Chiclayo, Chapirri and more mud pyramids

After realising I didnt have time to go further north to the great fortress of Keulap and the forests of Chachapoyas, I decided I would head back down to the coast. All transport out of Cajamarca was headed for Chiclayo, so off I went. I arrived way to early and eventually found breakfast. I then booked myself in on a couple of day trips, firstly to see some more ruins, then the next day, to the Chapirri Nature Reserve.

The ruins were interesting, the first and acient burrial tomb from the Mocha culture (I asked if it was because they drank coffee with chocolate in it, but I dont think the guide understood). Anyway, apparently they found a lot of cool stuff in the tomb. We saw "the best museum in South America", which was cool, a display of everything found in the tombs, but I felt I had stopped learning anything after the second room and the other 20 were just "pretty pieces of jewellery". Then we went to Tucume, the place with the most mud pyramids ever. 26 mud pyramids in on site! The views and site were amazing, although the pyramids themselves are highly dissolved!

After an early start the next day we went to Chaparri Nature Reserve, which is a dry forest reserve. Dry forests are very exciting. This one was located at the foot of a big mountain, and was full of birds. The bromeliads were located higher up the reserve, and the guide told me we would have had to start walking at 5am to see them without being out in the mid-day heat. Instead I had to settle for feeding the rescued spectacled bear and helping photograph a snake someone had found. My own camera batteries gave up, so I have no photographic evidence of any of this. I noted 2 important things in my diary "1. I want to go back and live in the lodge at Chapirri for a long time, 2. Chapirri is cool". After the fun of the reserve I relaxed in the central Plaza in Chiclayo, enjoying the warm evening sun before getting the night bus back to Lima.