As I said in the last post, I was still planning on heading out to the archaeological site of Tucume before leaving Chiclayo. Once again there was a drought of any combis signed with Tucume, they all left for a place called Salas. When I was asked if I was headed for Salas, I shook my head and asked where the buses to Tucume are. As it turns out these combis pass through Tucume, even though I was later to find out there were direct combis to the ruins a few blocks down the corner and hidden away on a main road. 

The ride out dropped me off in the small dusty town of Tucume, and the driver pointed in the direction I should go to get to the ruins. Walking down dry dirt streets with the sun beating down from above, I passed the odd sight of a local circus that had set up in the town square, and eventually I left the village and entered into irrigated farm land with obvious signs of the ruins just off in the short distance. 

Behind me came a few beeps and a tuk-tuk pulled over. There are two things that Peru has an over abundance of – taxis and tuk-tuks. The driver beckoned me in and said it was no charge to the ruins, he was headed that way anyway. Plus, it was all of 5 minutes drive away. Still, it was a nice thing to do for a sweating gringo!

Lets get this out of the way – the ruins were a huge disappointment. There are two routes you can take, each costing you some dollars. I paid for both as I was expecting to trek over the huge 20 square kilometres of a ruined city (okay, maybe not all the 20 square km’s!). Instead route 1 was half closed, and the only section you could do was the lookouts. The city square and temples were closed for some reason, and route 2 ended in some large construction work that looked like it was to be some tourist building when completed. 

While I took satisfaction of finally getting out here, the build up was ultimately an anticlimax. Walking back to the village a combi slowed by and yelled out “Chiclayo”, so I jumped onboard and headed back to Chiclayo. The plan was to get back, have one of those amazing steaks, then off to the bus terminal to continue onto a 10 hour journey to Chachapoyas. 

But it’s too late and too hot to leave tonight. One more night here in Chiclayo just to chill out around town, then onto Chachapoyas.