Kingdoms of the North: Cities of Clay

Arrival in Lima

We meet in Lima at Hotel El Patio in Miraflores; depending on our arrival time, we may visit an attraction in the city, and a good museum like Larco is always worthwhile to get a first sense of what we'll be seeing on the trip. In the evening we'll have an early dinner to rest up before setting off the next day

Departure from Lima to Trujillo.

Early after breakfast we'll transfer by van to the airport to fly to the city of Trujillo. Once there we'll head straight to Huaca del Sol y la Luna, an archaeological site and museum, and then continue into the city of Trujillo to check in at Hotel Costa del Sol, facing Plaza de Armas, before heading to lunch at the famous restaurant that was once Cesar Vallejo's own house. After lunch we'll tour the city's most iconic sites. In the evening we'll gather for dinner at the same hotel.

Touring Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the Americas

After breakfast we'll visit the El Brujo archaeological site, a striking ceremonial center, and after walking through it we'll have lunch by the sea in Huanchaco before heading to the walled city of Chan Chan, cradle of the Chimú, the civilization that dominated the northern region and left an artistic legacy that impressed the entire world. Afterward we'll return to the city to rest and have some free time before dinner.

Departure to Chiclayo, visit to the Museum of the Lord of Sipán and Túcume

We'll set off very early for the city of Chiclayo, known as the "City of Friendship" and also as the land of shamans and healers, where ancient traditions tied to the knowledge of medicinal plants and ritual practices inherited from pre-Hispanic peoples still live on. Our first stop will be the Museum of the Lord of Sipán, one of the most important archaeological finds in the Americas. This discovery revealed, in extraordinary detail, the power, wealth and sophistication of the Moche elite, forever transforming our understanding of this culture. Internationally recognized and ranked among the 10 best museums in the world for the quality of its museography and curatorial design, its architecture reproduces the concept of a great adobe pyramid: the visit begins on the upper levels and descends gradually, letting us relive the same process archaeologists followed on their way to the original funerary context of the Lord of Sipán. More than an exhibition, the museum offers an experience that reveals the scale of the discovery and the symbolic universe of the Moche culture. Afterward we'll have a light lunch before spending the afternoon touring the wonderful pyramids of Túcume, and the day will close with a farewell dinner.

Return to Lima

After breakfast we'll head to the Chiclayo airport to board our flight back to Lima. With this return, our expedition through the ancient Northern Kingdoms comes to a close, a journey that will have let us discover the extraordinary legacy of the Moche, Chimú and Lambayeque cultures, and understand how their adobe cities, temples, rulers and art continue to reveal the depth and complexity of the pre-Hispanic Andean world. More than a trip through archaeological sites, we will have traveled through a living memory that still speaks to the present.