Trujillo day three: prancing horses and faded puppets

Holidays can be times of blissful relaxation or of intense activity; mine in northern Peru was mostly the latter, as we tried to see as much as possible in the little time we had. But, on this one day, there was no annoying alarm to wake us up, no early morning bus to catch, no reason to scramble quickly out of bed and into the shower, which was heaven!

After a leisurely breakfast at the café next door and a wander to the plaza for Sarah to top up her money from an ATM, we popped in to the tour agency adjacent to our hotel to see what other tours were on offer around Trujillo. We’d already done the main touristy things – the archaeological tours – but there was one other short tour available, to see the world-famous-in-Peru pacing horses.

So, off we headed. Unfortunately, the whole thing was in Spanish and, as our vocabulary didn’t include anything remotely equine, it wasn’t easy to follow what exactly was going on, though one of the other tourists kindly helped out a little. It started with an explanation about the horses themselves: they are quite small in stature and their claim to fame is that they run/walk like pacers, with both legs on one side moving at the same time as opposed to right front and left back, followed by left front and right back like normal horses. This gait makes their movement look very elegant and means that the rider doesn’t bob up and down as much as on a normal horse. Horses are not native to Peru – they were originally introduced to South America by the Spanish – so I’m not sure why or how their special gait developed.

There followed an explanation of the equipment used: a blanket; a rather rigid-looking saddle; eye pieces to calm skittish horses; a piece that sits over the horse’s rump and tail, with long straps that hang at the back; two bridles – not sure why – that bit was lost in translation; and two big wooden-box-like stirrups. To be honest, it all seemed quite heavy for the poor horse to carry around as well as its rider.

The rider normally wears a poncho and a sombrero, and the other tourists who decided to mount and walk the horses around all donned the full kit for their photo shoots. Sarah and I refrained. Next, the rider presented a riding-around-to-music display, then out came two dancers in traditional costume. These were the renowned Marinera dancers, a Peruvian coastal speciality with a national contest held in Trujillo every January. The girl was wearing a beautifully embroidered blouse/shirt dress (white with many colours, including peacock designs) and an over-skirt of purple satin, which was very full for flouncing around when dancing. She had traditional earrings with Moche designs and wore her hair in two braids, decorated with flowers, She said something about the meaning of the hair – maybe one particular style design for married women, one for single, one for having a boyfriend? I think the stripes on the girl’s belt also had a meaning but, again, there was much I couldn’t understand.

The youth was more plainly dressed, in a white ruched shirt, plain trousers and wide sash-type belt. The pair danced together, and with the horse and man also prancing around. It appeared that the girl was making amorous advances towards both her partner and the rider; her gestures were certainly flirtatious. The whole performance was charming but I wish I could have understood more of the meaning behind what was happening.

After another hearty lunch back in Trujillo, we wandered the streets taking photos and then visited the local toy museum, El primero museo de jugete en Latinamerica – truth be told, probably the only toy museum in South America. It was small, but interesting, and a definite blast from the past for older visitors like me. I recognised a Singer sewing machine and a tin whistle that I had as a child. There were lots of dolls, some very old, dating from the sixteenth century, and a doll’s house furnished in the style of the 50s and 60s. There were also lots of metallic model cars and trains – I’m sure collectors on The Antiques Roadshow would give their eye teeth to get hold of those. I recognised an old Meccano set, like one my brother used to have, and enclosed in a large glass case was a huge display of toy soldiers from England and France, dating from 1920-25.

The museum also had a separate display room for ancient, indigenous children’s toys and there was a skylight in the ceiling, from which hung many types of puppets, many old and dirty and in a sorry state of repair, not helped by their exposure to sunlight. Many of the exhibits were in poor condition and deserved to be restored and conserved but, as this is a private museum with a mere 5-soles-per-person entrance fee, the chances of the collection being properly cared for are probably quite slim.

Next came the afternoon’s cake treat, followed by more wandering to burn off all those calories! Trujillo has such a delightful and photogenic inner city that it was a pleasure to just walk and click the afternoon away.

Trujillo Cathedral at night

The Bog Blog

A toilet tour of northern Peru ...

Bog number one:

At El Museo de la Nacion in Lima, the biggest chamber I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world – big enough to hold a small party and appropriate enough for the cavernous building in which it was located. I had tried several other toilets but all were locked or out of service, so I asked the security woman where I could find a toilet and she directed me to this ballroom of bathrooms.

Bog number two:

At the Embajador Hotel in Chiclayo. The toilet with a view – or, more accurately, the toilet where you can be viewed! It’s a high-ceilinged room, with perhaps a 20-foot stud – with windows at the top along one wall, which fronts on to a corridor and a small inner courtyard. The windows are permanently open and so high up that they’re impossible for anyone without a tall ladder to close – not something your average tourist carries in their luggage. Presumably they’re open to allow steam and assorted bathroom-specific smells to escape but this also means that anyone feeling even vaguely perverted in the two rooms overlooking the courtyard can also overlook you at your ablutions – not the most comfortable way to complete the daily necessities of life.

Bog number three:

At Huaca de la Luna, near Trujillo. Is this setting beautiful or what?
Huaca de la Luna, and the nearby Huaca del Sol, are archaeological sites of the Moche, or Mochica, civilisation, dating from about 100 to 800 AD, and they are impressive. Huaca de la Luna is an adobe-brick pyramid-shaped structure that appears to have served a religious and ceremonial religious function. It has beautifully coloured sculptural friezes, including one huge wall panel that is seven registers and perhaps 60 feet tall.

I didn’t actually get to use this toilet, as Sarah and I had enjoyed a very thorough tour of the site with our lovely English-speaking guide Henry, so were holding up the Spanish-speaking group and had to rush back to our tour van. The mountain in the background of this image is called Cerro Blanco, or White Mountain.

Bog number four:

At the toy museum, in Trujillo. The toilet was carefully camouflaged with a wallpapered door to match the surrounding wall, the entrance thereby not distracting from the exhibits which surrounded it: to the left, shelves housing dolls, a wooden mototaxi, and an old half-deflated ball; to the right, a pair of colourful, traditionally dressed Peruvian dolls; and, in the foreground, a cabinet displaying a large collection of toy soldiers from France and England dating from 1920 to 1925.

Bog number five:

At the Colonial Hotel in Trujillo, from the first floor balcony where our room was located. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the toilet itself, but it was a nice hotel, with plain but comfortable rooms, and plenty of indoor and outdoor seating areas. It’s only a block and a half from the city plaza, with a nice café next door for breakfast and other meals, and a tour company on the other side, which had friendly staff and reasonably priced and well run tours. Oh, and the toilet was clean too!

Bog number six:

At the Cruz del Sur bus station in Lima. For some unknown and obviously bizarre reason, the cisterns of the toilets were protected by metal grids, padlocked in place. I couldn’t help but speculate as to why: Peru is plagued by toilet thieves? passengers of Cruz del Sur buses have a penchant for fiddling with the inner workings of the cisterns – a fetish with ballcocks perhaps?

This photo was a little tricky to capture. The gloom of the room meant I needed to use the flash and I couldn’t help but wonder what the service staff thought of a bright flash of light suddenly illuminating the end cubicle: had some alien being beamed down from a galaxy far far away? was the kinky gringa taking a photo of some forbidden fruit to instil longing in a distant lover? I avoided making eye contact with the woman on exiting the cubicle and washed my hands with alacrity in order to avoid any difficult questions.