Trujillo: Chan Chan

Chan Chan is a palace of the Moche people.They had a different section per king, so during 100 years I think they would use about 100,000,000,000 pounds of mud. What kind of poems are these?*

"They scathed the land, 

so now it's just sand!"

"Wikipedia

says that Chan Chan was not dry,

But it must've lied!"

Chan Chan. This was one of the "courtrooms." There were two paths from this room to the same place. One was smaller. My mom thinks that the bigger one was for the king, since he needed to be carried, so he's big. But I remember that he took the smaller one because he was private.

It was easy to get lost. But our private guide told us that if we get lost, follow the birds. They are always at the bottom of the walls, and they point one way --  the way out.

All the walls were made out of these diamond windows. Some had holes in the part that wasn't lines. Some were filled in. See that part of the wall that looks a bit red? These used to be painted.

Sometimes there were fish. You followed them too. See the birds at the bottom? They contradict, but the birds have better eyes. The lines stood as the tides, which they honored.

These squirrels also say "follow the way." See the number of tail "feathers"? Three or 4, right? They honored those numbers.

See those circles? Those are full moons. They honor the "luna" (moon) too! On the far wall, you see the moons between the waves? The guide asked us what that meant. Kai suggested that the moon guides the tides, but then I said "The reflection?" I was right! It was so easy it was hard!

We had to walk on a "sidewalk" which was more like a precipice. It was scary. I hugged the wall. It was scarier than that time in Lima. I told of it in my post Lov'n Lima.

Afterwards, we went to the Chan Chan museum. They carried their king. The king wore a cantaloupe-slice-like-thing to cover his mouth. It's because everyone had rotten teeth (as many still do) but the king was supposed to be nice and "perfect." But he had rotten teeth, too, so they put that gold thing over his mouth so no one could tell. Dad thought it was so  he could make any expression he wanted,  like disgust, at his subjects and people couldn't tell. Renen doesn't like pictures.

During our stay at Huaca del Sol y la Luna, (temple of sun and the moon) we learned about about the Viringo, (sounds like Gringo, but they're black) the only native Peruvian dog. It's hairless. Most have this hair on the back of their heads, so some people think they're Chinese, but they're not. Because these dogs are special, they let them into buildings -- even temples!

* Answers: 1st poem: couplet 2nd poem: haiku