Huaca del Sol y de la Luna, Trujillo
South America, Peru
Full Brief · 8 sections
I live in places instead of visiting them. Peru, Colombia, Portugal, Mexico. Teaching English, volunteering, learning the language on the ground, then writing up what it actually took: the combi you need, the price people really pay, the office hours nobody posts. I write the same field notes at Vibing with Locals.
- Total cost
- US$25What the trip cost them
- Days needed
- 1
- Go between
- May to Sep
- Pace
- —
Half a day at a 1,500 year old Moche pyramid, twenty minutes outside Trujillo. Take the guided tour. Then talk to the person standing next to you, not the guide.
9 of 9 sections are free to read.
The Verdict
Two Moche pyramids about twenty minutes outside Trujillo, roughly 1,500 years old, and almost nobody there on a weekday morning. Half a day, small money. The murals inside Huaca de la Luna still hold original colour.
Adobe walls and open ground at the Moche site
Getting There
Take a combi from the centre of Trujillo heading toward Salaverry. Tell the cobrador you are going to La Huaca del Sol and he will stop you at the right junction. It is small change and about twenty minutes. From the drop off, a mototaxi covers the last kilometre. Agree the price first, it is a couple of soles. Coming back, there are mototaxis waiting by the site entrance until mid afternoon. Later than that you are walking to the road and flagging a combi, so leave before four. A taxi door to door from central Trujillo is the lazy option and it is not expensive, but you lose the part where the cobrador shouts your stop and the whole combi turns around to make sure you get off in the right place.
Moche construction was layered rather than cleared away
Staying
There is nothing to sleep in out here and no reason to try. The site is a half day from central Trujillo. Base yourself in the city, in the centre or in Huanchaco twenty minutes up the coast, and come out in the morning.
Stay somewhere you can get back to at 2am by taxi without a conversation. Anywhere central works. Save the number of one taxi driver on your first day in the city and use that same driver the whole time. That is the single most useful phone contact I made in Trujillo.
The Month
Go on a weekday morning. That is the whole timing rule and it matters more than the month. There is almost no shade at the site after noon. The adobe holds heat and the walk between the two huacas is open ground the entire way. Take water and sunscreen, not a plan to buy them there. Winter months, roughly May to September, give you cool mornings and flat coastal light. Summer, January to March, is hot and harsh by ten in the morning. Weekends bring Peruvian family groups and school trips. Not unpleasant, but the tour groups get large and you lose the quiet inside the mural chambers.
The Receipt
- Combi, Trujillo centre toward Salaverry, each wayTransport$1
- Mototaxi, junction to site entrance, returnTransport$2
- Entrance ticket, guided tour includedOther$6
- Tip for the guide, 10 solesGuide$3
- Water and sunscreen bought before leaving the cityOther$4
- Taxi home at 2amTransport$9
- TotalUS$25
- Transport$12
- Other$10
- Guide$3
What Went Wrong
I went in the afternoon on my first attempt. Hot, flat light, no shade, and I cut the tour short because I had run out of water. Went back on a weekday morning and it was a different site. I nearly did not take the guided tour because I assumed it was an upsell. It is included in the ticket and it is the reason to come. I brought cards and not enough cash. The ticket desk is cash in soles. I had to go back to the road and find an ATM in Trujillo, which cost me an hour and the light. At the club that night I kept trying to pay and kept getting waved off. It took me until nearly 1am to work out the guy buying was the owner, and only because the staff kept deferring to him without being asked. I said yes to the first invitation and almost said no to the second, the one where I did not know anyone. The second is the one that mattered.
The second invitation was the one where nobody knew me
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