Journeys.... Let's explore the world by foot and take the highest road that has the most potholes...

Today we saw an enormous complex of adobe buildings, which made up the capital city of the Chimu culture (just prior to the Incas), with an estimated 80,000 inhabitants.  The main buildings of the city were the temples, which were the homes of the royal families.  When the king died, the rest of the family moved out and the temple became the king's mausoleum.  So far, nine temples have been excavated at Chan Chan.  Most of the adobe remains are no more than about waist high, but there are still remnants of walls 8 meters tall and 5 meters thick at the base.  Each temple was almost like a small town itself, with a large staff of clerks, servants, tax collectors, animals, and food storage.  Each also had large open wells, dug only a few meters deep to plentiful ground water.  The Chimu culture was whacked by the Incas only about 100 years before the Incas were zapped by the Spanish.  This afternoon we walked a few blocks along the very busy city streets of Trujillo to eat at a small restaurant where we had a delicious meal of steak, grilled fish, and papas fritas.