Ten years ago, we thought we could have it all.  We were on the Prinsendam and booked a tour to Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the world.  The tour was supposed to end in time for us to catch the shuttle that Holland America then offered to Trujillo to see, what Lonely Planet called, the cleanest Plaza de Armas (Town square) in Latin America and certainly one of the prettiest.  It didn’t work that way.  The Chan Chan tour lasted longer than we anticipated.  We got back in time to take the last shuttle to the Trujillo Plaza, but we would have had to stay on the bus and come right back.  The woman from ShoreEx said that there was already a busload of people waiting in the Plaza so “Pleesze” don’t go in.  We didn’t but vowed that the next time we were here, if there was a next time, we would visit the plaza.

This was the next time.  Holland America no longer offers the free shuttle to Trujillo. Their shuttle goes only as far as the Plaza de Armas in Salaverry, the port town for Trujillo, about 30 to 40 minutes from the main attraction.  We took a taxi.  The plaza was worth it.

It was humid but relatively cool, in the mid-70s.  Most of the tourists were bunched near the Cathedral side, which also had a McDonalds.  But on the other side of the plaza locals enjoyed the park benches, kids chased pigeons and vendors sold ice cream.  It is a lovely town center, laid out in 1534.  The town is named for Francisco Pizarro’s hometown in Spain. The freedom monument sits in the middle of the square.  It was dedicated July 4, 1929, and celebrates independence from Spain in 1820. Simon Bolivar had his offices in a building on the square, now a museum. 

The Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria, a yellow church with two towers, sits on one corner of the square.  It was founded in 1535.  The original church was destroyed in an earthquake and the present one was built between1647 and 1666 in the baroque style.  The alter pieces are baroque and rococo.  The vault has frescos painted in the Cusco style after paintings at the church in Cusco, high in the Andes.

Suzi found the church, taken as a whole, disturbing, but when she tried to explain it, she zeroed in on the skulls in some of the artwork.

But one little girl was completely entranced wandering with a smart phone sizing up the place and taking pictures.