Pyramids, an ancient metropolis, and colonial architecture in Peru’s 3rd largest city.
Trujillo is a city with a long and distinguished history. Peru’s third largest metropolitan area, Trujillo was founded in 1534 when the Spaniards arrived in the area. It was the first Peruvian city to declare independence from Spain in 1820, and became Simón Bolivar’s base of operations when he and his troops entered Peru a few years later.
Today, Trujillo is known as the City of Eternal Springtime, and every October it hosts the International Festival of Spring, complete with a grand parade. In January, the city throws the National Marinera Contest, attracting couples from all over Peru for a week-long celebration of this traditional dance. January 2010 marked 50 years of the contest.

It’s big, and noisy. There are taxis honking, and cars veering to hit you, and it can be smelly, smoggy, and crowded. But yet….
Trujillo’s starting to grow on me. We’ve made a few trips in to see the old Colonial and Republican houses, the Casonas Antiguas, and I’ve become fascinated by the old city. Some cities tear down their history and replace it with condos (Seattle), some enshrine it by sealing off old homes and turning them into museums. Trujillo lives and works in its history.

Founded in 1534, guidebooks call Trujillo one of the most colonial cities in Peru.

Crossposted from KnK Explore
I’d been dying to get on the neon green “Bs. Aires – Arevalo” bus whose sides are airbrushed with six-sided starbursts. The paint job made Buenos Aires, a little coastal community whose name we’d seen on maps and the sides of buses, look exotic and fun. I was intrigued.

We took our usual “Huanchaco” bus to the Ovalo Mansiche, a confusing knot of streets and overpasses. We knew that the Green buses passed through here, but we had no clue as to where, so we …