Etiqueta: Trips

Memories of Trujillo (II)

~ Joan Amenós ~ Deja un comentario

1.- On this scenery, there is a hive of people ready for the daily struggle, to fight in what they call «the informal economy«. Tourists feel safe in the historic center, but they also know perfectly well when they are losing their aura of security. I went with Pedro, a good friend and taxi driver, around the industrial outskirts of the capital. I saw signs of progress in the neat uniforms of those workers handling heavy materials and walking near powerful trucks. Actually, there are few factories compared to the number of warehouses and logistic areas that accumulate the fruits of the green revolution that has taken place in recent years in the region (avocados, blueberries…). There is a bus station -with a strict security barrier- from where trips depart for the whole of Peru. Its name is the “Terminal Terrestre de Trujillo”.

2.-In the universities, a cheerful young crowd is trying to thrive. It is the handful of a popular or middle class that is making its way (there are some big private universities and the public university that is the “mother” of all others). I visited the rich neighborhoods, too. The difference is great, certainly, but not all of them are closed and one could link different worlds by walking around. In a beautiful square, I saw the monument to César Vallejo. A quote from Ciro Alegría about the poet:

            «Remembering him, I always had the impression that he would be making a hard journey as an artist and a man loaded with sorrows and distances».

3.- In terms of tourism, the Trujillo area is focused on the exploitation of the pre-Inca cultures. For example, the impressive site of «Huacas del Sol y de la Luna» explains the Moche culture. The truncated pyramid and its cumulated layers are amazing. Above all, I loved what we could call «the Sistine Chapel of the Moche culture«.

Source:xxx.

They indeed try to exaggerate the story of the human sacrifices, but the truth is that this tragedy only happened approximately every twenty or thirty years, in situations of communal catharsis and rethinking of relations with nature and divinity. In addition to this people, other cultures succeeded one another on the territory, until the superior Inca empire.

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Memories of Trujillo (I)

~ Joan Amenós ~ Deja un comentario

Source:XXX. The Freedom Monument in the «Plaza de Armas».

1.– In early December 2023 I traveled to Trujillo – Peru’s second-largest city – and to Valdivia – a city in southern Chile. The contrast was enormous. On the one hand, the Peruvian dryness is embodied in its light brown sand and sparse vegetation. On the other hand, the joy of water in Valdivia, with a Pacific Ocean that plays hide-and-seek with the mountains and melts into lakes when it wants.

2.-Trujillo is the third most populous city and center of the third most populous metropolitan area of Peru. In sum, a million people are living in this place. The region shows some economic dynamism. Agriculture has been boosted by the Chavimochic Special Project. This is an irrigation system that extends throughout much of the coast of the La Libertad Region, on the north coast of Peru. Mining from far mountains is also relevant. But I saw an evident obstacle to their success. Holes and poor pavement abound on roads that are unavoidably slow for long-suffering cars and brave trucks. In addition, sand always threatens the grey and tortured carpet of asphalt.

3.-The center of Trujillo has a very deep memory of Spain, from the layout of the streets to its main church -the Trujillo Cathedral-.  You can walk along streets that inherit the time of our ancestors. For instance, I visited the “Casa Urquiaga”. It is currently the headquarters of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru and a museum. It was built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 19th century. The first owners were the Urquiaga, a Basque family with good relations with the Spanish monarchy. But times changed and Simón Bolivar lived here some months in the process of the independence of Peru.

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