South America In Style: Trujillo, Peru

There was no better way to see off Lima on the morning of Thursday 29 September, than to visit the array of markets near our hotel. After acquiring some inspiring artwork, ornate candles and alpaca pashminas, we were transferred to the Lima airport by our Personal Guide Omar for our LAN flight to Trujillo in Peru. Upon landing in Trujillo we were met like clockwork by our Personal Guide Judith for our onward transfer to the lovely hotel El Gran Marques Hotel & Spa, and learnt on the way that Trujillo has a population of around 800,000 and is renowned for its sugar cane production. After a long day of travelling, we were happy to relax at our hotel and enjoy a fabulous dinner of arroz con pollo or Creole style chicken with rice for around AUD$8.50, which was enough to feed a small army in typical South American style.

After a beautiful buffet breakfast at our hotel on the morning of Friday 30 September, we were ready and rearing to go for our tour of Trujillo with Judith, including some ruins and lunch. As was the case in Lima, I was rather unperturbed about visiting the ruins in Trujillo, as they’re pre-Incan with comparatively flat ramps to the steep steps of the Incan ruins. The first stop was the Huaca de la Luna or Temple of the Moon ruins made from adobe bricks by the “Moche” colony of people, where I was particularly fascinated by the original coloured murals that remain preserved to this day. Next, was the Huan Huan or Chan Chan ruins representing “a very hot place”, which are urban pyramids in the heart of the city much like the Huaca Pucllana ruins in Lima. A welcomed interlude to the warm and dusty conditions of the ruins was a sensational beachside lunch at Club Colonial Café & Restaurant, where I enjoyed a traditional entrée and main respectively of ceviche and rice with seafood. After a walk along the beach, our final stop was the Huan Huan Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad or The Big City ruins, which is a massive palace that was made for one King proving that some people are just born lucky!

During the course of the tour, Judith suggested that we try Chifa for dinner. Thinking that Chifa was the name of some upscale Chinese restaurant in Trujillo, we gave ourselves pats on our backs when we managed to “find” in the downtown area the restaurant to which Judith was referring Chifa Heng Hung. It didn’t appear to be anything special, but given Judith’s “recommendation”, we thought we’d give it a try. With neither English speaking staff nor English menus, ordering lemon chicken, fried rice and prawn crackers in “Spanglish” was somewhat of a challenge and we were interested to see what would arrive at our table. The lemon chicken and fried rice were spot on which is more than we could say for the prawn crackers, which ended up being a huge plate of fresh prawns in tempura. They were delicious but funnily enough the most expensive dish on our bill. The comedy continued when we observed on the way back to our hotel that the name of every second restaurant in Trujillo contained the term “Chifa”, which is obviously a reference to Chinese cuisine rather than the name of a Chinese restaurant!

Highlights of our brief visit to Trujillo include:

Our hotel El Gran Marques Hotel & Spa;
The intrigue of the Huaca de la Luna, Huan Huan and Huan Huan Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad ruins;
How knowledgeable, comprehensive and customer service focused is Judith; and
Our culinary experiences at Club Colonial Café & Restaurant and in particular, Chifa Heng Hung!

Even though Trujillo is one of the less common towns to visit in Peru, I do recommend spending at least a day or two there as amongst other things, the Huan Huan ruins are in fact the largest complex of ruins in the Americas.