Wednesday

Today was the highlight of the northern portion of the trip for me. We started fairly early in the morning for the drive to the actual site of Sipan where the richest tomb of the Americas was discovered in 1987. The original discovery started with tomb looters finding incredible gold and silver items from a small location of Huaca Rajada, also known as Sipan. Dr. Walter Alva, of the nearby Bruning museum in Lambayeque, was called for assistance and once he saw a small portion of the looted goods he was able to stop the looting, start an excavation and enlist the people of the area in uncovering and saving their ancestry.

I saw the exhibit of items from the Lord of Sipan when it traveled to UCLA in 1994 before I took my first trip to South America. The items are comparable to the items from the Tutankamon tomb and are just incredible. The items came from three additional (other than the looted tomb) discovered at the site. To date there have been 15 tombs of various ages discovered. Gold nose rings, incredible earrings with miniature warriors with removable weapons 1.5 inches high, silver and gold back flaps and bells, an incredible owl headress of the priest, stuff very hard to describe in words. It was very interesting to see the actual site and notice how few people were there. We are a group of 12 and there might have been 12 others there. The 15th tomb is about 40 feet below the level of the first tomb.

We then went to lunch in Chiclayo late, around 2:30, and finally arrived at the new museum, opened in 2007, that houses the items from the tombs. The museum is a pyramid shaped building and you enter the exhibits from the top, traveling down through the layers of the 3 tombs. Just fantastic items and great displays. Again there were few people. Not at all crowded like the Tut exhibits in the states. There were several manniquins that had replicas of the items and it was great to see how they would have looked originally. The biggest disappointment was the gift shop. We were guessing that since most of the people that visit this museum were school children, the demand for high quality replicas was not supported by the visitors. Several of us were very disappointed. But to overcome that we actually saw Dr. Alva on the grounds, and since Pepe, our guide, had worked for 4 months in the Museum of the Nation in Lima on the Sipan exhibit and had met Dr. Alva before, we were introduced and got to speak to him briefly, thanking him for his work. His words were to tell people to come to Peru and see the exhibit. Dr. Alva was at the museum to coordinate the visit of the Peruvian president tomorrow.

Tomorrow we get up very early, 4 am, to go to the airport, fly to Lima and then on to Cusco. The northern portion of the journey is at an end. Now we get to face the traditional tourist traps and make us yearn for the quiet of the north.