreciate the great Patio decorated with Seville tiles from the XVI century, Moorish arches and underground catacombs.
At the end of the tour you have a choice to stop at the Indian Market, at Larcomar, an entertainment center with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, or return to your hotel.
In the afternoon, guided visit to the Larco Museum, housed in a colonial mansion built in the XVII century over a pre-Columbian pyramid of the VIII century. It is considered the largest private collection of pre-Columbian Peruvian art in the world.
The tour continues with a visit to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History (*), also housed in a colonial mansion. It is considered the grandest museum in Peru. A vast and varied cultural heritage is exhibited in its showrooms, such as two important carved stone pieces dating back to the Formative period 1000 years B.C. (the ‘Estela Raimondi’ and the ‘Tello Obelisk’), the largest textile collection and a major collection of ancient Peruvian metals.
(*)National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History, closed on Mondays.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 3: Lima – Trujillo – City and Archaeological Museum
Transfer to the airport for your flight to Trujillo. Upon arrival, reception and transfer to selected hotel. In the afternoon, we have a guided tour of the city, visiting the Perimeter Wall (Baluarte Herrera), the Recreo Square, Iturregui Palace, Emancipation House, La Merced Church, Mariscal Orbegoso House, Calonge Urquiaga House, the Cathedral, Mayorazgo House, the Main Square. During the tour, we will visit the Archaeological Museum, with its pottery, jewelry, textiles and feather art objects from different pre-Hispanic cultures in the region.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 4: Trujillo – Temple of the Sun and the Moon – Chan Chan – Huanchaco – Chiclayo
Excursion to the Moche Valley (15 mins South of Trujillo) visiting the Temples of the Sun and the Moon, enormous adobe buildings built by the Moche culture in the 5th century. The walls are decorated with beautiful arabesques in high relief with motifs of the Mochica mythology.
Afternoon excursion to Chan Chan archaeological complex, to visit the Arco Iris Temple (Rainbow) or Huaca del Dragon and the Tschudi Palace, with its ceremonial squares, worship sites, reservoirs, barns, burial platform. The tour ends in Huanchaco fishermen’s cove, a traditional fishing port where you will see the ‘Caballitos de totora’ (old Mochica reed vessels). At agreed time, transfer to the station for bus trip to Chiclayo (regular service). Upon arrival, transfer to hotel.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 5: Chiclayo – Tucume – Royal Tombs Museum of Sipan
After breakfast, excursion to visit the archaeological complex of Tucume, famous for its pyramids (aprox 25) and terraces surrounding the mountains in a radial shape, and traditionally known as Purgatory or the Raya. We also visit the Site Museum. Then we go to Lambayeque to visit the Royal Tombs Museum of Sipan (*), with 10 exhibit rooms, where we will see the treasures of the Lord of Sipan and a large collection of gold, silver and copper objects. We will pass by the Church of St. Peter, the longest balcony of Peru (La Casa de La Logia), the Main Square.
(*) The Royal Tombs Museum of Sipan is closed on Mondays.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 6: Chiclayo – Sipan (Huaca Rajada) – Departure
In the morning, we leave towards Huaca Rajada (*), 33kms Southeast of Chiclayo and 2kms from Sipan; the site where the intact tomb of an elite figure was found (Moche 200 to 700 DC) called the Lord of Sipan. The sumptuousness of their ornaments and the high degree of its cultural technological development is considered the most important archaeological discovery of the century. We visit the Site Museum. At agreed time, transfer to the airport.
(*) Huaca Rajada is closed on Mondays.
Meals: Breakfast
