Travel Recaps: Trujillo

To remind you of our itinerary, we went from Tumbes (our last post subject) to Máncora, which was on the beach, then to Chiclayo and Cajamarca.  Since we have posted pictures of those towns already, our next stop was Trujilllo.  Trujillo is only about two hours south of Chiclayo, but since we went to Cajamarca in the middle, we had a six-hour bus ride.  We got to town just before nightfall, and were able to negotiate a cheaper room rate by agreeing to be on the third floor.  Check out the view from our 'discount' room:

The Iglesia de San Fransisco (Church of St. Francis) was literally right out our window!  It was a great sight to see all lit up at night (the pictures didn't come out well) and greeting us first thing in the morning. 

We got up and got to check out the beautiful old buildings in the Plaza de Armas.  Trujillo was founded in 1534 (Pizarro kidnapped Atahualpa in 1532), so shortly after the Spanish had arrived, and this is one of the first cities they founded.  There have been a lot of preservation efforts around the old buildings, even though they are mainly business offices now.  Check them out:

Of course, I liked the blue one above in particular.  There is also a lovely, and huge, Cathedral:

All these buildings are around the Plaza de Armas, which has a huge statue in the center that is the biggest of any plaza I have seen in Peru:

I believe it was erected in the 1800s and has quotes along the sides about the triumph of liberty and the people, but I can't remember if it is in reference to any particular event in history.  It was a great place though.  There are other colonial buildings around the central city area, but the largest concentration is here in the Plaza.

Next up, our adventures checking out some amazing old ruins around Trujillo!