Today we went to Ventarron to see the ancient temple of a fire cult of a people identified only as pre-ceramic.  By ancient I mean 2500 years BCE or about 5000 years before Dave.  It was a small dig site, somewhat reminiscent of the Raiders of the Lost Ark from the outside ( Read more... )

I was supposed to wake up at 6am, but it was a bit chilly so I awoke at some unspecified time.  I was nearly late, because my alarm didn't go off, but I managed to dress hurriedly and run over the rocks and bridges without falling over ( Read more... )

OMG, this is so amazing!  We drove off the Pan-American highway onto some moderately adventurous road.  We saw owls next to a beautiful reservoir: a burrowing owl and a rare variant of pygmy owl.  We then drove across the valley as the sun set behind the mountains.  The vegetation is more lush here: there are bushes, cactus and succulents.  We saw ( Read more... )

So we took the Pan-American highway from Trujillo to Chiclayo, until we turned east to go inland ( Read more... )

Chan Chan is an extensive Chimú site: it is around fourteen square kilometres.  It contains nine palaces, each of which corresponds to a ruler of the Chimú as each palace became the mausoleum for the king and his retinue ( Read more... )

The flagstones in the plaza are so polished by wear that it seems as if it has rained recently and they are slippery underfoot ( Read more... )

The first thing I noticed about the Huaca del Sol, and therefore about the site we were visiting, was an enormous pile of bricks filling the view through the windscreen.  The Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna were named thus by the Spanish, based on their experiences of Mexican religion: their real names are lost.  Both Huacas 1 (or holy things) ( Read more... )

We landed near the sea: we skimmed so low over the waves it seemed as if we would skip ( Read more... )

The blinding glint of light from the leading edge of a wing silhouetted against the unshielded sun ( Read more... )

Waking up ludicrously early and faffing ( Read more... )