Yesterday we were in Trujillo, Peru, our last stop in South America. The ship docked in Salaverry, a very poor, run down port town near Trujillo.I went on an excursion to see the Huaca Arco Iris Temple (also known as the Huaco Dragon Temple) and the Chan Chan ruins, the remains of the pre-Inca Chimú civilisation. There wasn’t much to see at the temple, just some hieroglyphics on the walls and some Peruvian schoolgirls who wanted their photos taken with us.Then we spent 90 minutes at the Chan Chan ruins and only saw a small part of them in this time. The ruins at Chan Chan cover a large area and they say that up to 60,000 people lived here. Everywhere was dry and brown and there were huge jagged mountains in the distance. The walls were built of clay but they were only a metre or so high in most places and it was hard to imagine how they people lived here so long ago.

When I’m in places like this I think wouldn’t it be an interesting world if the Spanish conquistadores hadn’t gone on their genocidal rampanges in the new world and civilisations like the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas flourished today?

On the way back we stopped briefly at the fishing village of Huanchaco to see the reed boats the local people make, and to be hassled by lots of kids who wanted to sell us postcards and souveneirs. There were some tourists/backpackers around, for the surfing mainly I think, I couldn’t see any other attractions, the beach was ugly and apart from the ruins there doesn’t seem to be much to see.

Trujillo seems trapped in the desert between the mountains and the sea. It’s isolated and poor and the buildings and houses people live in look like they were shaken apart by an earthquake and no-one bothered putting them back together again. I really can’t think of a reason to come back here again.