Trujillo and Chiclayo Itinerary: Five Days on Peru’s Northern Coast
Trujillo is a good place to start for the northern cultures. The north coast was home to two of the most significant pre-Columbian cultures in South America – the Moche, who built enormous painted pyramids and produced some of the finest ceramic art on the continent, and the Chimú, who succeeded them and built Chan Chan, the largest adobe city ever constructed in the Americas. Both fly under the radar.
The city was the first in Peru to declare independence from Spanish colonial rule, a fact its Plaza de Armas commemorates with statues representing oppression, action and liberation, the central figure holding a torch. It is pleasant, safe to walk, and not overrun. From here the circuit continues north to Chiclayo, the jumping-off point for Royal Tombs of Sipán, one of the most significant archaeological finds in South America.
Planning Tips
When to go: The northern coast is dry year-round by Peruvian standards.
How long: Three days in Trujillo, two days in Chiclayo. Chiclayo is a working city that doesn’t cater as well to tourists. Trujillo is a nicer base.
Day 1. Trujillo and El Brujo
Arrive in Trujillo the night before. The Plaza de Armas is a pleasant place to spend have an evening stroll, restaurants within easy reach.
El Brujo is a Moche ceremonial complex, but the draw is the Lady of Cao, a tattooed Moche warrior leader buried with the same weapons and sacrificial victims as her male counterparts. She up-ends the assumption that pre-Columbian power was exclusively male. The museum on site displays her remains and tomb contents.
Day 2. Huaca de la Luna and Huanchaco
The scale of Huaca de la Luna is immense. Used as a religious centre, it had seven steps in its well-preserved coloured facade and six pyramids stacked on top of each other, as is common in many South American cultures. The Moche built them first, then the Chimú, then Inca came along and reused their pyramids.
Huaca de la Luna sits at the foot of Cerro Blanco, where losers of ritual combat were pushed as sacrifice. Huaca del Sol, thought to be an administrative centre, is bigger but more eroded, with the rest of the settlement spread out between them.
Don’t miss the museum with pottery depicting caballitos de totora before seeing the same reed boats still in use today. The seafaring Moche are also credited with inventing ceviche 3,000 years ago along the same coast. Learn how to follow the thread of living history.
The Moche declined due to a super El Niño between 536 and 594 AD, which caused severe flooding followed by prolonged drought, undermining agriculture, irrigation systems and food supplies. They believed the gods were angry and lost faith in their semi-god leaders. The Chimú emerged as a successor culture.
Day 3. Chan Chan
Chan Chan is the largest adobe city in pre-Columbian America, a UNESCO site of 20 square kilometres that housed up to 100,000 people. It was a the capital of the Chimú kingdom close to the coast, which you can tell from images on the friezes.
These detail the Humboldt Current flowing north, but also showing how it weakened during El Niño and was thought to flow south then, as well as pelicans, seabirds and squirrels. There are even differences between male and female squirrels – females have three lines on their tails and males have four (some friezes show mama squirrel and baby, which is how they know which are female).
There’s also a ceremonial room with iconography of the full moon. The Chimú worshipped the moon more than the sun unlike other Andean cultures, because the moon controls the tides and is linked to the agriculture calendar and fertility.
A lot of Chan Chan is restored as it gets eroded by rain. The Humboldt Current scene features some crumbling original fish.
Nik A palace is the only citadel of ten open to visitors and it is huge. It showcases the sophisticated water management systems the Chimú developed, including two reservoirs, underground aqueducts, and canals that provided irrigation and fresh water. From a lookout onsite you can see the royal burial mound, and Cerro Blanco in the background.
The scale of one citadel alone is enough to imagine how big the full city must have been. Chan Chan has supplementary sites other than Nik An, as well as a museum. It’s possible to do Huaca de la Luna, Chan Chan and Huanchaco in a day but there probably won’t be time to see everything unless you speed through.
Day 4. Chiclayo, Túcume and Paseo Yortuque
Túcume is a 220-hectare complex of 26 adobe pyramids built around Cerro Purgatorio, a rocky hill the locals have long treated as sacred and avoided after dark. The site began with the Sicán culture around 1000 AD, was taken by the Chimú in the late 14th century, and then absorbed into the Inca empire before the Spanish arrived. Each culture added to the structures rather than replacing them.
Most of the pyramids are eroded, and the site is about scale and atmosphere rather than preserved detail. However there are still things worth seeing. Huaca Larga retains Chimú red, white, and black paintings of mythological creatures.
Huaca Las Balsas, the smallest structure on the site but the most rewarding, has carved murals in good condition depicting people on thrones, navigation on totora reed rafts, zoomorphic figures, and divers, which point to an interpretation as ritual space tied to water and cosmological belief.
Two routes cover the site. Route A covers the north zone and the climb up Cerro Purgatorio, which takes 20 to 30 minutes, and gives a panoramic view across all 26 pyramids. Route B covers the south zone including Huaca Las Balsas.
Day 5. The Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum, Huaca Rajada
The main draw from Chiclayo is the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum (Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán) in nearby Lambayeque.
The tombs were discovered in 1987 at Huaca Rajada intact, supposedly because the very first looters were caught arguing over the loot and the site was quickly secured with guards. The main tomb belonged to a high-ranking Moche ruler dating to around 250 AD. Other tombs held other important figures like priests. Reconstructions show concubines, buried upside down so she can’t look him in the eye. The feet of guards, warriors, and standard bearers have been chopped off so they can’t leave his side. Other tombs also have llamas, either as offering or to bring them into the underworld; they used them for transport when alive.
This is one of the most important archaeological finds in South America in recent decades, comparable to the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt for its wealth and preservation . The museum houses originals from the site. The lord had his likeness made on his ear and nose jewellery, but I found the tweezers most unusual.
Visit Huaca Rajada first, then the Royal Tombs Museum in Lambayeque where the artefacts are displayed. They are at different locations.
Upon returning to Chiclayo, take a stroll down Paseo Yortuque, an open-air museum where over 60 massive sculptures, including the fanged Ai Apaec (The Decapitator), the supreme Moche deity, plus another of his iconic forms, the Spider God with its ritualistic knife for sacrifice. Stretching nearly two kilometres, this visually stunning promenade brings ancient Moche and Lambayeque myths to life.
Onwards
From Chiclayo, I travelled inland to Chachapoyas via overnight bus.
Honest assessment
Starting at the Larco Museum in Lima, whose northern focus is due to the founder being from near Trujillo, really brings the north coast to life. The thread tying the caballitos de totora used by the Moche 3,000 years ago to what you see in Huanchaco today is an amazing lesson in living history.
Trujillo’s sites are undervisited by international tourists. Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna are well worth it. the city is an easy base, safe, well-connected, and with enough going on to fill an evening. I found Chiclayo more of a working city, grittier and less helpful to tourists than Trujillo. If you’ve done Larco, the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum are still worth it but less novel.
Book through a local agency rather than GetYourGuide or Viator. My tour was advertised as covering Huaca Rajada, Tumbas Reales, and Tucume and delivered neither Tucume nor a refund without a fight. Alternatively arrange a private tour for flexibility.
Where to stay
Hotel Costa del Sol Trujillo Centro, Trujillo. While not a fan of chains, this was a well-run hotel located by the lovely Plaza de Armas, with very helpful staff who were able to organise taxis to take me around.
Tierra Viva Trujillo, Trujillo. My backup option, this is a newer independent boutique 20 minutes’ walk from Plaza de Armas.
Casa Andina Select, Chiclayo. Another chain, I went for the nicer rooms, but this hotel was woeful with its service. No assistance with tours, I was fobbed off with a brochure in Spanish and told to call them myself. At least I was able to have a shower and dinner on-site before the overnight bus to Chachapoyas.
Casa Patrones, Chiclayo. This may be a better alternative, reviews for service are good and the location is more central.
Getting there and around
Into Trujillo: Frequent buses from Lima and short domestic flights also available.
Getting around: A car (taxi or Uber) is most efficient for combining sites. In Trujillo the sites are close by; Chiclayo sites are further apart.
Travel insurance: Non-negotiable on a circuit that includes 3,000-metre altitude and remote cloud forest hiking.
Flights to Peru: British Airways / LATAM to Lima
More from my North Peru Travels
Travel to Trujillo and Chiclayo from Lima.
From Chiclayo, travel onwards for 5 days in Chachapoyas, to see key sites Kuélap, Karajía, and the Gocta Falls.
See how Trujillo and Chiclayo fit into my 2 week North Peru itinerary.
