Perusing Peru: Circuito 2: Back in the Tourist Saddle Again

Whenever you go into the darkly-lit section of any museum, you know you seeing the good stuff
(and the most expensive stuff) (and the authentic stuff).

Back in the tourist saddle again after a few days of light tourisming. On today's tourism agenda was the five-stop Circuito 2, visiting the sites associated with the pre-Inca Sicán culture and the post-Francis Pope Leo XIV in Lambayeque, north of Chiclayo. Because the key sights are dispersed around Chiclayo, you cannot see all of them in one day. So choosey tourists who want the complete Chiclayo experience split the main sights into two days of tourism.

Stop #1: Iglesia de Santa Lucía, in Ferreñafe, near Lamabyeque:

The church was locked tight. No problem! My driver (Nelson) got them to unlock the church so I could look around. I have a driver for the day (and for tomorrow tourisming), but no guide. I am my own guide here.

There were workers inside getting the church interior ready for the celebration of the Feast of de Santa Lucía this Saturday. I was free to wander around and take pictures.

Here is the saint for whom Pope Leo XIV's predecessor was named.

St. Francis of Assisi.

The flower-studded wreath is there for the celebration coming up this weekend.

Here's a closer look at the alter.

One thing I learned is that people here genuinely love Pope Leo XIV. It seems to be more than simply "local boy makes good." This was not some faceless Vatican diplomat who was elevated to the papacy. This was a parish priest adored by his parishioners. You can see it in the faces of those here who light up when talking about him.

Again, the flowers are there for this weekend's festivities.

Graphic crucifix.

This is Catholicism after all.

Your choice of side altars to offer prayers. I choose:

Fatima! I always choose Fatima.

One of the workers very excitedly wanted me to see the underneath part of the church. I was expecting catacombs (and maybe they were these but were merely unmarked). Instead, I got this:

Bats! Murciélagos! A couple of dozen of little small bats flying around. I don't know if that is what he wanted to show me. I was the only one in the church who spoke English. But this church did not have bats in its belfry, but bats in its catacombs.

I believe this is the depiction of the Archangel Michael battling Satan, in a scene from Revelation.

Still, I think modern audiences would wince at the political incorrectness of it all.

We will end our time at this stop with me and the Pope:

Stop #2: Museum Nacional de Sicán:

That is the entrance gate. And this is the museum:

The Sicán were the last major pre-Inca group to control this area until the Inca conquest of the Peruvian Northern Coast happened a little more than 100 years before the arrival of the Spanish. The museum, obviously, is much more modern than that.

Let's have a look at the collection:

Those objects highest in the display case, which look somewhat "suggestive," are knives. I'm sure the knives could be used for many different purposes, but they particularly well-designed for beheading ... victims ... of ... human sacrifice. We don't sugar-coast, nor do we pussy-foot, here at the Spretnak blog. The Sicán, like every other group in this part of the Americas up until the arrival of the Spanish, participated in human sacrifice.

This is a replica of a Sicán pyramid. 

The real ones were much bigger. Much, much bigger.

We now come to the pottery portion of our museum tour programming:

This is a representation of the pottery production assembly line used by the Sicán: 

Nowadays, this would be outsourced to China. And would break after a couple of uses.

Speaking of re-creations:

At least I hope that is a recreation of an archaeological site at which human remains were found. It would be weird if the Sicán people had chosen to bury their dead in museums.

From pottery to metallurgy:

Metal crafts of the Sicán.

But how important and how valuable could these particular metal works be if they are displayed openly in the sun-lit spaces?

This is how the best of the best is displayed:

In the dark.

This must be the good pottery, not the everyday stuff, since it too is displayed in the dark: 

This shows how some of the metal was worn as armor:

I didn't know that calf muscles would be protected by metal, but why not? Got to protect the calves if your enemy is on the ground flailing away.

We now return the everyday household items since, as you can see, we're out of the dark and into the light:

I do want to point out that those objects flaking the salmon-colored item on the right side of the display case are NOT Christmas trees. The Sicán did not celebrate Christmas. They were more the "Happy Holidays" than "Merry Christmas" type of people, at least until the Spanish imposed  <record scratch noise>  brought the gift of Catholic Christianity to the indigenous peoples of the New World. 

Pottery was becoming sufficiently advance as to depict animal shapes.

Again, those are NOT Christmas Trees. No matter how much they look like them.

Whatever this is, it's too cool for school:

I would want one except it's a little on the creepy side of things.

And this is sort of like a gold wrestling belt with the face of snake.

Who wouldn't want to wear one of those when they won it all in the WWE.

 

Time to leave the Museo Nacional de Sicán and head to ...

Stop #3: Santuario Histórico Bosque de Pómac:

This is a nature preserve.

Here are the birds of Bosque:

Those aren't real live birds. Don't worry.

This is a 500-year old tree. Basically, it was born right around the time of the Spanish arrival in Peru.

Here is an elderly gentleman who wandered into the shot of the 500-year old tree.

The elderly man is at least 400 years younger than said tree.

There is a viewpoint within the sanctuary. Let's have a walk to it.

At this point the sanctuary became less forest and more desert. It also became more hot. Much more hot.

The destination was the covered area where one can view the surrounding area:

And this is what you can see:

I'm not spoiling the view. Come to Bosque on your own. These sort of views always look better in person than they do in photography.  The archaeological site is off limits to the tourist horde. Truth be told, there is no tourist horde, although the 15 or so people up at the viewpoint overlook was the largest horde of tourists I saw all day.

So that means ...

Stop #4: Iglesia San Juan Bautista de Illimo.

This is a small church associated with Pope Leo's Chiclayo years.

It is a very simple church, not as ornate as even Iglesia de Santa Lucía.

Again, the church was locked but someone was available to unlock it for me to have a look inside. Again, I don't know if this is because the people are proud to show off anything related to Pope Leo XIV, or if it is because the local people are that friendly and helpful. Either way, it makes for a great tourist circuit.

I really feel throughout this day that I am among the very few U.S. citizens with no ties to Peru to have visited these places on this tour. Even the Pope Leo XIV tourism trade seems to be limited to Peruanos. It is not attracting international visitors yet. Well, except for one U.S. tourist who likes to see the sights on the lightly-beaten paths.

Again, Iglesia San Juan Bautista was a simple church. No bats and no catacombs.

Time to move to the final stop of the day ..

Stop #5: Complejo Arqueológico de Túcume. The final stop of the day. The final stop on the Sicán circuit.

This is a museum built in the area of what had been a pyramid complex built by the Túcume people. Apparently the pyramids can be visited. I could not find them walking the trails on the museum grounds. And while this was the only place I visited today with English language signage, I was the only person present who actually spoke English. And I was wholly unable to answer my questions, which did me no good.

This is a map of the pyramids.

 

At the entrance, in the sign-in book, I saw that someone from the USA had visited a day or two earlier. So I'm not the only tourist from the USA to have been here ever. Still, tourists are scarce here, period, and tourists from the USA very scarce.

Here is the anthropomorphic pottery section:

This is a llama.

Yes, I know it looks like a fish. Or an earless deer. But it's a llama. Just accept it and move on.

This is a monkey.

This one does not take much imagination to see the monkey.

This one wasn't labelled.

A rodent of some sort? It looks like a kangaroo, but the people of Tucume had no contact with the Australians back then, did they?

This display lets you know the Tucume were known as excellent seafaring people:

The reed boats, obviously, did not survive to modern times. The problem of using organic materials for construction: the life span is brief,

Here is a very interesting display. Decapitated body found with two skulls.

That sounds like a sequel to that classic New York Post headline "Headless Body in Topless Bar." The mind boggles at the thought of why a decapitated man would need two skulls. Did he die trying to switch one skull for the other? And where is the body to whom the alternative skull belongs. Again, so many questions, so few answers.

Just another reminder that these people did practice human sacrifice. Unapologetically.

This is a display version of the nearby Piedra Sagrada, or Sacred Rock.

The original is in the pyramid complex that I could not find.

This is the view of the mountain at the center of the Tucume culture, Cerro La Raya.

This mountain also is known colloquially as "El Purgatorio," since the Spanish said devils and demons lived there to terrorize the people into accepting Catholicism  <record scratch noise>  convincing the local people to accept the gift of eternal life presented from the acceptance of Christ and the Catholic faith.

One of the interesting things I learned at this museum was how much the Tucume people hated the Inca. When news reached Tucume that the Inca ruler had been killed and the Inca civilization was destroyed, the Tucume killed the Inca rulers living among them and destroyed their town because it had been desecrated by the Inca presence. Explain to me again that white guilt myth about the indigenous peoples of the Americas living in perfect, peaceful harmony before the Spanish arrived.

I'm standing here at the museum entrance waiting for you to explain it to me.

Today was a five-hour tour that, with a professional guide gets three hours. Thankfully, and thanks to the patience of my driver Nelson, I could absorb everything at my own pace. Just imagine how long the day would've been if I had found those 26 pyramids that comprise Tucume Town.