Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [288]
Festivals & Events
Carnaval A big event in Huanchaco; February/March.
Festival del Mar This festival re-enacts the legendary arrival of Takaynamo, founder of Chan Chan. Expect surfing and dance competitions, cultural conferences, food, music and much merrymaking. Held every other year (even years) during the first week in May.
Sleeping
BUDGET
You can find Naylamp, Huanchaco’s Garden and Las Brisas Hostal in the northern part of Huanchaco, while at the southern end of town there are a few guesthouses in the small streets running perpendicular to the beach.
Naylamp (46-1022; www.hostalnaylamp.com; Larco 1420; campsites/dm S10/15, s S30-40, d S50-60) Top of the pops in the budget stakes, Naylamp has one building on the waterfront and a second, larger building up a hill behind the hotel. Great budget rooms share a spacious seaview patio, and the lush camping area has perfect sunset views and hammocks for everyone! Kitchen and laundry facilities, hot showers and a cafe are all thrown in.
My Friend Hospedaje (46-1080; myfriend_huanchaco@hotmail.com; Los Pinos 533; dm/d S11/30) It’s a wonder why the hot and dark rooms are full most nights, but this hole-in-the-wall attracts droves of backpackers and surfers with only a few nuevo soles left in their pockets. The little cafe downstairs serves breakfast and you can get hooked up with surf lessons here, if that’s your game.
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PRE-COLUMBIAN PEOPLES OF THE NORTH COAST
Northern Peru has played host to a series of civilizations stretching as far back as 5000 years ago. Listed below are the major cultures that waxed and waned in Peru’s coastal desert areas over the millennia.
Huaca Prieta
One of first peoples on the desert scene, the Huaca Prieta lived at the site of the same name (Click here) from around 3500 BC to 2300 BC. These hunters and gatherers grew cotton and varieties of beans and peppers and subsisted mainly on seafood. They were preceramic people who didn’t use jewelry, but had developed netting and weaving. At their most artistic, they decorated dried gourds with simple carvings. Homes were single-room shacks half buried in the ground, and most of what is known about these people has been deduced from their middens.
Chavín
Based around Huaraz in Peru’s central Andes, the Chavín also had a significant cultural and artistic influence on coastal Peru, particularly between the years 800 BC and 400 BC. For more information on the Chavín culture, Click here.
Moche
Evolving from around AD 100 BC to AD 800, the Moche created ceramics, textiles and metalwork, developed the architectural skills to construct massive pyramids and still had enough time for art and a highly organized religion.
Among all their expert productions, it’s the ceramics that earn the Moche a ranking in Peru’s pre-Inca civilization hall of fame. Considered the most artistically sensitive and technically developed of any ceramics found in Peru, Moche pots are realistically decorated with figures and scenes that leave us with a very descriptive look at everyday life. Pots were modeled into lifelike representations of people, crops, domestic and wild animals, marine life and monumental architecture. Other pots were painted with scenes of both ceremonial activities and everyday objects.
Some facets of Moche life illustrated on pots include punishments, surgical procedures (such as amputation and the setting of broken limbs) and copulation. One room in Lima’s Museo Larco (Click here) is devoted to pots depicting a cornucopia of sexual practices, some the products of very fertile imaginations. Museo Cassinelli in Trujillo (Click here) also has a fine collection.
A few kilometers south of Trujillo, there are two main Moche sites: Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna (Click here).
The Moche period declined around AD 700, and the next few centuries are somewhat confusing. The Wari culture, based in the Ayacucho area of the central Peruvian Andes, began to expand after this time, and its influence was reflected in both the