Things to do
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Chan Chan
The largest adobe city in the world, capital of the Chimú kingdom until the Incas took it around 1470, some twenty square kilometres of walled compounds carved with fish, pelicans and waves. The restored Nik An palace is the part open to visitors.
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Huanchaco
The fishing and surf village on Trujillo's coast where the caballitos de totora, reed boats of a design older than the Incas, are still ridden out through the surf each morning. The long pier and the ceviche are the rest of it.
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Casa de la Emancipación
The mansion where the Trujillo declaration of independence was signed, restored as a cultural centre with period rooms and exhibitions. It is a block from the plaza. Entry is free, the courtyard holds changing shows of Peruvian painting, and the rooms explain how the declaration was carried north through the valley.
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Complejo Arqueológico El Brujo
A Moche ceremonial centre on the coast north of Trujillo where the tattooed body of the Señora de Cao, a female ruler of around AD 400, was found in 2006 and is now shown in the site museum. The museum was built beside the huaca, and the complex is an hour out of the city by road.
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Huacas del Sol y de la Luna
Two Moche pyramids of the first centuries AD across a plain south of the city, the Huaca de la Luna opened to show its painted friezes of the fanged god Ai Apaec layer under layer. The site museum is excellent.
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Plaza de Armas
The wide, brightly painted colonial square where Peru's independence was first declared in 1820, ringed by the cathedral and mansions with wrought-iron window grilles. The streets around it hold the best colonial houses on the coast. A ceremonial changing of the guard draws a crowd on Sunday mornings, and the cathedral opens around the services.
