Things To Do in Chiclayo

In Chiclayo

A brief look around Chiclayo should be sufficient. Start at the Parque Principal, the attractive and overwhelming focal point of life in the city. People camp out on park benches and slurp on ice-cream cones, shoeshine boys scurry from one pair of scuffed-up loafers to the next, and pigeons flutter from treetops to sidewalks to rooftops. The white, twin-domed neoclassical Catedral that dominates the square dates to 1869. About 10 long blocks south of the plaza, the Paseo de las Musas is an attractive park area rather inexplicably outfitted with neoclassical statuary of mythological figures.

The fascinating Mercado Modelo, 5 blocks north of the Parque Principal, is one of Peru's most raucous open street markets. Open daily from dawn to dusk, it carries virtually everything under the sun, but it's famed for the section of small stalls crammed with the elixirs and potions of shamans and faith healers. The so-called mercadillo de brujas (witches' little market), near Calle Arica, is redolent with exotic spices and drying herbs, wild with visual overload: hanging shells, small altarpieces and bottles filled with hooves and claws, snake skins, miniature desiccated crocs, claws, skunks, and fish eggs. Echoing throughout are the distinctive come-ons of vendors. This city of stalls is about as close as you'll get to India or Morocco in Peru, but it's nonetheless a primer on the country's extensive informal economy. You'll find luggage, natural Viagra substitutes, baskets, guitars, hats, calf brains, children's clothes, vats of peanut butter, stuffed animals, shops of canned goods, machetes, and butcher knives, plus dozens of beauty salons and shoe and electronics repair headquarters.

In Lambayeque

The Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán is the undisputed highlight of this small, quiet, and dusty town that was once considerably more important than its bigger neighbor but which has long since been overtaken, at least in terms of commercial importance, by it. The new museum has stolen quite a bit of the thunder of the Museo Arqueológico Brüning, where the Lord of Sipán used to reside. A few clues to Lambayeque's former status are evident in a number of colonial houses and the baroque Iglesia de San Pedro (daily 8am-4pm), a large and impressive yellow-and-white church built in 1700 and located on the main square. It's worth a look inside to see the impressive mural paintings on the ceiling of the central nave and the cupola. Columns are painted to look like real marble, which I suppose they do if you squint hard enough. The rest of the church is done up in pastel hues of green, blue, and yellow.

On the corner of Dos de Mayo and San Martín is Lambayeque's other building of import, Casa de la Logia (also known as Casa Montjoy). Erected in the 16th century, it claims the longest colonial balcony in Peru, a splendidly carved wooden wraparound structure 67m (220 ft.) long. It can be viewed only from outside.

Lambayeque really springs to life on market day, Sunday. Otherwise, there's little to detain visitors. If you're looking for a bite to eat after visiting the Brüning Museum, check out Dos de Mayo, where there are several cevicherías and other restaurants.

Archaeological Sites near Chiclayo

Colectivos (buses) to the archaeological sites Batán Grande, Templo de Sipán, and Zaña leave from the Terminal de Epsel at the corner of Avenida Oriente and Nicolás de Piérola in Chiclayo, a somewhat unsavory area. It's more convenient to visit these sites by organized tour; contact Sipán Tours at tel. 074/229-053.