Trujillo, Peru
More Peru. After I came back from Lima, I went back again. My parents and I went to Trujillo, the Northern coast. My dad's dad was born there. It was a brief trip, we left July 31st to Lima, then Lima to Trujillo and then got back August 7th. So it was a while ago...


The reason for the trip was because my dad attended the PAMS Annual convention thing... but I want to keep this brief and I really have no time to spend days on this like I have on past posts so I'm going to... keep it short..

The last time I was there I was five years old. I remember we went during a Christmas vacation and all I did was bake miniature goods in my Easy Bake Oven with my cousin.. and yeah...




llamas roamed the hotel, it was amusing.

The first night we went to this.. welcoming event. We had cute food and the university band people sang and played for us and the national Marinera champions danced for us. It was really beautiful and I wanted to cry. They just look so happy when they were dancing..


The next morning we went to las Ruinas de Chan Chan. Ancient ruins of one of the largest civilizations to have ever inhabited Peru... It's believed a tsunami was the cause of their extinction.











I don't understand how century year old carvings/engravings like these... survive time...








Where one of the kings lies...


the mummified king...

In this same tomb, 7-10 young girl's bodies were also found. These young girls, approx 15 years of age, had long long hair with which they were each suffocated/choked with... Yes, with their own hair. They were all found with their hair wrapped around their necks. It's believe this was a voluntary sacrifice. Because it was an honor to be buried with a king...


crazy.









Constant restorations/new discoveries.

I forgot how large the kingdoms span... 20 miles square, I think? Something like that... Each time an king died, he was buried inside his kingdom and then the new king would build a new empire right next to the old one. I think there were like 7 empires.. or so far have been found.. I think.. something like that.


So then we went to the beach, at Huanchaco.










What I unfortunately didn't catch was when the same boy helping his friend up, pushed him into the water, lol..










hehe






I remember there were some Australian people looking at the paintings..


So then we went and had lunch at Sol y Luna, a restuarant right near some ruinas, La Huaca de la Luna y Huaca del Sol. We were presented with some more cultural dances and it was really beautiful. I loved it.




















This one's my favorite! It's the festive dance... it looks so.. fun. Like, really fun. They move their heads all fast and stomp their feet and jump and holler and its really cute.















Then we went outside and watched some Chalanes do their thing on their pure bred horses and them they performed for us another traditional Marinera dance except with the men on their horses. It was cool.

By the way, being a Chalan is something passed down through families, of generations of fathers and sons. There aren't schools or programs where you can learn or anything, its all been passed down through family.
































lol




So then we went there, to the Huaca de la Luna.










And there's still so much more to uncover..




Each family was required to make 300 bricks a day as contribution... pretty insane.. Each family had their own symbol to sort of "stamp" their bricks and such.. as seen above.. and below.




ancient "graffiti"...






.. i crack myself up.













So then after that we went back and rested for a while until the next event... which was some more dancing presentations at the hotel. It was even more beautiful and the dancers were professionals and it was amazing... so beautiful.

I got the crappiest pictures though. I was sitting in the back and I was just short enough to catch the tops of peoples heads in all my pictures so it frustrated me and I didn't take that many.
























The next day my mom and I and a couple other people went to some more ruins. about an hour and a half away. The site just opened to the public last year because a few years ago they found an incredibly well preserved tattooed young girl in a tomb there. They believe she was the first female ruler...

Anyways its called "El Complejo del Brujo"... it was interesting.






naked prisoners of war.. the same depictions also found at La Huaca de la Luna.


.. and markings on bricks.








and rib..


cloth.








Senora de Cao.


.. she was found here.


in miniature!, hehe..


I can't imagine how the site will look in ten years... with the whole mountain excavated.. The majority of the archaeologists working on site are all Europeans.




CUTE!

Then we went back and my mom and I went to the markets..



Then we went to some of the lectures being given by PAMS at the university.




lol




Then we went to visit the aunt and grandma at their hotel because they had come also and we had lunch with them.

And then we went to see a circus. The "Aztec" circus, they weren't really from Mexico or anything..




Christian, he was so cute, he dad's the owner of the circus.





Then the show started and this guy came out on tissu..



Oh yeah and then of course Cirque music was used throughout the show. From Quidam to O to Mystere to Saltimbanco.

Then this girl came out.



Then this little boy came out and he stole the show.

He juggled everything, balls, rings, hats, clubs, and then clubs on fire!!







Then this girl came out on cereaux.



Then another retarded clown came out.

And then the cool juggler boy came out along with a little tiny girl AND THEY STOLE THE SHOW.

They did a bunch of dangerous things everyone just shook their heads at... total child exploitation...


She was so cute.. i forgot her name but it was also something really cute.













Then it was intermission.

And then the show resumed and there was an act with lions, which they forbid photos of, one of the people even threatened to take my camera away, LOLZ...

All the lions were very lethargic.. like they had shot them with tranquilizers or had just fed them until they were stuff. And it was sad cause the guy kept whipping them.. :( I'm guessing that's what they do though, starve them, then stuff them right before the show so they're all lazy...

Oh yeah but I took pictures anyways, I put the camera on my lap under my bag and snapped away...







And then there was another hoop act, and another dumb clown act and then Marguerite came out and it was like OMG...






Ummm... they didn't want me taking pictures of the lions yet they didn't care I took pictures of all the children doing stunts like hanging by their necks??..

So then she spun by her neck! Wtf... and the announcer man was like, "The more you clap, the faster she'll spin! She won't stop until you do!"





Seriously... that's not safe.


Then the tissu guy came out with little dogs..

And then that was it, they told me to put my camera away at curtain call when the little girls came out and I wanted to take pictures of them... because they had a imitator clown which they were marketing as the real guy seen on tv and it was really gay. Listen, I could care less about a fat peruvian clown.

But anyways, the little kids were fricken amazing.

And now some random pictures...




Poor doggy... some kind of skin disease? :(















Then the next day we went to the university to watch my dad give a lecture.





Then that night there was a farewell dinner and dance and all I did was comply to the dumb old men that kept asking me to dance and it was really pretty annoying... but at the same time kind of entertaining.


Claudia and I, I met her at the mission in 2005 and hadn't seen her since..

And then that was pretty much it.






Complejo del Brujo when it was first discovered... in like 2004? 2002?.. I forgot.





On our way back we had about 8 hrs of free time in Lima so we went and saw the Chinese Imperial Circus: Forest.



It was pretty impressive. Though I almost fell asleep during each transition of an act and some of the costumes were horrid, overall it was pretty interesting.

There was a man who made all the forest noises and whistled all the bird sounds... The show opened with a single cane handbalancing act. It was cool, then there was this insane... strange apparatus act I had never seen before, the program calls it a "Flying Bar"... then A CRAZY CONTORTION ACT, where she did the marinelli bend and it was for sure one of the most amazing things I've ever seen..

There was also chinese poles, spanish webs, diabolos, acrobatics, hoop diving, balancing on chairs, partnered tissu act, and a semi hand to hand act. It was really cool... it really was.


And so yeah.. that was pretty much the trip.