Tucume and Lambayeque

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Day 86 on The Big Trip. “Museums and Peruseums”

Today we have a plan to check out three different locations around Chiclayo. One hour to get to Lord Sipan’s upside down fetal positioned burial remains, 20 minutes later at a museum, and one last hour from there should bring us to the peruseum of pyramids and a panorama of standing artifacts. That’s the plan, anyways. We’re about to go get in motion!

The time is now 6:07pm. We’re back at our hostel after going to museums and archaeological sites with miradors via minibuses and motorized rickshaws. We didn’t make all three destinations, but we did get to two of them. Namely, we went to Lambayeque and Túcume.

Lambayeque had a three- or four-story museum that featured history and recovered artifacts from the Lord of Sipán. The museum itself was shaped to represent the pyramids. It’s amazing how you can tell the social and cultural traits of the persons buried based on how and with what they are buried.

Túcume showcased ongoing excavations and the elemental and temporal effects on ancient civilizations. It’s interesting how what was once the urban center could now be easily mistaken for any other patch of dirt. Similarly, the burial grounds could just be yet another mound of sand eroding.

So far in Peru, the niceties have been the people. For every one person that tries to slightly overcharge us (e.g. 30 cents, $3) there is at least one other person looking out for us and taking an extra step to keep us on our feet.

The first case of this came when heading to Túcume from Lambayeque. We were looking for a ride and knew that it should be cheap, so we asked a juice stand owner. As we are doing so, a motorized rickshaw operator offered to bring us there and drive us right to the road that it’s on and bring us back for 30 nueve soles (3 nueve soles = US$1). This is way more than its worth and by the way, rickshaws go much slower than minibuses – or combis as they call them - or buses! The ride we wanted was more along the lines of three to six nueve soles a piece, or one to two US dollars. The juice stand owner not only talked with us and guided us on what to get for a ride and where, but he also 1) left his stand to walk us to the corner where he hailed us a combi and 2) told the persistent rickshaw operator to stop trying to rip off tourists! You can’t beat that kind of hospitality!

The final case of the day was on the ride back from Túcume. We were the second and third passengers to catch a combi (minibus) from Túcume all the way back to Chiclayo. It’s about an hour drive and since we had paid about 3 ½ nueve soles a piece for our added transportations to Túcume, we expected something like 3 soles for the direct route back. The combi packs full of people in these small, closely packed seats and my knees stick out into the smaller aisle. When the money and passenger collector motions for our fee, we hand him a 10 soles bill since we weren’t sure what the charge would be except below 10 soles. He shuffles his change and hands me a 5 soles coin, which I give back to Alisa who is keeping our soles. We both give a look to one another signifying that this is better than we thought! 2 ½ soles each is cheaper than 3, so we’re happy. Meanwhile, two girls sitting a row two centimeters ahead of us must have observed this transaction because 20 minutes later or so they both turn to us and say that it’s two soles to Chiclayo. The man overcharged us. Alisa hops on that wagon and tells the man he owes us one sole. He runs over the transaction out loud with us, knowing full well what he had done, and was not argumentative in giving us our change due. What a helpful pair of women they were!

But wait! They ask us where we’re going and when we tell them we’re staying near the Plaza de Armas, they say they’re getting off at the same stop. We join them and they 1) tell Alisa to hold her bag in front of her as she walks and 2) hail us a taxi, making sure he’ll charge us the right amount! Thanks again!

So, we’re off to a good start in Peru! Now to head to Trujillo’s neighboring town of Chanchaco or something with c’s, h's, and c-h’s! Huanchaco! That's it!