February 22, 2026- Day #49

 Another morning, another city. This is our final port in Peru. It doesn’t seem possible that we have already been on this trip for 49 days. 

Just a post note, that at least in the parts of Lima we saw yesterday, we did not see the over crowded (people hanging in the sides) public transport minibuses called “combis” or “micros” that we had seen in the past. I think this was just because of the sections of the city we saw.  We did see some very modern looking public transport buses in Lima.  However, today in the smaller less affluent communities, we did see lots of these smaller overcrowded buses. 

On to today. We are docked in the port of Salaverry, Peru which was built in the 1960’s, mainly for commercial purposes. Very few ( only about two per month) cruise ships dock here. We toured the city of Trujillo which is the third largest city in Peru and located in the La Libertad Region. This is an important area for archaeological centers especially for the Moche from the pre- Inca era. Also this area is known for its beaches, especially for surfing and a major surfing competition every March. 

Some of the sites today included the mountain peaks of the Sun Temple (Huaca El Sol) and Moon Temple (Huaca La Luna). We toured a museum with lots of Moche pottery that was not used for everyday use, but was more ceremonial in nature. The bones of an adolescent female were recovered. The town square is made up of brightly colored former mansions that now are a hotel, government buildings and a cathedral (which was closed). I also got a picture of a very enthusiastic person’s music wagon, some young children doing a traditional dance (I wonder if they came from a local competition) and a person on the square who I thought may be making a political statement, but apparently was prophesying. Good that we were being watched closely by several of the security. We were obviously tourists. However on the way back to the port there were several police doing a significant traffic stop of vehicles going into the city. Sorry, I was too slow to get a picture.