Trujillo

The largest city ever built in adobe covers some twenty square kilometres. Rain dissolves it, so roofs have been put over parts of the site.

Moche temples whose walls keep red and yellow painting in successive layers. Each new temple was built over the last, so a different image appears at every level.

Fishermen still go out on craft woven from reeds. The boats stand upright in the sand to dry in a line along the shore.

Colonial buildings painted yellow and blue enclose the square. A flag ceremony with a band takes place on Sunday mornings.

A Chimu site whose walls carry a repeating relief of a rainbow and a serpent. The pattern repeats, and people count it as they walk the wall.

The mummy of a tattooed woman who ruled was found at this site. Her condition on discovery and the goods buried with her are shown in the museum beside it.

A regional dance performed with a handkerchief, and the national contest falls in January. People practise it on the square often enough to catch.

Several mansions now work as banks or cultural centres and open their courtyards. The window grilles differ from house to house, and some visitors follow only those.

An hour up the coast the longest left hand wave anywhere breaks. A single ride can pass two kilometres, and the way back is by boat or car.

Thousands of ceramics collected privately are kept in a basement under a filling station. Whistling vessels are sometimes handed over to blow yourself.

A Chimu adobe temple tucked into a residential area between Trujillo and Chan Chan. Its two-tiered platform walls keep reliefs of fish, seabirds and net patterns. One Chan Chan ticket also covers this and the Temple of the Dragon, so the three make a half day.

A church on the hill above Huanchaco beach, among the oldest in Peru. It keeps a statue of the Virgin said to have drifted ashore. The forecourt overlooks the sand and its rows of reed boats, a sunset favourite.

The city's big festival, spanning the end of September and the start of October as southern spring arrives. Flower floats and beauty queens parade down the avenues, with marinera dancers and paso horses behind. Claim a kerb spot early for the front row.

A native breed that moves both legs on one side together, gliding with no bounce. Haciendas outside Trujillo stage shows where the horse dances alongside a marinera dancer. Owners boast a rider could carry a full glass without spilling.