Chan Chan Shore Excursion from Salaverry Port
From €72 per person
See availability →A Chan Chan shore excursion from Salaverry port that takes cruise passengers to the Moche temples, a site museum and the UNESCO-listed Chimú city, with round-trip transport.
For cruise passengers docking at Salaverry, this Chan Chan shore excursion turns a few hours ashore into a tour of the Trujillo area's two great pre-Columbian cultures. You are picked up at the port and driven out to the countryside by a small group vehicle, with a guide who speaks English and Spanish.
The first stop is the Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, huge adobe mounds built by the Moche. Each century the Moche sealed the bodies of dead rulers inside and covered the platform with a new one, so across some 700 years the temple became a stepped pyramid. The Huacas de Moche Museum nearby holds artifacts, ceramics, utensils and tombs.
Then comes Huaca Arcos Iris, also called El Dragon, built by the Chimú around A.D. 1200. Its two platforms have carved adobe panels and niches that held ritual objects, and local legend links it to Takaynamo, the mythical founder of Chan Chan.
- Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna
- Huacas de Moche Museum
- Huaca Arcos Iris
- Chan Chan, a UNESCO site since 1986
The tour ends at Chan Chan, once a city of courtyards, terraces, palaces and gardens, with an estimated population of 30,000 to 60,000. You then return to Salaverry to rejoin your ship. Entrance tickets, food, drinks and personal travel insurance are not included.